Warning: the following article contains spoilers for ‘The Last of Us’ episode seven, ‘Left Behind’.
The Last of Us episode seven, titled ‘Left Behind’ after the additional story arc from the source video game, introduced us to Riley (Storm Reid), Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) best friend from the FEDRA Military School in the Boston Quarantine Zone.
The flashback episode takes on a ridealong during Ellie and Riley’s midnight escapade to an abandoned shopping mall in Boston and their discovery of the multiple ‘wonders’ of the long-forgotten building. There’s a tender moment on a carousel, a Mortal Kombat session in an arcade, and some photo booth shenanigans.
The episode culminates in a Halloween store, in which Riley plugs Ellie’s walkman into the store’s stereo system and the pair jump up on a display case and dance along to the music, and end up sharing a kiss.
The lyrics may sound familiar to fans of Sonny & Cher, but it’s not quite how you remember it. Here’s all the information you’re after, if you’re looking to boogie down like Riley and Ellie.
What song do Ellie and Riley dance to in ‘The Last of Us’ episode seven?
The cassette inside Ellie’s walkman which gets blared throughout the Halloween store to kick off Ellie and Riley’s dance party is a cover of Sonny & Cher’s 1965 hit “I Got You Babe”, performed by Etta James.
James recorded the cover in 1968 for her album Tell Mama, three years after the release of the original song. She passed away in 2012, with an astonishingly large discography of nearly 30 studio albums, the last of which was The Dreamer, released in 2011 and one year before her death.
James’ cover of “I Got You Babe” was also the song used in Ellie and Riley’s dance scene in the original game, which is yet another example of the HBO adaptation paying homage to, and sticking very closely to, the source material.
