Every Song From Stranger Things Season 5 — The Ultimate Soundtrack Guide

Stranger Things has always known the power of a killer needle drop, and Season 5 leans into it hard. Volume 1 pulls from glossy pop, swoony R&B, and cult favorites, and it is not just background noise. The songs push character beats, juice the tension, and sometimes flat-out carry a scene. Volume 2 and the finale are still on deck, but if Volume 1 is any hint, the soundtrack might end up being one of the defining pieces of this last chapter.

Every song in Season 5 Volume 1 (per Netflix)

• Chapter One: The Crawl — Rockin' Robin (Michael Jackson)
• Chapter One: The Crawl — Pretty in Pink (Psychedelic Furs)
• Chapter One: The Crawl — Upside Down (Diana Ross)
• Chapter One: The Crawl — Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush)
• Chapter Two: The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler — Fernando (ABBA)
• Chapter Two: The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler — Mr. Sandman (The Chordettes)
• Chapter Three: The Turnbow Trap — To Each His Own (Freddy Martin & His Orchestra)
• Chapter Three: The Turnbow Trap — I Think We’re Alone Now (Tiffany)
• Chapter Three: The Turnbow Trap — Oh Yeah (Yello)
• Chapter Four: Sorcerer — Premature Plans (Elmer Bernstein, from The Great Escape)
• Chapter Four: Sorcerer — Sh-Boom (The Chords)

Robin goes on-air, and the show tips its hand early

The very first track we hear this season is Michael Jackson’s Rockin' Robin, which is a cheeky nod to Maya Hawke’s Robin — now moonlighting as a local radio DJ. The song itself dates back to 1958 (Bobby Day did it first) before Jackson folded his version into his solo debut album, Got to Be There. It’s a playful way to say: yes, music is going to matter again.

Robin then dials up the Psychedelic Furs’ Pretty in Pink, dedicates it to Vickie, and immediately gets undercut by a station meltdown. The track was on the band’s 1981 album Talk Talk Talk and famously helped spark the 1986 John Hughes movie of the same name. Cute idea, terrible timing.

Diana Ross’s Upside Down also spins out of Robin’s set in Episode 1, but it turns functional fast: she uses it to signal the gang with a coded warning about the impending military burn. The song was the 1980 lead single off Ross’s album Diana and a big hit for a reason — here it’s catchy and tactical.

Max, Lucas, and the Kate Bush lifeline

Running Up That Hill has basically become Stranger Things canon at this point. It was the emotional center of Season 4, and it keeps its pulse in Season 5. First, Lucas plays it for Max in the hospital in Episode 1, hoping the song cuts through the fog. He tries again in Episode 2. Later, when Holly stumbles into Henry’s memory and finds Max there, Max realizes that same track is her way out. One song, three jobs: comfort, connection, escape.

ABBA before chaos, and a quick timeline quirk

ABBA’s Fernando shows up right before things go sideways at the Wheeler house — we’re talking Demogorgon trouble and Holly’s disappearance. Netflix lists it under Chapter Two: The Vanishing of Holly Wheeler. The scene placement in write-ups sometimes gets labeled as Episode 3, which is a tiny numbering hiccup, but the beats are the same: calm, then chaos. Trivia-wise: the song was penned by Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, and Stikkan Anderson. Anni-Frid Lyngstad recorded it first for her solo album Frida ensam before ABBA re-cut it for their 1975 Greatest Hits.

Holly’s dream logic, scored like a lullaby

Mr. Sandman (the Chordettes’ version) plays over the end credits of Episode 2 — a neat choice given Holly’s fairytale-by-way-of-nightmare point of view. The tune itself was first recorded in 1954 by Vaughn Monroe, but the Chordettes made it the classic everyone knows. Then Episode 3 opens with Freddy Martin & His Orchestra’s To Each His Own while Holly happily tucks into breakfast at the Creel house. It’s sweet, it’s retro, it’s… very not safe.

Holly, convinced her kidnapping was actually for her protection from monsters, gets a boombox and a tape with Tiffany’s I Think We’re Alone Now. Tiffany’s cover dropped in 1987 — the same year the season is set — so the choice lands right on the timeline. Whether it’s comforting or creepy probably depends on how you feel about boomboxes in haunted houses.

Meanwhile, back in Hawkins: power tools and Swiss synth-pop

Yello’s Oh Yeah — yes, the one you’re hearing in your head right now — backs a chaotic Dustin-and-Steve sequence in Episode 3 where Dustin tries to drill into Steve’s car for the mission. The track hit in 1985 courtesy of Swiss duo Yello, and it’s still basically shorthand for mischief.

Then a 1959 flashback and a war-movie wink

Sh-Boom by the Chords drops in Episode 4 during a 1959 memory of Henry that Max steps into. Young Joyce even shows up handing out flyers for a school play starring Henry Creel — a fun, oddly specific detail that makes the memory feel lived-in, not just exposition.

Later, Elmer Bernstein’s Premature Plans from the 1963 epic The Great Escape scores Robin laying out her scheme to free the kids being held on a military base. It’s an inspired needle drop — a touch of caper swagger right before things inevitably get messy — and it’s the final song needle drop in Volume 1.

Volume 1 makes the case all over again: this show uses music like jet fuel. With Volume 2 and the finale still to go, expect even bigger swings.

Which Season 5 songs are doing it for you so far?

Stranger Things Season 5 is streaming on Netflix.