Jeff Buckley scores first Hot 100 hit thanks to TikTok virality
Jeff Buckley has achieved a new record almost three decades after his tragic passing, as his ballad ‘Lover, You Should’ve Come Over’ has reached the Billboard Hot 100.
Hailing from his seminal debut, 1994’s Grace, Billboard has announced that the song reached the 97th slot of the chart, dated January 31st, 2026, due to the way the system delineates streams.
The song’s new success on the list comes almost entirely from its streaming sum, racking up 3.8 million official US streams during the week of January 16th to 22nd, according to Luminate.
The song’s crushing melancholy lends well to short-form clips online, which see users of the social media platform soundtrack their introspective ruminations with Buckley’s infamous howl. It was never released as an official single.
The song has enjoyed a steady climb. It made its first chart appearance at 22 on the Hot Rock and Alternative Songs chart in April 2025.
Buckley wrote the track for his girlfriend, Rebecca More. At a concert in Italy in 1995, the late singer elaborated: “I wrote this song while lying listening to the telephone in my apartment. But she never called.”
Over a minimal guitar pattern, Buckley opens the song with the mournful lyrics, “Looking out the door I see the rain / Fall upon the funeral mourners / Parading in a wake of sad relations / As their shoes fill up with water.” It has been used in many movies, such as 2024’s Jenna Ortega-led Miller’s Girl, as its emotional intensity translates well in the world of cinema.
Buckley passed away in 1997 due to an accidental incident in a Tennessee river, where the singer drowned. At that time, he was working on his second studio album.
Last year, the documentary, It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, was released in US cinemas on August 8th. It was directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Amy Berg, the mind behind other documentaries such as Deliver Us From Evil, West of Memphis, and Janis: Little Girl Blue.
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