She & Him, the indie-folk duo of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, debuts on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time this week, thanks to 2008 song “I Thought I Saw Your Face Today.”
Originally released on the pair’s debut album, Volume One, in March 2008, the track debuts at No. 99 on the chart (dated Dec. 20) with 5 million official U.S. streams in Dec. 5-11 — up 35% week-over-week — according to Luminate. The resurgence has been fueled by a viral TikTok trend in which users pair the wistful breakup ballad to sentimental clips from movies and TV shows, nature montages and sports highlight reels.
(Older songs showing meaningful gains can appear on the Hot 100 if in the chart’s top 50, with those without significant chart history eligible to debut at any rank, as considered individually.)
While She & Him never scored a major chart single during the duo’s late-2000s heyday, the pair became a cultural fixture thanks to its twee ballads and stripped-down covers of pop standards.
Volume One became the duo’s first chart entry when it debuted at No. 81 on the Billboard 200 in April 2008; it peaked at No. 71 the following week. The pair has since charted four additional projects: Volume Two (No. 6, 2010), A Very She & Him Christmas (No. 12, 2011), Volume Three (No. 15, 2013) and Classics (No. 41, 2014).
A Very She & Him Christmas, a collection of festive covers, has proven particularly durable, returning to Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums chart multiple times since its 2011 release.
Prior to this week, She & Him last appeared on Billboard’s charts in 2022 with Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson. The Beach Boys covers set reached No. 16 on Americana Folk/Albums and No. 21 on Top Album Sales.
Both Deschanel and M. Ward have solo chart histories outside of She & Him. Deschanel’s “Merry Christmas, Happy New Year,” with Ingrid Michaelson, reached No. 20 on Adult Contemporary in 2021, and her featured appearance on Prince’s “Fallinlove2nite” hit No. 29 on Adult R&B Airplay in 2014. The latter appeared in an episode of New Girl, starring Deschanel, while Prince appeared in a guest role on the sitcom.
M. Ward has charted four albums on the Billboard 200: Post-War (No. 146, 2006), Hold Time (No. 31, 2009), A Wasteland Companion (No. 21, 2012) and More Rain (No. 128, 2016). He earned his first solo radio hit in 2020, when “Unreal City” reached No. 35 on Adult Alternative Airplay.
M. Ward was also a member of the folk supergroup Monsters of Folk alongside My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, Bright Eyes’ Coner Oberst and Mike Mogis, and Will Johnson. The band’s only release, its self-titled set, reached No. 15 on the Billboard 200 in 2009, while single “Say Please” peaked at No. 20 on Adult Alternative Airplay.
