This week director/producer Ross Duffer (of the Duffer Brothers) has posted several new images on his Instagram account from the set of the Netflix TV show Stranger Things, currently filming its fifth and final season. Among them are shots of the actors Sadie Sink and Caleb McLaughlin who play the characters of Max and Lucas. He also draws attention in another photo to the cassette tape lying on the bedside locker in Max’s hospital room – Kate’s Hounds of Love. While the actress Sadie Sink is awake and smiling in the snap we are to understand that in the show she is in a coma due to the injuries she sustained in the dramatic finale of season 4 with the monstrous Vecna. Season 5 is expected to be released in 2025. The artwork shown is a slightly different Greek edition of the Hounds of Love cassette so we presume her kind pals in the town of Hawkins have replaced it for her!
Max and her original Kate Bush cassette – Stranger Things season 4 (2022)
As everyone knows, Kate’s Running Up That Hill featured extensively in season 4 of the show as the character of Max found salvation through the use of her favourite song. Consequently, in 2022 Kate had the biggest global smash hit single of her career! [our podcast recap of that ‘Summer of Kate’ is below] Does the photo from Ross Duffer signal more use of Kate’s music in the next season? Who knows…
Lucas holds Max’s hand in a new behind the scenes photo
New 2022 CD single available exclusively from Rhino Records here
As 2022 draws to a close, various charts and sites have been looking back at the big selling singles and tracks this year and we are reminded once again of the breathtaking success of what is now Kate’s biggest ever global hit single – Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Just to remind ourselves, Kate had the biggest song in the world on the official global charts for three weeks this summer, and so, so much more No.1 success around the world which also included her triumphant 3-week return to the top of the UK singles charts and her biggest ever hit in the USA. The Ringer has recently described it as the most important song of the year and “the song that dominated the zeitgeist more than any other in 2022” calling it “a genuine sensation that people inside the industry and out couldn’t stop talking about.” Google year end search results have Kate as one of the most searched terms in music for 2022. On the music search app, Shazam, Running Up That Hill was the 12th most searched for song of 2022 globally.
Kate has placed at No.18 on the Billboard Global 200 for the year, meaning she had one of the biggest selling singles in the whole world this year. She also places at No.23 in the US Billboard Hot 100for all of 2022. Kate could well also place in the Top 10 of 2022 on the UK Official chart when those figures are released. On the world’s largest streaming music service, Spotify, Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) was the 10th most-played song for the whole year AND the No.1 “throwback” song globally (defined by Spotify as songs originally released over 20 years ago). Kate’s song saw a 8,700% increase in Spotify streams this year, and currently has been streamed over 820 million times. In the UK it was the 4th most streamed track of 2022 on Spotify, and the 8th most streamed song on Spotify USA. The music video has been viewed over 150 MILLION times on Youtube.
On the video streaming platform, Tiktok, where Kate has a huge following among younger site users, Running Up That Hill was in the Top 10 most popular songs in both the US and the UK for all of 2022. And look out for a (groan worthy) joke about Kate in Christmas crackers if this Top Ten of topical 2022 jokes is to be believed!
To hear the full story of Kate’s incredible year, the charts, the No.1s, the world records, the media reaction, the excitement, Kate’s own reactions and much more, don’t miss our podcast episode on The Summer of Kate here!!
In this detailed new episode of The Kate Bush Fan Podcast Seán packs an hour looking back over all the amazing landmark events of Summer 2022 when Kate’s song Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) was featured on Stranger Things and became her biggest ever global smash hit – all the summer chart news, the reaction from Kate, the media and the fans! A souvenir of an extraordinary few months.
You can subscribe to the Kate Bush Fan Podcast on iTunes or Spotify or on any podcast app you happen to use, such as Stitcher or Tunein or listen below on Soundcloud.
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Kate is this week back at No.1 on the formidable Billboard Global 200 singles chart, the one that covers the combined chart performances from around the whole world! She has knocked Harry Styles off the global top spot, the second time Kate has achieved this staggering feat with her song, and once again basically has “the biggest song in the world” as Billboard describe it themselves. In the USA today, thanks to ever-increasing American radio airplay and formidable download sales and streaming figures, Kate has climbed back up the US Charts to No.4, returning to her highest ever placing in the Billboard Hot 100! Can she climb even higher? This is her SIXTH week in the US Top Ten. Anecdotally, we are hearing from fans in the US that Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) is being played everywhere.
Kate has also climbed back up several other national charts; to No.6 in The Netherlands, No.5 in Germany and No.2 in Switzerland. Tomorrow we will see if she has risen further in the Canadian charts and that incredible Billboard Global 200, where she is currently back up to No.3. See Friday’s news post for more current global chart news, including Kate at No.1 in Ireland and Australia for the 4th time in each country.
Spotify updates: The song is at No.1 globally on Spotify this week, and yet again on today’s Daily Global chart, her 13th time topping it! Also very significantly, Hounds of Love has climbed to No.7 on the Global Albums Weekly chart on the world’s largest streaming music platform! Spotify have launched a newly curated “This is Kate Bush” playlist (see it below) that features 50 tracks from throughout Kate’s career and could well help listeners explore other corners of Kate’s catalogue. Her monster hit just continues to astonish.
On her official website, Kate has graciously congratulated LF System who take over the No.1 position in the UK charts after Kate had a three week run at the top. The ACR rule now applies again to Kate’s track, so Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) has to achieve twice as many streams as other songs to achieve the equivalent in converted sales, hence the drop to No.3 on the chart. Kate writes:
Many, many congratulations on the UK No. 1 single for LF SYSTEM. So many of you have loved the last two episodes of Stranger Things, released last Friday. We’ve received an overwhelming number of messages. I just want to say again, how very proud I am that RUTH has been included in the shows in some small way.
Thank you everyone for supporting RUTH with such positivity. It’s lovely to see the song continuing to do so well around the world – it’s just boomeranged back to No 1 in Australia! Hope you can get a chance to enjoy the arrival of summer. Best wishes, Kate
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Finally, something we haven’t linked here before was this solid hour-plus Youtube discussion about Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) from the Produce Like a Pro Youtube channel. It includes chats with those involved in the song and Hounds of Love album, such as drummer Stuart Elliott, engineer Brian Tench and engineer Nick Launay (talking about his work on The Dreaming).
Last week Part Two of Stranger Things 4 landed on Netflix and continued to break viewing records for the streaming service. As expected, Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) featured again in an epic scene in which all the characters in the show were pitted against almost insurmountable odds. An intense version of the song (called the TOTEM remix, from soundtrack composer duo Patrick Buchanan and David James Rosen) was used and is rapidly spreading across Youtube and beyond.
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As a result, Kate’s song has climbed BACK to the summit of many charts (not that she had slipped far at all!) and, briefly here’s the current chart picture:
Official charts: Kate is No.3 in the UK charts today, after having been No.1 for a staggering 3 weeks. Kate is No.1 again today in Ireland for the fourth week in a row! Kate is No.1 again in Australia for her 4th non-consecutive week at No.1 in that country. Kate is No. 2 in New Zealand. As radio airplay in America builds each week, Kate has climbed back up to No.6 in the US Billboard Hot 100. Kate has climbed back up to No.4 in the Canadian charts. Kate has climbed back up to No.3 on the Billboard Global 200 (which covers the whole world!). Elsewhere on Billboard Kate is enjoying her 5th consecutive week at the top of the Hot Alternative Songs chart.
iTunes:Kate is currently No.1 in the world on iTunes. Around the world, Kate is No.1 in Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, New Zealand and the United States, No.2. in Chile, France, Ireland and the United Kingdom, No.3 in Poland and Switzerland, No.4 in Mexico, No.5 in Brazil, No.6 in Belgium, No. 7 in Denmark, No.9 in Austria and No.10 in Norway, Poland and Spain.
Spotify: Kate has today once again reached No.1 in the Global Weekly Spotify chart. Always worth pointing out that, amazingly, this means that no other song was streamed more last week on the world’s biggest streaming music service. Kate is also today No.1 yet again on the Spotify Daily Global Chart, her 10th time on top of this chart now. Around the world she is still No.1 on Spotify in Australia, Canada, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States and Top 10 in 22 other countries. Mind-blowing. Also, Babooshka has now passed 100 million streams on Spotify!
We had some lovely words of thanks to Kate from Stranger Things actress Sadie Sinkin this Vulture interview this week. “….The amount of times that I’ve listened to her music over the past two years is ridiculous. It’s gotten to the point where I feel like I’ve created her in my head. I need to reach out in some way. I would love to write her a letter or something, because she played such a big role in Max’s journey. I owe her so much. Okay, let’s get a message out to Kate right now. Sadie, what would you tell her? A giant thank you. Not only from me, but from the character of Max and from Stranger Things in general, because she’s added so much heart to the show and her music has made such an impact on season four. It’s so wonderful knowing she thought my scene had so much heart, because I think she really played the biggest role in that.”
Press: A great article in The Quietus by Matthew Lindsay recently is well worth a read. “This song once more finds itself dropping into a bitterly divided world. But in this world polarised by misunderstanding and division, it’s unsurprising that ‘Running Up That Hill”s searing pursuit of empathy and understanding still cuts so deep, and resonates so powerfully.”The Guardian have a wonderful feature in which stars discuss what Kate’s music means to them, including Brian Molko, Peaches, Sharon Van Etten, Mike Scott from The Waterboys and Russell Mael from Sparks.
Music producer Rick Beato shares with his 3 million Youtube followers exactly what it is about the song structure of Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) that delivers such an emotional wallop. And yes, that D against E♭ dissonance is <chef’s kiss emoji>…
Director Taika Waititi claims today in an NME interview that at one point he was going to use Kate’s music in his newly released film Thor: Love and Thunder “…Yeah, there were a bunch of Kate Bush songs I wanted to have in there. We were gonna have ‘This Woman’s Work’, which was gonna be great for [a scene with] Natalie Portman’s character.”
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And to finish off this update two wonderful videos capturing the viral nature of Kate’s track and also how it has now been embraced worldwide as the anthem the world didn’t realise it needed right now; empathic, galvanising, hopeful, powerful, moving, comforting and renewing.
Korean outfit MayTree have an excellent a capella take
And, what happens when 1600 strangers in Australia have a few drinks, then learn to sing Running Up That Hill in 3 part harmony? Pub Choir joy. No wonder she’s been Number 1 there for four weeks!
Kate’s fans celebrate with their Running Up That Hill singles!
Kate has reached No.1 for the THIRD week in a row in the UK! Amazing! To celebrate we asked Kate’s fans to send us photos of them holding their Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) singles and you can see the large version of the image here. Thanks guys! Kate has also today scored her third consecutive week at No.1 in Ireland! And in Australia today Kate returned to No.1 after slipping to No.2 last week. So that’s three non-consecutive weeks at No.1 for her in Australia. Wow. Right, time to find some time to watch Part Two of Stranger Things season 4. What a summer!
Kate has posted on her site:
Still up on that Hill…
Whoooo Hoooo everybody! I just can’t believe it – No. 1 for the third week. We’re all so excited! In fact it’s all starting to feel a bit surreal.
I’ve just watched the last two episodes of Stranger Things and they’re just through the roof. No spoilers here, I promise. I’d only seen the scenes that directly involved the use of the track and so I didn’t know how the story would evolve or build. I was so delighted that the Duffer Brothers wanted to use RUTH for Max’s totem but now having seen the whole of this last series, I feel deeply honoured that the song was chosen to become a part of their roller coaster journey. I can’t imagine the amount of hard work that’s gone into making something on this scale. I am in awe. They’ve made something really spectacular.
I want to let you know about the amount of unofficial merchandise that’s out there. I haven’t seen it myself but I keep getting reports that there’s a huge amount: T-shirts, etc – some of which is very poor quality, some of which is pretty good and could be mistaken for being official. The only official merchandise is the already existing material that’s available through the official websites.
We hope you understand that we want to honour the energy that’s being generated by the audiences right now. An energy that feels very special, unique and quite frankly, bloody moving. Thanks very much everyone, Kate
Our surreal early summer continues with Kate Bush EVERYWHERE. Let’s take another look at what’s happening with all things Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) and Stranger Things. More of Kate’s music will be used in the hit Netflix show this coming Friday, July 1st, and we can only guess what the impact of this will have considering what’s been happening since Part 1 landed on May 27th. Thanks for all the lovely comments about the bumper Kate Bush Fan Podcast episode we put out last week to celebrate Kate’s global chart success. It felt important to mark the moment that way, speaking to many fans about all of this unexpected worldwide activity. You can hear it here and also listen out for an extra discussion on all things Running Up That Hill this week from Bush Telegraph.
Behind the scenes: Special effects used in THAT famous scene that featured Kate’s music
Stranger Things: While Part 1 of the current season of Stranger Things consisted of seven episodes, (you know, the ones that made Kate a global chart phenomenon) Part 2 is only two episodes long. However…those hoping to quickly binge it on Netflix (8am Friday morning GMT / midnight Thursday night PST) to find out how Kate’s music features, note that episode 8, “Papa“, runs for 1 hour 25 mins and the finale, episode 9, “The Piggyback“, is a whopping 2 hours 19 minutes long. So, two movies, essentially! Running up that duration length…
Following on from Kate’s great interview on BBC Radio 4 last week, you can now hear a short excerpt of myself, Seán, and Mandy Watson (singer with Cloudbusting) chat about Kate’s resurgence on BBC Radio 4 here on The Listening Project (it’s 13 mins into the programme). Our full unedited hour-long discussion will be archived permanently in the British Library as part of this project to capture everyday people talking about all kinds of topics. Speaking of Cloudbusting, the band played a polished rendition of Running Up That Hill on the popular This Morning programme on ITV in the UK today and Mandy had a friendly chat with hosts Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby afterwards about all the Kate madness. More about the band here.
Cloudbusting perform Running Up That Hill on ITV’s This Morning programme
Some press articles of note: The Classic FM site posted a fascinating article that delves into the music theory on why Running Up That Hill is so amazing! Medium also discusses Kate’s inspired chord sequence in the song here and proposes that she started a major trend among film composers. As Kate celebrates a second week at No.1 in Ireland, The Irish Examiner looks at examples of her Irish roots here. In a lovely opinion piece in the same paper, Clodagh Finn writes:
“…it has also given us this glorious statistic: “Kate Bush is currently the youngest (19 with ‘Wuthering Heights’) and oldest (63, with ‘Running Up That Hill’) female artist to have a UK number one with a self-written song.” There is so much optimism in that single sentence. It tells the story of a supremely talented young woman whose creativity crashed through barriers in the male-dominated pop world of the 1980s, but it also shows that life goes on and, at 63, it is still possible to attract new audiences.“
Global Charts: Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) is currently no. 4 in the Billboard Global 200 (her highest placing was that staggering No.1 feat two weeks ago). Kate is looking good (but not certain) for a THIRD week at No.1 in the UK charts based on what we’re seeing from her performance on the midweek charts, however Scottish DJ duo LF System have a rapidly rising viral hit on their hands at No.2. We’re still in shock that we’re captivated by the UK charts all over again! Exciting. Let’s see what happens, once again, we find out where Kate has placed in her home country at about 5.30pm on Friday – BBC Radio 1 will let us know first. The Whole Story has climbed to No.17 in the UK album chart. In the US Kate is enjoying her 3rd week at No.1 in the Billboard Hot Alternative Songs chart.
Kate enjoys her 3rd week topping the Alternative Songs Billboard chart
Official Charts: To recap, around the world on official charts, Kate is currently No. 1 in the UK, No. 1 in Ireland, No.2 in Australia (after two spectacular weeks on top), No.2 in New Zealand (also after having an astounding fortnight there at No.1), No. 10 in France (down from No.3), No. 4 in Germany, No. 9 in the USA (having reached 4 and then 5 in previous weeks), No.7 in Canada (down from No.2 last week as no less than FIVE new songs from Drake’s new album storm the Canadian Top 10), No.3 in Sweden (down from No.1), No. 2 in Switzerland (down from No.1), No.5 in Austria (down one from No.4).
iTunes: As I write Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) is back at No.1 in the US iTunes charts, a position she has enjoyed and maintained many times over the past few weeks. She is No.5 on iTunes worldwide currently, No.2 in the UK, No. 1 in Australia, No.1 in Canada, No. 6 in Brazil, No.2 in France, No.9 in Germany, No.7 in Ireland, No.14 in Mexico, No.1 in New Zealand and No.9 in Switzerland.
Spotify: Kate is currently the #42 most listened to artist in the world on Spotify with 40,636,714 monthly listeners! In a Top 50 dominated by the likes of Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, Drake, The Weeknd, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa and Post Malone, Kate has surpassed Queen at No.43, making her the current most streamed artist who started their music career in the 20th century. Unreal. Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) continues it’s astonishing performance on the world’s largest streaming music platform. After over 4 weeks and 180 million+ streams it is No.3 on the weekly Top Songs Global chart AND also No.3 on the Daily Global Chart as I write this today. In national weekly charts she is No.1 in the UK, No.2 in Australia, Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, Czech Republic, South Africa, Israel and Luxembourg, No.3 in Switzerland, Lithuania, Latvia, No.4 in France, Austria, United Arab, Emirates, No.5 in the USA, Germany, No.6 in Canada, Sweden and No.7 in Belgium. Dig deeper and you’ll find that Kate is No.31 in Pakistan, No.49 in Peru, No.34 in the Philippines…it goes on and on – check it all out here.
TikTok: There are now 1.93 million videos on this app featuring Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God). We’ll let that sink in for a while…
Youtube: Running Up That Hill is now by FAR the most viewed Kate video on the site with over 80 million views, and at this rate it is estimated that it could hit 100 million views by the end of July.
And finally, as we slowly try to drag ourselves out of the pandemic, the Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever events will be happening after a couple of years away and the Dublin, Ireland organisers have announced their event for Kate’s birthday, Saturday July 30th in Fairview Park. Get your red dresses and tights ready! A lot of fun, always.
Kate’s extraordinary run of chart success continues this weekend as she is STILL No.1 in the UK singles chart for the second week in a row with Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) – we are starting to run out of superlatives here! In the week in which we heard Kate herself say “just extraordinary … quite shocking really, isn’t it? I mean, the whole world’s gone mad” – well, we will happily take the madness! Kate holds off the ubiquitous ‘As it Was’ by Harry Styles at no.2 and a fast rising chart hit ‘Afraid To Feel’ from LF System at No.3. And as we know, this is the third week running that Kate has outsold every other song on the chart, and the chart rule reset two weeks ago has rightfully sent her to the top spot for two weeks.
Kate has written about her second week at the UK Number 1 AND her Irish Number 1 on her official site:
It’s so exciting! RUTH is at No. 1 in the UK for the second week running and is now No. 1 in Ireland. My mother was Irish and would’ve really loved this.
I’ve received so many positive messages in response to the interview on Woman’s Hour this week. I’m a great admirer of Emma Barnett who now presents the show with fellow host, Anita Rani. I really enjoyed Emma’s uncompromising stance on Newsnight and I love to hear her challenging and championing so many different issues on Woman’s Hour now. It seemed the perfect place for me to express my gratitude for the extraordinary attention the song is receiving. It took me a long time to build up the courage to listen to the interview. I was so touched, not just by Emma’s lovely comments but also by Caitlin Moran’s ‘warm up’, as she put it. Both Emma and Caitlin responded with such genuine affection to my work. It means a great deal. It really does.
I’d also like to thank everyone in the team around me, who are just as excited with the scale of the response to the song as I am. We’ve all worked together for many years and I feel very privileged to have people with such a huge range of talents and sensitivities who are involved in the many processes that are needed to get the work out there.
Just a week to go until the last two episodes of Stranger Things. I can’t wait to see how the story is going to unfold. I think we’d better all hang on to our hats…
Thank you so much for your beautiful feedback and for your continued support for the song, Kate
A wonderful interview with Kate this morning on the Woman’s Hour programme on BBC Radio 4. Kate said the situation was “just extraordinary … quite shocking really, isn’t it? I mean, the whole world’s gone mad.”
“It’s such a great series, I thought that the track would get some attention. But I just never imagined that it would be anything like this,” Kate said. “The Duffer brothers created the series and actually we watched it from the first series onwards, so I was already familiar with the series. And I thought what a lovely way for the song to be used in such a positive way. You know, as a kind of talisman almost really for Max. And yeah, I think it’s very touching, actually.”
The news of Kate’s second ever Number 1 in the UK with Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) has become a huge story as the UK midweeks chart indicate that Kate could hold on to the Number 1 spot in her home country for a second week running, a story picked up by the NME here and Official Charts site here, though she of course faces competition from the likes of Drake and LF System…we will see what happens. The BBC have called it a “remarkable resurgence” in popularity for Kate. Music Week have described the result as “incredible.” The Guardian called her UK Number 1 “improbable and inspiring” while Billboard says that Kate has “run a UK chart race like no other artist.” Across the Irish sea, Entertainment.ie and The Journal celebrate her Irish Number 1 chart success here and here.
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Article in Saturday’s The Guardian Newspaper
Kate herself wrote yet another heartfelt post on her official site thanking everyone for supporting the song with the headline “On Top of that Hill.”
The Duffer Brothers have created four extraordinary series of Stranger Things in which the child actors have grown into young adults. In this latest series the characters are facing many of the same challenges that exist in reality right now. I believe the Duffer Brothers have touched people’s hearts in a special way, at a time that’s incredibly difficult for everyone, especially younger people.
By featuring Running Up That Hill in such a positive light – as a talisman for Max (one of the main female characters) – the song has been brought into the emotional arena of her story. Fear, conflict and the power of love are all around her and her friends.
I salute the Duffer Brothers for their courage – taking this new series into a much more adult and darker place. I want to thank them so much for bringing the song into so many people’s lives.
I’m overwhelmed by the scale of affection and support the song is receiving and it’s all happening really fast, as if it’s being driven along by a kind of elemental force.
I have to admit I feel really moved by it all. Thank you so very much for making the song a No 1 in such an unexpected way.
Kate
Sky News report on Kate reaching Number 1 in the UK
By landing at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart, Kate achieves three all-time Official Chart records simultaneously; the longest-ever gap between Number 1 singles (44 years since Wuthering Heights), longest time taken for a single to reach Number 1 (37 years), and, as well as being the youngest ever with Wuthering Heights aged 19, Kate also becomes the oldest female artist (at 63) ever to score a UK Number 1 single, replacing Cher, who was 52 when Believe topped the Official Singles Chart in 1998. Cher has congratulated Kate on beating her record on Twitter:
Martin Talbot, Chief Executive, Official Charts Company, comments: “It has been fantastic to see the iconic Kate Bush climbing up the Official Singles Chart with Running Up That Hill – and to see her breaking a slew of records into the bargain. The way that a new generation of music fans have taken her classic track to their hearts really does cement Kate’s position as an all-time great, if that were at all necessary.”
BBC Radio 2 had an excellent hour long Sounds of the 80s Kate Bush Special hosted by Gary Davies on Friday night and featuring our own Dave Cross selecting his favourite Kate tracks from that decade – you did an amazing job, Dave! Also featured were Midge Ure, Suzanne Vega, Moya Brennan from Clannad, Sananda Maitreya and Def Leppard‘s Joe Elliott. Listen back to the show here. BBC Radio 6 also had a two-hour Now Playing show hosted by Tom Robinson “celebrating her back catalogue with two hours of listener picked hits, hidden gems, lost classics and vintage album tracks.” Lovely to hear the likes of Houdini and Rocket’s Tail played on the radio! Listen back here.
On Celebrity Gogglebox on Channel 4 in the UK, some well-known faces were gripped by Kate’s song as they watched THAT scene from Stranger Things. Excellent.
Legendary producer, Alan Parsons has congratulated Kate in a Facebook post. He writes: “I am so thrilled for Kate Bush for making music history as the oldest song to hit #1 on the Streaming Charts and hitting #1 on Billboard Global 200! I have always had the highest regard for her artistry. Stuart Elliott and Ian Bairnson played on many of her records, and Andrew Powell (Alan Parson’s Project Orchestral Arranger) produced her first two albums.”
The Sunday Times Style Magazine has a quote from me, Seán (!), on Kate’s fashion sensibilities here. I was also briefly quoted in an article for the prestigious Christian Science Monitor newspaper by Stephen Humphries, syndicated to Yahoo News in the US, here.
Vanity Fair magazine has interviewed Stranger Things actress Sadie Sink about her thoughts on Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God).
What was your familiarity with Kate Bush before filming this season?
I did not know Kate Bush beforehand, but then I immediately skimmed through her work and then became increasingly more obsessed, and then I was listening to her all the time. I cannot even tell you how many times I’ve listened to “Running Up That Hill.” It’s been a lot, but I’m still not sick of it, which is good. [Laughs.] Knowing the emotional connection that she has to that song, and how it’s kind of her anthem, played into it. It’s something about the energy of the song, the synth and the lyrics and everything. It’s so perfect. They could not have picked a more perfect song.
So how were you listening to it as you filmed the sequence, and as you prepared for it?
I think on the day that we were filming the running sequence in episode four, we had the song playing. And I always would have it playing in my headphones. There was an actual cassette in the Walkman and I could listen to it if I wanted to, but I did do a whole day in my own time where I just was home and had it playing on in the background for the entire day, just to see if I would go insane, because that’s what Max was having to do. So I’m like, Oh, my God. Would you get sick of it? How is she doing this all day?
And you did not get sick of it!
Honestly! It just brings up so many emotions, and it’s such an epic sequence, and I feel like it’ll always be tied to that moment.
Drummer Stuart Elliott
Finally, drummer Stuart Elliott, who played drums on Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) and also on the vast majority of Kate’s albums, has been interviewed by the Percussion Discussion podcast and has some great things to say about Kate and the current global success of the song here.
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Official Charts Updates: Kate is number ONE in the UK, Ireland, Australia (2nd week at the top!), New Zealand (2nd week at the top!), Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Austria. She is number 3 in France and remains at number 4 in Germany! She remains in the Top 5 in the USA, dropping one place from 4 to 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA, and she holds at #2 in Canada. Hounds of Love has reached 12 in the US Albums charts, her highest ever US album chart placement.
Billboard Charts: Kate is Number 1 on the Global 200 and No.1 in the US on both the Streaming Songs and Digital Song Sales sales charts. Also number 1 in the Billboard regional charts in Belgium, Iceland and Luxembourg.
Spotify: Kate moves down one place to #2 on the Global Weekly Spotify chart after reigning at the very top of the world’s biggest music streaming platform for a week! On the national weekly Spotify charts, she is number 1 in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland, UK and USA. Kate is No.1 on the daily Global Spotify viral music chart.
iTunes: Kate is number 3 in the world on iTunes, and number 1 in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand.
Shazam: Kate drops 1 place to number 2 in the most searched for songs on the Shazam app in the world!
A few short weeks ago I’d never have imagined I’d be running this headline. For us fans, it feels historic. Kate has achieved her second NUMBER ONE single in the UK Top 40, something she hasn’t done since Wuthering Heights in 1978. It reflects the huge global chart success that Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) is having after it was used so powerfully in Stranger Things on Netflix. Reaching the summit in her home country in this way feels like her crowning achievement. We’ll have all the media reaction and chart facts and figures in upcoming posts, but for now I’d simply like to congratulate Kate on her astounding success. You deserve every minute of it – Seán x
Dave Cross from HomeGround writes: “When Running Up That Hill first came out it was such a special time for us at Homeground, and all Kate fans as we watched the world catch up with Kate and her beautiful music, and now nearly 40 years later it’s quite extraordinary and a bit surreal to watch it happen again, but this time it’s bigger. Congratulations to Kate, and everyone involved. Dave xx“
And here are some words from Krys on behalf of herself and Peter at HomeGround: “What a wonderful and exciting time we find ourselves in in this crazy world. Number One! Over the last couple of weeks we have watched as Running Up That Hill has exploded around the planet. It shows the power and longevity of this remarkable song. It was powerful in 1985, when most of us were in our teens and twenties. There was nothing like it – it was fresh and full of energy. Now it’s happening to a new audience: a brilliant and positive song for them to enjoy and feel just like we did then and have carried it with us ever since. Congratulations, dearest Kate. With love, Krys xxx“
Kate has posted yet again on her official site as the chart excitement just continues to mount. She sounds very excited. Us too, Kate!
Running Up That Hill…
It’s all so exciting! Since the last post, Running Up That Hill has gone to No 1 in Norway and Austria. This is such great news and we just heard today that it’s up from No 8 to No 4 in the US. The track is being responded to in so many positive ways. I’ve never experienced anything quite like this before! I just want to say a really big thank you to everyone in the US who has supported the song. It’s the first time I’ve had a top ten single over there and now it’s in the top 5! Thank you so much again to the Duffer Brothers – because of their latest, extraordinary series of Stranger Things, the track is being discovered by a whole new audience. Best wishes, Kate
In previous posts last week we touched on the controversy surrounding a UK chart rule, called ACR (accelerated chart ratio), which prevented Kate from reaching Number 1 in the UK charts last Friday for the second time (and preventing all of us fans having a big celebratory party after 42 years!). It had been brought to the attention of the industry by Alan Jones writing about it in Music Week. The great news is that Kate’s record label has finally stepped in to request a reset of the rule for Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) – a revoking of which will hugely help Kate to score her second ever career UK Number 1 single.
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In an article today, the BBC set out to explain what happened, why the rule is there, and why it didn’t work as intended in the case of Kate’s huge viral hit:
“The Top 40 used to consist of songs you could buy in a record shop, and every sale was equal. If a record label hadn’t pressed enough copies of a 7-inch or CD single, it might miss the chart altogether. In some instances, record labels even stopped manufacturing a hit single in order to convince people to buy the album instead (Wet Wet Wet’s Love Is All Around and the Fugees’ Killing Me Softly both suffered this fate). But in the streaming era, every song is available everywhere all the time. This poses the charts with a problem. If you counted streams on a like-for-like basis, classic songs like The Killers’ Mr Brightside would never leave the Top 40; and a modern hit like Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habits would currently be spending its 50th week in the Top 10.
In order to give other artists a chance and keep the charts from becoming stale, the record industry invented something called “accelerated decline“. It works like this. A new record earns one “sale” when it is streamed 100 times on a subscription service like Apple Music or Spotify Premium; or 600 times on an ad-funded service. But older songs need to attract 200 premium / 1,200 ad-funded streams before a “sale” is counted.
The current UK midweeks chart reveals Kate out in front.
Which leads to the bizarre situation where Running Up That Hill was comfortably the most-streamed song in the UK last week (with more than 2.5 million plays) but Harry Styles was able to waltz into the number one spot because his song, As It Was, enjoyed a more favourable streams-to-sales ratio. This week, the playing field has been levelled.
The Chart Supervisory Committee, which oversees the Top 40, revoked the accelerated decline rule for Running Up That Hill over the weekend, meaning its streams are now worth the same as all the singles around it, including Harry Styles.
The situation is unusual, but not entirely without precedent. Under chart rules, the “standard” streaming ratios can be applied to any single if its sales increase by 25% week-on-week. Record labels can also request a “manual reset” to the ratio “in exceptional circumstances, where a track is being scheduled for promotion”. This is exactly what EMI Warners (Peter: you got the record company wrong, BBC!) did for Kate Bush. It’s not clear why the request took a fortnight to be enacted (the rules state that one week’s notice is sufficient) but it seems no-one could deny the feel-good factor of granting the star her first number one single since 1978’s Wuthering Heights. By Monday, the singer was already 5,000 sales ahead of Styles, a lead that’s unlikely to be surpassed.”
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As Kate Bush continues to storm the charts across the world with Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God), Seán chats to performer Danimay Palmer about the global, sudden success Kate is enjoying right now. Danimay has gained a following recreating Kate’s looks and performances on social media – and this is a chance to check in with someone who represents the younger generation of fans Kate is gathering worldwide! A great chat between two very excited Kate Bush fans.
You can subscribe to the Kate Bush Fan Podcast on iTunes or on any podcast app you happen to use, such as Stitcher or Tunein or listen below on Soundcloud.
