Her Majesty’s Mixtape: An Ode to the Soundtrack of ‘The Crown’ Season 4

Now that The Crown is covering an era more familiar to many of its viewers (because some of us are old enough to have lived it), the popular music featured on the series to punctuate pivotal moments is also more familiar, and in almost every instance, right on the nose. Still, the music supervisor responsible for the song selection did a masterful job of sourcing a blend of new wave, pop, and reggae to perfectly capture the era, and also to round out the personalities on the show. Of course an 18-year-old Diana would listen to Blondie. It makes total sense that Princess Margaret would get her hands on the newest release by David Bowie. In case you missed some of these spot-on music cues, we’ll break down some of the biggest pop moments on the season four soundtrack for you.

The Crown Season 4 Episode 1: “Gold Stick”

It’s 1980 and Prince Charles, England’s most eligible bachelor, has finally found a woman who might make him happy. When he realizes his feelings for Diana Spencer, he rings up her sister Sarah to ask for Diana’s phone number. Cut to Diana, playing Blondie’s Parallel Lines album, released in 1978, on vinyl in her shared London apartment listening to – what else? – “Call Me” as Charles calls to ask her out for the first time.

The Crown Season 4 Episode 3: “Fairytale”

After Charles proposes to Diana in February of 1981, and the reality of their situation sets in – she’ll be moved to Buckingham Palace post haste and no longer available to cavort with her girlfriends very often – so she goes out for one last night on the town with her squad. Though she’s 19, Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen” conveys all the excitement of the moment. So much promise ahead! The song was recorded that same year, after the passing of Nicks’ uncle, and Nicks said that the “white-winged dove” represents the spirit leaving the body. As Diana spends one final night as a semi-regular person in London, the spirit within her might just be ascending into another dimension, replaced by a very different version.

“Vienna” by Ultravox was a huge hit in the UK in 1981, charting at number two for four weeks, which is why it makes sense that the song, which is more like a New Wave deep cut to U.S. listeners, would have been playing on the radio as her Sony Dream Machine wakes her up. The song actually spent time on the charts in most of Europe that year, but it never gained broad popularity across the pond.

Diana, we learn, needs a physical outlet when she’s frustrated or upset. When she’s not stress-ballet-dancing, she’s depressed-roller-skating, and hell, we would roller skate through Buckingham Palace too if the opportunity presented itself. (Remember when Segway tours of cities were the big thing? Roller skating tours of castles, guys. Mark my words. They’re gonna be hot.) The music choices, as far as the timeline of the series is concerned, are meticulous. It’s 1981 and Duran Duran has just dropped their self-titled debut album. While “Girls on Film” was not the first single off the album, it’s a pitch perfect description of her new life under the lens. It would later become common knowledge that Duran Duran was Diana’s favorite band.

Diana tends to get a little Jessie-Spano-on-caffeine-pills sometimes in the dance studio, but as with roller skating, dance is how she gets her feelings out. As she dances in ballet gear, she lets loose (or starts to lose control, depending on how you look at it) to a score of Elton John’s “Song for Guy.” Perhaps it’s symbolic that she’s only able to show her true self against an Elton John song, as he’s a man who would later become a dear friend to her. Or perhaps it’s just that the lyrics to the song are a reassurance, as the only words to the song are “Life…isn’t everything.”

The Crown Season 4 Episode 5: “Fagan”

Michael Fagan was one of the more tragic figures represented this season on The Crown. The man who committed the most infamous Buckingham Palace break-in of all time was also just a man who had fallen on hard times. Upon waking in his filthy apartment, having been abandoned by his wife and kids, he smokes a cigarette and manages to drag himself to the unemployment office. He’s a sad, desperate man. But we all know, thanks to The Cure, that “Boys Don’t Cry.”

After Fagan gets into a bar brawl with his wife’s new boyfriend, another on-point music cue in the form of The Specials’ version of “Monkey Man,” a song I truly never listened to the lyrics of beyond the “ay ay ay” chorus. But, as it turns out, the words are all about a woman who has taken up with a new man.

Another altercation, another song cue to depict just how low Fagan’s life can go. After stalking his wife and kids at a playground, Fagan gets into another jealous, angry fight with his ex’s boyfriend, and once he’s run out of the schoolyard, he smokes a cigarette, depressed as ever, while Joy Division’s “Twenty Four Hours,” a song that begins, “So this is permanent, love’s shattered pride.”

Thatcher’s feelings about individualism and her lack of compassion were, if nothing else, fodder for many musicians of the time to create some of the era’s best protest songs. Despite its uptempo beat, The English Beat’s “Stand Down Margaret,” which plays over the end credits, are one of many pop songs written during her decade in power that reflect the disgust many people felt toward her.

The Crown Season 4 Episode 6: “Terra Nullius”

Just when you think Charles and Diana are going left, they go right. On their tour of Australia, the couple appear to be as “wretched” as ever (a word they use all too often to describe their marriage), but for a brief moment on the trip, they reconcile and put on a show at a gala that includes the pair dancing to a live version of Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You.”

The Crown Season 4 Episode 7: “The Hereditary Principle”

It’s 1983 and Princess Margaret has been divorced for five years. Just when Margaret thinks she’s falling in love with her new beau, Dazzle, he tells her he’s planning to become a priest. But for one glorious night, before he gives himself over to God, the pair dance in her apartment to David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance,” a song which would have come out that year.

The Crown Season 4 Episode 8: “48:1”

Linton Kwesi Johnson is a poet, an activist, and musician who penned many of his lyrics in direct response to England’s political and social injustices, especially in the 1980s. After a reluctant Margaret Thatcher imposed sanctions on South Africa, Johnson’s “Fite Dem Back” is heard playing during a celebration in the streets, and his song “Inglan is a Bitch” plays over the end credits.

The Crown Season 4 Episode 9: “Avalanche”

When Diana took the stage at the Royal Opera to perform for Charles’ 37th birthday, dancing to Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl,” cell phones with cameras weren’t a thing yet; it was only 1985, after all, so no footage of the moment exists on film. But the show manages to depict what a wild ride it would have been. This is one of the only historically accurate music cues from the show, as Diana did pick this song to dance to, but strangely enough, it’s the most out of place, as Diana would likely not have called herself an uptown girl.

Diana’s not a regular mom, Diana’s a cool mom. Which is why, on a drive to visit Prince Charles, she cranks up the Queen (no, not her mother-in-law) on the car stereo so she can sing along with William and Harry to the 1979 hit “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” Just the idea of Diana and her boys singing “take a long ride on my motorbike” makes us happy.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Brooklyn. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.

Watch The Crown Season 4 on Netflix