5 times GTA series brought back a singer or band from previous titles

The GTA series by Rockstar Games has featured several in-game radio stations that come with some exceptionally good playlists and hilarious satirical commercials. The RJs themselves are quite memorable as well, and sometimes, Rockstar has brought in famous artists to play them. The soundtracks also feature some popular artists from various genres, and while the developer has rarely reused a song, they have frequently featured the same artist multiple times.

With that in mind, here's a list of artists they've used more than once throughout the Grand Theft Auto games. Some have been featured three or four times, whereas others have had their tracks reused.

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Artists whose songs have been featured in multiple GTA games

1) Tom Petty

Tom Petty's 1989 song Runnin' Down a Dream, from his debut solo album, Full Moon Fever, was featured in the GTA San Andreas radio station K-DST. This is a rock-themed radio station where the RJ, Tommy "The Nightmare" Smith, was Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose.

Rockstar reused Tom Petty for the official GTA 6 trailer, featuring the song Love is a Long Road from his first solo album yet again. This led to a spectacular increase in searches for the late artist, with his single receiving an 8000% boost in streams.

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2) Joe Jackson

Joe Jackson's song Steppin' Out, from his 1982 album Night and Day, was featured in Flash FM, a Vice City radio station. The song by the British artist was his highest-charting single in the US. Rockstar reused Steppin' Out in GTA Online, on Los Santos Underground Radio (LSUR), as part of the setlist of The Black Madonna.

LSUR plays setlists from the Nightclub DJs; their setlist is added to the radio's playlist as they finish their one-week residency at the player's Nightclub in GTA Online. This radio station also uses another track that was featured in Vice City Stories — Beat Box (Diversion One) by the Art of Noise.

The iconic pop radio station Flash FM has some of the best hits from the 80s, and it was brought back with a fresh playlist for Vice City Stories.

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3) Hall & Oates

Rockstar has used four songs by the hit 80s pop duo Hall & Oates in four different GTA games. The first track, Out of Touch, from their 12th studio album Big Bam Boom (1984), was featured in Flash FM in Vice City. The next song was Family Man, a cover of the Mike Oldfield song that appeared in their 11th studio album H2O (1982). This song was featured in the Vice City Stories version of Flash FM.

Rockstar brought Hall & Oates to the HD Universe with Maneater (from H2O), which is heard on Vice City FM, the radio station exclusive to GTA 4 The Complete Edition (PC), and the disc version of Grand Theft Auto Episodes from Liberty City. They would then bring them back once more by featuring Adult Education (1984 single) on Non-Stop-Pop FM in Grand Theft Auto 5.

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4) Toto

Toto has been used almost as many times as Hall & Oates, with three of their songs appearing in three different titles. One of their most iconic songs, Africa (1982), was featured in Vice City on Emotion 98.3. Rockstar would then use another one of their songs, Make Believe (1982), for the new tracklist of Emotion 98.3 in Vice City Stories.

Toto also made their way to Grand Theft Auto San Andreas with Hold the Line (1978), taken from their eponymous debut studio album. As a beautiful example of Classic Rock, this song was featured on K-DST.

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5) Iron Maiden

Rockstar used Iron Maiden's unique font for their 80s heavy metal radio station V-Rock in Vice City and Vice City Stories. They also featured one of their songs, 2 Minutes to Midnight, from Powerslave (1984), on the same radio station in GTA Vice City.

It wouldn't be until GTA 4's expansion, The Lost and Damned, that Rockstar would bring back the heavy metal icons, with Run to the Hills (1982) being featured on Liberty Rock Radio.

Unfortunately, this track was one of many removed from Grand Theft Auto 4 in 2018 following a license expiry.

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Check out our other Grand Theft Auto articles:

Anita Ward uses VI logo on Spotify || Who is Tom Petty? || What happened to Tom Petty? || GTA 6 trailer breaks Spotify record || Comic relief characters || Mesmerizing side characters || New Liberty City Stories mod