Sometimes a song becomes a hit because a record label throws a mountain of money at it.
Sometimes it gets hammered on radio until you know every bloody word whether you like it or not.
And sometimesโฆ TikTok grabs a three-year-old Ghost B-side, sticks it over a load of Stranger Things footage and sends the thing absolutely stratospheric.
Welcome to the wonderfully unpredictable story of Ghostโs โMary On A Cross.โ ๐ค๐ป๐ฅ
Originally released in September 2019, the track spent several years largely living in the world of existing Ghost fans before suddenly becoming one of the biggest songs the Swedish rock outfit had ever produced.
The catalyst?
A slowed-down TikTok edit.
A bit of Stranger Things.
And an algorithm apparently deciding that the world desperately needed more Papa Emeritus.
Fair play, algorithm. Proper job. ๐
๐ต It Started as a 2019 B-Side
โMary On A Crossโ originally appeared alongside โKiss the Go-Goatโ on Ghostโs wonderfully titled Seven Inches of Satanic Panic release.
Released in 2019, it already had plenty of ingredients capable of worming their way into your brain.
Huge melody.
Retro psychedelic flavour.
Darkly playful lyrics.
Massive chorus.
And Tobias Forge doing what Tobias Forge does best โ making something sinister sound ridiculously catchy.
But while Ghost were hardly some unknown underground band at the time, nobody could have predicted what would happen three years later.
Because in 2022, โMary On A Crossโ suddenly found itself dragged into an entirely different universe.
TikTok.
And things got silly very quickly.
๐ฑ Stranger Things + TikTok + Ghost = Absolute Chaos
During the enormous cultural explosion surrounding Stranger Things Season 4 in 2022, TikTok became absolutely flooded with fan edits.
Eddie Munson edits.
Steve Harrington edits.
Joseph Quinn edits.
Heartbreaking montages.
Romantic montages.
Basically if someone appeared on screen for more than twelve seconds, somebody had probably made an emotional TikTok edit about them before teatime.
Then โMary On A Crossโ entered the picture.
A slowed-down, reverb-heavy version of the song was used to soundtrack a compilation of Stranger Things scenes, and the combination absolutely caught fire online. Metal Hammer later reported that the viral clip helped launch a wave that eventually saw hundreds of thousands of TikTok videos using either the original track or altered versions. (Louder)
Suddenly people who had never heard a Ghost album in their lives were wandering around singing:
Mary On Aโฆ
You know the rest. ๐
And before long, the song wasnโt merely doing well among rock fans.
It was properly crossing over.
๐ Ghost Suddenly Had a Billboard Hot 100 Hit
Hereโs where the story becomes properly bonkers.
In September 2022, three years after its original release, โMary On A Crossโ entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 90.
That made it Ghostโs first-ever appearance on the Hot 100. During the tracking week leading into its chart debut, the song clocked around six million US streams, demonstrating just how enormous the TikTok-driven resurgence had become. (Consequence)
Think about that.
Ghost had spent years building a devoted international following, releasing albums, touring the world and becoming one of modern rock and metalโs most recognisable bands.
And their first Hot 100 single?
A three-year-old B-side suddenly resurrected by TikTok.
Rock โnโ roll in the 2020s, mun. ๐
๐ป Even Tobias Forge Didnโt See It Coming
Perhaps the funniest part of the story is that Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge apparently wasnโt sitting in some evil underground lair plotting a TikTok takeover.
His daughter noticed it first.
Forge later recalled that she told him she had heard โMary On A Crossโ on TikTok. Not long afterwards, Forge found himself in a meeting with the label where he was shown just how dramatically the numbers were moving. (Louder)
Imagine that meeting.
LABEL: โSoโฆ your three-year-old Satanic psychedelic rock B-side is exploding.โ
TOBIAS: โExcellent.โ
LABEL: โBecause teenagers are making Stranger Things edits.โ
TOBIAS: โโฆexcellent?โ
๐
Whatever the route, the result was undeniable.
A completely new audience had discovered Ghost.
๐ค The Ultimate Gateway Ghost Song
And this is where viral moments can genuinely become important for rock music.
Someone hears fifteen seconds of โMary On A Crossโ while scrolling TikTok.
Then they search for the full song.
Then Spotify suggests another Ghost track.
Then another.
Next thing you know theyโre listening to โSquare Hammer,โ โCirice,โ โDance Macabre,โ โRatsโ and โCall Me Little Sunshine.โ
Six months later theyโre wearing corpse paint and arguing about which Papa was best.
Welcome aboard. ๐๐ป
Forge himself has spoken about the viral hit becoming something of a gateway into Ghostโs wider world. (Louder)
And thatโs arguably the coolest part of the entire story.
TikTok didnโt suddenly turn Ghost into a different band.
It simply opened another door into something theyโd already spent years building.
๐ And Then Everyone Started Arguing About the Lyrics
Naturally, because this is Ghost, controversy wasnโt far behind.
Once millions of new listeners began discovering โMary On A Crossโ, people started debating exactly what the song meant.
Religious imagery?
Sexual imagery?
Blasphemy?
Double meanings?
All of the above?
Some social-media users accused the song of deliberately mocking Christianity, while others tried to dissect practically every line.
Forge, however, has explained that the meaning is considerably more layered than simply attacking religion.
He has suggested that โMaryโ doesnโt necessarily refer directly to the Virgin Mary and has discussed the song in relation to friendship, perception and people being misjudged or misrepresented. (Louder)
Which is classic Ghost really.
Make something that sounds filthy and blasphemous.
Watch everybody argue.
Then reveal thereโs another layer underneath the whole thing.
Absolute menace. ๐
๐ TikTok Changed the Life of a Three-Year-Old Song
Whatever your feelings about TikTok, its impact on music has been enormous.
Songs no longer necessarily have one moment.
A track can flop.
Disappear.
Sit dormant for years.
Then suddenly somebody uses seventeen seconds of it behind the right video and BANG โ millions of people are searching for it.
โMary On A Crossโ might be one of rockโs best examples.
By late 2025, its extraordinary second life had carried it to Platinum status in the UK, while its success had long since established it as one of Ghostโs biggest tracks. (Louder)
And all from a song released years before the viral moment arrived.
๐ฌ Stranger Things Did Something Similar for Rock Everywhere
There was something particularly brilliant about the musical legacy of Stranger Things Season 4.
Kate Bushโs โRunning Up That Hillโ famously enjoyed an enormous worldwide revival thanks to the show itself.
Metallicaโs โMaster of Puppetsโ found a completely new generation following Eddie Munsonโs legendary Upside Down guitar scene.
And surrounding that explosion of fandom, social media edits helped older songs discover entirely new audiences.
Ghost happened to be perfectly positioned for it.
The spooky aesthetics.
The theatricality.
The dramatic melody.
The slightly forbidden feeling of the whole thing.
โMary On A Crossโ and Stranger Things edits were practically made for each other.
๐ฅ Three Years Lateโฆ And Right on Time
The strange journey of โMary On A Crossโ proves something weโve always loved about music:
Songs donโt have expiry dates.
Sometimes the world simply hasnโt found them yet.
Ghost released the track in 2019.
TikTok found it in 2022.
Stranger Things fandom helped give it rocket fuel.
And suddenly one of modern rockโs most theatrical bands had their first Billboard Hot 100 hit.
No grand marketing masterplan.
No carefully timed comeback single.
Just a killer tune, an algorithm and thousands upon thousands of people pressing โuse this sound.โ
Beautiful chaos.
Exactly how rock โnโ roll should be. ๐ป๐ค๐ฅ
Were you already a Ghost fan before โMary On A Crossโ exploded, or did TikTok drag you into the Clergy?
Let us know, butt.
Proudly Welsh. Proudly Loud. Zero Apologies. ๐๐ค
