Kate Bush has a hit!
In this past week’s edition of The New Yorker, journalist Carrie Battan explains the current rise to fame of a song by Kate Bush that was recorded and released 37 years ago.
“Plenty of diffuse, mysterious factors contribute to any given song’s popularity, but the reason for the newfound ubiquity of “Running Up That Hill” is clear-cut. The song recently appeared during a pivotal, intensely melodramatic scene in the fourth season of Stranger Things, Netflix’s vibey teen sci-fi show struck a nerve with its highly stylized form of nineteen-eighties nostalgia when it first aired, in 2016, and now it has become such a cultural force that its new season broke Netflix-viewership records. ‘Running Up That Hill’ arrives late in Episode 4, at a crucial plot moment, when Max, one of the show’s plucky leads, has been abducted by Vecna, a humanoid monster who preys on people with emotional trauma. Max’s friends learn that they can release her by playing her favorite song, and proceed to power up ‘Running Up That Hill’ on a Sony Walkman.”
Cue the music.
The sudden and inarguable popularity of this particular song must feel like a vindication to Kate Bush because the title she gave it represents a compromise she made long ago just to get it heard. As she once explained in a 1992 interview on the BBC’s Radio 1, “For me, [this song] is still called ‘A Deal With God.’ That was its title. But we were told that if we kept [that] title, it wouldn't be played in any of the religious countries. Italy wouldn't play it. France wouldn't play it. Australia wouldn't play it. Ireland wouldn't play it. Generally, we might get it [blacklisted] purely because it had ‘God’ in the title.
“Although I was very unhappy about it, I felt [that] unless I compromised,...I was going to be cutting my own throat. You know, I'd just spent two, three years making an album, and we weren’t gonna get this record played on the radio, if I was stubborn. So I felt I had to be grown up about this. We changed [the title] to ‘Running Up That Hill.’ But it’s always something I've regretted doing.”
Controversial content or not, the song has just made an astounding entry into the upper reaches of the pop charts and become one of the most popular selections on streaming services. No deal with God…or the devil required. All it took was 37 years and a compelling television show to make the song a hit.
This just in: an interesting insight from Gizmodo.com on 06/22/22.
“While many have heard about the pittance that artists receive from Spotify, Bush actually owns the rights to this song—it’s currently held by her own company, Noble & Bright, which means that she’s making roughly $250,000 a week on streaming success alone.”
Here’s a Great Moments in Vinyl rendition of “Running Up That Hill,” performed in the summer of 2019. Featuring aerin tedesco on vocals with Greg Woods, Ellie Kahn, Karen Weinberg, Eric Tre’von, Erik Norman, Ben Dacoba, and William Lindsey Cochran.
Video provided courtesy of one of our fans…whose name I can no longer locate. If it’s yours, let me know and I’ll give you credit.