Kate has this morning posted yet another message to her fans via her official site, www.katebush.com – delighted for you, Kate! Enjoy it all, richly deserved.
Running Up That Hill has just gone to No 2 in the UK charts and No. 1 in Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Sweden…. How utterly brilliant! It’s hard to take in the speed at which this has all been happening since the release of the first part of the Stranger Things new series. So many young people who love the show, discovering the song for the first time. The response to Running Up That Hill is something that has had its own energy and volition. A direct relationship between the shows and their audience and one that has stood completely outside of the music business. We’ve all been astounded to watch the track explode! Thanks so much to everyone who has supported the song and a really special thank you to the Duffer Brothers for creating something with such heart . All best wishes, Kate
Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) is now nothing short of a global hit single phenomenon and we have the chart update bullet points for you to prove it this evening!
UK: Kate has climbed to #2 in the official UK Top 4o Singles Chart, beating her previous best chart placing with the same song in 1985 when it reached #3. Only Wuthering Heights placed higher for her in the UK chart at #1 in 1978. Kate’s compilation album, The Whole Story, has climbed to Number 19 in the UK albums chart.
Australia: Kate has climbed to #1 (!!!) on the ARIA Australian Singles Chart with ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’. It is her second Australian No.1 single after Wuthering Heights reached the top for three weeks in 1978.
Kate is number 1 in Australia!
Ireland: Kate has climbed to #3 in the Irish Singles Chart with Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)! This beats her previous Irish chart placing with this song in 1985 when she reached number 4. It now matches The Man With The Child In His Eyes as her second highest placed Irish single ever!
New Zealand: Kate is No.1 in New Zealand! This is Kate’s second Number 1 in the country after Wuthering Heights in 1978.
Germany: Kate has climbed 10 places to number 4 on the German Singles charts, almost matching her chart peak with the same song in 1985 when she reached number 3, which was her highest ever German singles chart placing to date.
The Netherlands: Kate has climbed to #3 in the Dutch singles charts! It is now tied with Wuthering Heights in 1978 as her highest ever Dutch single chart placing!
Lithuania: Kate has climbed to the number ONE spot on the Lithuanian singles chart today!
Sweden: Kate is Number 1 on the Swedish singles chart!!
Switzerland: Kate is Number 1 on the Swiss singles chart!!
USA/Canada and more: As we reported earlier this week Kate had her highest ever entry in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart this week at 8 and entered the Canadian chart at number 4. On the Billboard Global 200 Chart Kate is the highest new entry this week at number 3.
And let’s take a look at those streaming/download charts:
Spotify: As you can see above, today Kate has climbed to Number 1 in the Spotify Weekly Global music chart, a week that has seen Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) dominate the world’s largest music streaming service. As of today, Friday, she is having her fourth day on top of the Daily Global Chart, but this weekly one cements that jaw-dropping success. Kate has been getting over 8,000,000 streams of the song each day. We can now confirm that she is Number 1 on the Spotify weekly charts in Ireland, Australia, Belgium, Canada, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, UK and the USA and Top 5 in many more.
iTunes: Kate remains number 1 on iTunes in Ireland, Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, Poland – with the release of a new album by BTS saw tracks by the very popular Korean boy band leaping to the top of many iTunes charts.
Shazam: Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) remains the number 1 most searched for song on the Shazam worldwide.
UK Chart Analysis: A very interesting (and chart geeky!) note about her UK placing at number 2 this week. Writing in Music Week, Alan Jones mentions the impact on Kate’s UK chart placing of a relatively new rule in the UK charts called the ACR or “Accelerated Chart Ratio” designed to keep the chart fresh. He writes: “Despite its continuing presence at the top of the chart, As It Was wasn’t No.1 on digital downloads or streams this week, trailing some distance behind Kate Bush’s resurgent Running Up That Hill on both metrics. In fact, the only measurement on which As It Was was more popular was CD sales, where its one trumps Bush’s zero – and yet, there it sits, No.1 again. Back on the chart for the first time since 1985, when it peaked at No.3, Running Up That Hill’s current popularity is fuelled by its prominent and frequent use in Season 4 of the Netflix sci-fi/drama series Stranger Things. No.8 last week, Running Up That Hill now surges to No.2 (a new peak), with consumption of 44,739 units, made up of 5,863 digital downloads, 38,875 sales-equivalent streams and one 10-inch picture disc dating from 2013. It is, of course, encumbered with ACR, otherwise its combination of 7,470,792 premium audio streams, 1,029,666 ad-funded audio streams and 657,694 premium video streams, when added to its digital sales, would give it a total of 83,613 sales, relegating Styles to No.2 and providing Bush with a richly-deserved second No.1, more than 44 years after her first single, Wuthering Heights, topped the list. Running Up That Hill’s renaissance is also reflected on the album chart, where Bush’s chart-topping 1986 compilation The Whole Story leaps 76-19 (2,729 sales) – its highest position for eight years – while RUTH’s parent album Hounds Of Love is back in the Top 200 at No.84 (1,431 sales).”
ACR explained: On 10 March 2017, Ed Sheeran claimed 9 of the top 10 positions in the UK Singles chart when his album ÷ was released. The large number of tracks from the album on the singles chart, 16 in the top 20, led to a change in how the chart is compiled with tracks from a lead artist eligible for entry limited to three. Also the idea of Standard Chart Ratios (SCR) and Accelerated Chart Ratios (ACR) were introduced, with ACR halving streaming points for records that have been in the charts for a while (which includes most catalogue tracks, excepting certain cases). So there you have it!
Okay, we will bravely try to summarise where we are in terms of the seemingly unstoppable global popularity of Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) in the wake of it appearing on the Stranger Things TV show. Kate’s phenomenal chart numbers and statistics on this have resulted in hundreds of articles and press reports and we will compile these in a separate post. We’ll contain our excitement (eep) to calmly bring you these bullet points this Tuesday, 7th June 2022:
Kate has scored her first ever Top Ten hit in the USA on the Billboard Hot 100 with the highest new entry at number 8. Her previous best was with the same song at number 30 in 1985. 37 years is the longest ever gap between a song’s debut and its first appearance in the US top 10.
Hounds of Love has re-entered the Billboard 200 Album Charts at Number 28, matching Kate’s highest ever US album chart position (The Red Shoes also placed at 28 in 1993).
Hounds of Love tops the Billboard Alternative Albums chart, which of course we’d have swooned at in 1985, but it is technically her first ever number one on a Billboard album chart. It follows Love and Anger’s appearance at the same position on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1989. She’s also the highest new entry at number 3 with Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) in the Billboard Global 200, however that one is calculated. We’ll take it!
She has entered the official UK Top 40 at number 8 (a record run of Top 20 hit singles for a female artist across 6 consecutive decades). The UK midweeks chart has her climbing to Number 2, indicating an even higher placing on Friday’s official UK chart.
She entered the Irish Top 40 at 10, Australian Top 40 at 2, New Zealand Top 40 at 2, Canadian Top 100 at 4, and German Singles Chart at 14.
Kate has posted a message about her excitement at this unprecedented response on her official site and also a separate press release.
As of today, Kate has climbed to Number 1 on the Global Daily Spotify Chart for the first time, which means more people are listening to Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) on the world’s largest music streaming platform than any other song. A truly momentous milestone. See all the stats breakdown from today here. It is also the Number 1 song in 18 different countries on Spotify; Australia, Belgium, Canada, Estonia, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, UK, USA.
It remains the Number 1 song on iTunes in Ireland, the UK, the USA, Australia, Canada, France, Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg and New Zealand.
It remains the Number 1 most searched for song in the world on the Shazam app.
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We’ll be juggling all the various chart watching as the week progresses, with a keen eye on where she lands in the UK Top 40 on Friday, with Kate’s song having just been added to BBC Radio 1‘s “Hot Recurrents” Playlist (probably first time she’s been play-listed on that station since the 1990s!) A clear indication of how young the audience for Running Up That Hill is now skewing – Kate is usually a BBC Radio 2 fixture when she enters the charts.
The UK press have typically shared in the excitement with articles discussing Kate’s work. Alexis Petridis suggests “10 Kate Bush tracks to delight new listeners” in The Guardian here while Rebecca Nicholson on why Kate is timeless in the Observer here. She writes: “If any song can steel itself against over familiarity, it’s Running Up That Hill. Whether it is for the first time or the 500th time, you still hear it now and think, what the hell was that? And then you play it again.” Many, many media outlets in the UK, Ireland and elsewhere ran stories when Kate posted her message on her official site. It’s always cause for excitement.
Mike Chester, Warner Records EVP of radio and commerce
Over in the USA, the world’s largest music market, Mike Chester, Warner Records EVP of radio and commerce has said: “Kate Bush’s global resurgence by way of her song’s integration into Stranger Things has catapulted her back into the zeitgeist of popular culture. This exciting moment of discovery moved us to service the song to all formats of radio, immediately. We’re thrilled that our partners at the DSPs and radio are reacting so favourably to this watershed moment.”
According to an excellent article in Primetimer: “That means Bush’s record company is pushing the song like it’s a brand new hit, and it’s looking for airplay on stations that play current tunes instead of stations that only play classic rock. That’s incredibly rare, because labels want listeners to focus on what’s new. By reactivating “Running Up That Hill,” the record company is indicating its faith that the song is going to outlast this first wave of attention.” A strategy that has worked in the past for songs like “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen and “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers. The article goes on to say that “After decades as a beloved alternative artist, she’s suddenly in the mainstream alongside Harry Styles and Lizzo. It’s hard enough for an alt rock artist to crack the top of the Hot 100, but it’s unprecedented for a legacy alt rocker to make her first top 10 appearance after so many years.”
If you want to read some very in-depth geeky US chart discussion on what it is about Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) that made it so rife for this kind of revitalisation – well some Billboard staffers discuss this question and more here. And we recommend this excellent blog post by Sean Ross over on Radio Insight which discusses Kate’s career journey on that heavily formatted medium, US radio.
Stranger Things’ music supervisor Nora Felder
Stranger Things’ music supervisor Nora Felder, who has given a few interviews at this stage, is once again interviewed by Billboard and asked about the current chart success: “With regard to the phenomenon of this surreal Kate Bush moment, I’d have to say my reaction is still, “Ummm, is this really happening?!?” I was hopeful that Kate’s song would resonate for the show and be significant for today’s youth for a variety of reasons. But honestly, who could have possibly imagined or foreseen this lightning-in-a bottle moment?….for me, that reflects the power of a meaningful, timeless song – such as “Running Up That Hill” – and how its significance can be revived and re-conceived when it is married to a remarkable story such as Stranger Things …this season and Kate Bush’s song really seem to touch on the experience of alienation and emotional struggle that a lot of teens have been and continue to be going through, albeit in different ways…it was such a breath of fresh air to hear Kate Bush’s public message this weekend, particularly since it was my understanding that she’s known to be a very private person. I also believe that her decision process/mantra in relation to her art (the music) is simply to follow her heart. I truly believe her decisions throughout life are not motivated by anything else other than that. She clearly loves Stranger Things, and has a deep respect for the Duffer brothers’ vision. The fact that she allowed her song to be aligned with such powerful messages warms my heart. It makes me incredibly happy that a whole new audience is re-experiencing her song, and hope it can provide a source of strength, as many run up their own hills in life.”
Another excellent article in The Ringer by Nate Rogers has this to say: “Even when considering the way charts are changing to include more older music, though, the Kate Bush resurgence is still an aberration. “We have songs that kind of bubble up and then bubble back down,” Jason Lipshutz, the executive director of music at Billboard, explains, “and then you have the other instances like this, where it’s, like, a monumental leap on the charts.” Rogers goes on to say that “…the supernova pop-cultural moment surrounding “Running Up That Hill” has been building for decades.”
Entertainment Tonight make good use of an archive interview with Kate
Finally, while we’re in this crazy bubble of activity, give a listen to a 14 minute discussion today about Kate’s return to the US charts on the All Of It podcast here.
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Kate has released a new statement to the press via her PR representative reiterating her praise for the show Stranger Things and how touched she is by the response to her song. The above image of Kate was included with the press release, a version of which was originally used on the rear cover of the Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) single sleeve.
“When the first series came out, friends kept asking us if we’d seen ‘Stranger Things’, so we checked it out and really loved it. We’ve watched every series since then, as a family. When they approached us to use Running Up That Hill, you could tell that a lot of care had gone into how it was used in the context of the story and I really liked the fact that the song was a positive totem for the character, Max. I’m really impressed by this latest series. It’s an epic piece of work – the shows are extremely well put together with great characters and fantastic SFX. It’s very touching that the song has been so warmly received, especially as it’s being driven by the young fans who love the shows. I’m really happy that the Duffer Brothers are getting such positive feedback for their latest creation. They deserve it.” – Kate Bush
MASSIVE NEWS! Kate has secured her highest ever placement in the US charts, as Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) enters at number 8! This is her first Top Ten hit single in the US. We cannot believe this. Huge result for Kate! More updates later!
Netflix official Twitter is ”listening to Kate Bush 24/7 now”
Yesterday we covered the astounding chart news for Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) and we’ll have more chart reports in the coming days! In other news, Netflix are clearly delighted with the monster success of the show and have also been celebrating Kate Bush in tweets (to their 18 million Twitter followers) and other social media posts. They tweeted: “Stranger Things 4 has been running up that hill since Friday, becoming the biggest premiere weekend ever for an English language TV show on Netflix with 286.79 million hours viewed globally! It also skyrocketed to the 001 spot in 83 countries — another premiere weekend record! And shout-out to everyone discovering/rediscovering Kate Bush through Stranger Things 4. As of May 30, Spotify streams of the legend’s iconic song Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) have increased more than 9,990% in the US!”
And shout-out to everyone discovering/rediscovering Kate Bush through Stranger Things 4
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As Kate has her biggest Australian hit single since Rocket Man also reached Number Two in 1991, the young Stranger Things cast are in Australia promoting the show, with Sadie Sink (who plays the show’s Kate Bush fan, Max), Gaten Matarazzo and Priah Ferguson appearing on the Today show and they discuss Kate’s success at the start of this clip:
Director Shawn Levy has discussed using Kate’s music in Stranger Things with the Hollywood Reporter here
Stranger Things director Shawn Levy
How did you decide on Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” being Max’s anthem?
Sometimes the songs of Stranger Things are found in post-production, through trial and error. “Running Up That Hill” was in the script. It was always in the Duffers’ minds. They were convinced that it would work and when I was editing “Dear Billy,” I played around with an orchestral rearrangement of the Kate Bush song. If you rewatch the last five minutes of “Dear Billy,” that’s not just the Kate Bush song. It’s the Kate Bush song with layers of strings and orchestra, because I wanted to take a phenomenal song that was known by so many and bump it up to a level of emotionality that would support and amplify the scene. It’s just a musically amazing song because it’s great as its original version, but it’s also so compatible with rearrangement and orchestral augmentation, which is what we did at the end of “Dear Billy.”
There have been Twitter conversations about Kate Bush gaining a generation of fans.
I know. It’s just so thrilling. Obviously we couldn’t do any of that without Kate’s blessing, and we’re so grateful we got it.
Netflix have just made the, now very famous, scene available from Episode 4, Dear Billy, which has led to Kate’s global success with Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God). You can watch it on Youtube if you have no interest in watching the full series – obviously spoilers for the show’s plot in the Youtube clip below!
An article in Variety Magazine has revealed more fascinating details of exactly how the Stranger Things’ music supervisor and music clearance co-ordinator secured the use of Kate’s song with Kate’s personal involvement and approval. The show’s music supervisor, Nora Felder, explains that executive producers Matt and Ross Duffer — better known as the Duffer brothers — tasked her with brainstorming a song that resonated with the intense, wide-ranging emotional experiences Max was undergoing.
Says Felder: “Consequently, each of the prospective song placements in the initial scripts was tagged with the placeholder, ‘TBD Max song.’ From there, I made an effort to internally align myself with what the Duffers felt were the most important elements needed, and my own intuitive grasp of Max’s complex feelings.” Felder soon landed on “Running Up That Hill.” “It immediately struck me with its deep chords of the possible connection to Max’s emotional struggles and took on more significance as Bush’s song marinated in my conscious awareness.”
The Duffers were elated with the suggestion. Felder’s next challenge was to secure the song and get Bush’s approval with the full knowledge that Bush, although open to ideas, does not typically approve many syncs. Says Felder: “I sat with my clearance coordinator, and laid out all the scripted scenes for song uses that we knew of at that point. Knowing the challenges, we proceeded to create elaborate scene descriptions that provided as much context as possible so that Kate and her camp would have a full understanding of the uses. … When we finished, we were on edge, but excited and hopeful.”
The next step was tracking down the music publisher. Originally, that was EMI, now it was Sony. Wende Crowley, Sony Music Publishing’s SVP of creative marketing, film and TV, got the request. “Nora Felder came to us pre-pandemic to discuss the idea of using it as Max’s ‘song’ for this season. She wanted to make sure it was within the realm of possibility before she got the Duffer Brothers on board with the idea, since the song was going to be “such a focal point to Max’s storyline,” says Crowley. “Kate Bush is selective when it comes to licensing her music and because of that, we made sure to get script pages and footage for her to review so she could see exactly how the song would be used.”
As it turns out, Bush was also a big fan of the show, and once the team could understand the intent and vision, Bush granted her permission. The deal took longer than normal to secure because of the uniqueness of the use and how many times it is played over this season in multiple episodes. There were indeed a few alternates, Felder acknowledges, but “Running Up That Hill” was the song.
What if it didn’t clear? “I have a running expression I use when my showrunners feel strongly about a song select,” says Felder. “Which is, ‘I’m not going to sleep until I get it cleared.’” For me, as a music supervisor, I always feel an incredible responsibility to do everything in my power to ‘get it done,’ and this was no different.” As Bush continues to trend on Twitter, and the song’s video and audio streams — suggest a new generation is getting to know Bush’s music, Felder offers that its newfound popularity is due to “Running Up That Hill” being a timeless track. Says Felder: “I believe that if it was written and recorded today, it would fit right in and not be considered a ‘dated’ sound in any way.”
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A week ago today we were clueless about the extraordinary success Kate’s song, Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God), would have all around the world all over again. We knew that Part One of Season 4 of Stranger Things was dropping that day on Netflix. A few days before that we had it confirmed that a song by Kate would be used on the show, as an integral part of the actual plot. We’ve watched what has unfolded as a result in the days following with a giddy, open-mouthed incredulity. She has literally stormed the streaming and download charts globally with her iconic song, topping charts EVERYWHERE. If we wondered whether younger generations would find something to love and cherish in Kate’s music, whether it would still resonate with them and sound fresh, new and exhilarating to their ears – well, we have our answer. Resoundingly, millions are finding exactly that.
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We’ve been posting a lot of Kate Bush chart figures on our social media and it can be a lot to take in. The nature of streaming and downloads means that you can follow daily, sometimes hourly, progress of a track on major digital music platforms, both in individual countries and also the entire world/global charts. It’s worth mentioning though, that the OFFICIAL charts we’ve always traditionally looked at, still exist, such as the UK Top 40 or the US Billboard Hot 100. They are just compiled in a radically different way now that 7”, 12” or CD (or cassette!) singles have mostly fallen away as online music has taken over. Radio airplay, download sales, streaming totals and even Youtube video plays are all taken into account to score a song’s chart performance. It can be baffling to figure out.
UK Top 40: Kate has entered the Official UK Top 40 this evening at number 8! This means (as far as we can gather!) that Kate is the first female artist to have had Top 20 UK hit singles in 6 consecutive decades; the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s! Chart geek note: technically she’s actually the first female artist to have “Top 12” hit singles in 6 consecutive decades also, and the record WOULD state “Top 10” only for the fact that her 1990s UK chart peak was 12 with Rubberband Girl in 1993…these things matter, okay?! (sorry, we looked into this chart stuff till it made us dizzy!). Some might ask “hey, okay we know about King of the Mountain hitting number 4 in 2005 but what hit single did she have in the 2010s? The answer is her 2012 remix / new vocal of Running Up That Hill from the closing ceremony of the London Olympics which reached number 6. This is Kate’s 7th Top Ten single overall in the UK, or 8th if you also count her duet with Peter Gabriel, Don’t Give Up in 1986.
Irish IRMA Top 40 Chart: Kate has entered the Irish singles chart at number 10! This is her highest entry on the Irish chart since her placing at number 6 with The Sensual World in 1989.
Australia ARIA Singles Chart: Kate has today entered the official chart down under at NUMBER TWO! This is her best singles chart performance in Australia since Rocket Man also placed at number 2 in 1991 and it beats the number 6 placing that Running Up That Hill achieved first time round in Australia in 1985.
US Billboard Hot 100: On Monday we will find out exactly what Kate’s unprecedented performance on iTunes and Spotify in the US means for an official chart placing. This article in Billboard Magazine makes the case that Kate could very well be looking at her highest ever appearance on this famous American chart – her best to date was also with Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) which reached number 30 in November 1985. “….the song had experienced a particularly overwhelming spike in streams on Spotify, with the song rising by 9,900% in U.S. plays from Thursday to Monday (May 30). Indeed, despite pulling in daily streams in the 20,000s as recently as last Thursday, “Running Up That Hill” has since Sunday begun to net millions of U.S. streams on a daily basis, according to Luminate — while also selling thousands of copies daily — and currently sits at No. 1 on both Spotify’s US Daily chart and the iTunes realtime sales chart. It should all add up to the song debuting on a number of Billboard sales and streams charts next week (dated June 11) — and potentially re-entering the all-genre, multi-metric Billboard Hot 100, as well.” We will be keenly watching that official chart, and others worldwide, next week and will update you here.
Rest of World: Also today, Kate has entered the official German singles chart at 14, entered at 17 in Sweden, 3 in Lithuania and entered the Netherlands chart at 26. Now let’s try to capture some of those incredible online digital music stats…
Spotify: With over 82 million songs, Spotify is the biggest streaming music platform in the world. As of today, on the daily Spotify charts, Kate is Number 2 in the world (Global Daily Chart) and Number 1 in Ireland, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania and Saudi Arabia. Kate is Number 2 in Belgium, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland, United Emirates, Bulgaria, France and Luxembourg. Kate is Number 3 in Germany, Czech Republic and Austria and Number 4 In Kazakhstan and South Africa.
iTunes: The second biggest digital music platform is from Apple with over 70 million users. As of today, on the current iTunes Charts, Kate is Number 2 in the world (as with Spotify, “As it Was” by former One Direction member, Harry Styles, has been holding on to the top spot for weeks now). Kate is Number One on iTunes in Ireland, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and France. She is Number 3 in Germany and Number 4 in Belgium, Mexico and Switzerland.
Shazam: The stats from this amazing app are always interesting and it has had a huge impact on Kate’s success this week. Over 225 million users worldwide use this app that can identify music based on a short sample played and using the microphone on the device. So, imagine when Kate’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) plays on Stranger Things, people love the song but have no idea what it is? They simply use the Shazam app to tell them. Today, Friday June 3rd, Kate is the number 1 most searched song on Shazam in the world! She is also number 1 in Ireland, USA, UK, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Poland and Spain.
Youtube: Believe it or not, plays of a video on Youtube can be used to go towards calculating an official chart placing these days in many countries. Kate’s beautiful 1985 video for Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) has had a spectacular surge, over 5 million views in the last week or so. It is currently the number 1 video on Youtube in Ireland, UK, Malta and the Netherlands.
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According to The Hollywood Reporter, the fourth season of Stranger Things accumulated 286.79 million viewership hours worldwide during its first weekend in release. According to YouTube the official video for Running UpThat Hill has now had over 51 million views, with over 31 thousand comments.
That’s a lot of people being introduced to Kate’s music.
Serious welcome from all of here at KateBushNews and HomeGround, to all new Kate fans. You have a treat in store!
As I write this on Tuesday morning it has been a mere four days since the fourth season of the Netflix show Stranger Things landed but the impact of the inclusion of Kate’s song Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) as an integral part of the plot has had a phenomenal effect. Kate is currently number 3 in the world on iTunes, a new entry and climbing at number 13 on the global Spotify charts, and number 1 on both the UK and USA iTunes charts. It has outperformed other songs on the US iTunes store including Lizzo’s viral track “About Damn Time,” Harry Styles’ ubiquitous anthem “As It Was” and Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand,” which is from the soundtrack of the new hit film Top Gun: Maverick. Her albums Hounds of Love and The Whole Story (which feature the song) are also climbing the global download charts. We knew the show gets tens of millions of viewers, it’s one of the biggest shows on the planet, but these download/streaming numbers are unprecedented – Kate’s iconic 1985 single is an international smash hit all over again.
I have recorded a quick new episode of the Kate Bush Fan Podcast to discuss the song’s inclusion in the show and to put the song itself into context for all the new fans of Kate’s music the show has now created. More details on the podcast below. Kate (herself a fan of the show) has been trending on Twitter and Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok are some of the social media platforms now awash with tens of thousands of memes, posts and commentary all about Kate’s song and how in one momentous scene in the hit show it literally saves the life of the character Max, played by actress Sadie Sink. It is clear that a new generation of Kate Bush fans will emerge after this weekend, and we are so happy to have them.
The characters of Max and Lucas discuss Kate in Stranger Things
The song is heard several times throughout the season but the big climactic moment in Episode 4 (titled “Dear Billy”) is the one that has created the frenzy and focused so much attention on Kate’s song. Vulture’s Bethy Squires humorously proclaimed “Goth gatekeepers despair: Kate Bush is for normies now,” calling Kate an “iconoclastic English singer/avant garde dance weirdo/sampling pioneer.” It’s wonderful to even get a glimpse of the Hounds of Love cassette tape at one point. It is now confirmed that MORE Kate will be heard (with Kate’s enthusiastic approval) in the final, movie-length episode of this season which arrives on Netflix on July 1st (the season is in two parts). Erica Gonzales has written an excellent article in Elle Magazine entitled “The Unexpected Hero Of Stranger Things 4? Kate Bush.”
“At the start of this season 4, Max seems to be trying to manage her extremely complex feelings of emotional estrangement from her friends, meshed with the devastating loss of her brother Billy. ‘Running Up That Hill’ is very deeply connected to Max and ultimately serves as her emotional touchstone and source of strength,” Stranger Things’ music supervisor Nora Felder explains. “Her friends also quickly realize that this song could be the key to freeing her from this powerful monster…in the climactic scene, the track’s pounding percussion adds to the adrenaline rush while Bush’s commanding vocals give it emotional weight. The version of the track in the show also includes swelling strings to make the moment feel even bigger…a lot of brainstorming went on as this song [selection] really had to be something unique and special serving as such an integral part of the story,” Felder says. “When I was running through varied ideas to present, as is part of the process, I remember getting instantly excited. ‘Running Up That Hill’ popped in my head. It is such an inspiring and soulfully centered song which seemed like something Max could really identify with. The song also has a great musical build which was also a key element Matt and Ross [Duffer, the Stranger Things creators] wanted. I was really quite pleased that it resonated for the Duffer Brothers. We were all thrilled that Kate Bush was a fan of the show and allowed the use of the song.”
Stranger Things creators, Matt and Ross Duffer
Meanwhile, the series creators, The Duffer Brothers, have been interviewed on a Netflix blog and reveal that Kate herself has been involved in viewing the scenes during production and approving the way her music is used, something the brothers are exceptionally grateful to her for.
Max’s arc of loss, grief and numbness is incredibly moving this season. “Running Up That Hill” was such a symbolic theme song for her. Why did you pick that song? And why did you want music to be what saves people from Vecna’s trance?
Ross: Music wasn’t in the initial season outline, but we knew Max was going to get cursed, and we knew we needed some way for her to defeat this curse. We were looking, just medically, into people that have comas and all of this stuff, and I think that’s honestly what led to the music. Music has a power to reach people, even when they’re in these catatonic states. But then we’re like, “Well, whatever the song is, it’s got to be perfect.” And by perfect, I mean, it needed to be cinematic in a way, in the music of it, because we knew that scene where she’s running through what we call the mind layer [at the end of Episode 4], we knew it needed to have a cinematic scope and build to it. But at the same time, it needed to be emotional, and Kate Bush’s lyrics are just so emotional.
Matt: And haunting. [“Running Up That Hill”] felt like the tone of the season. We locked in on it. It’s weird, Ross and I were looking on Spotify, we had our music supervisor, Nora [Felder], looking — she doesn’t really have to; she knows all these songs. And I’ll never forget, she sent an email that was like, “I think it’s ‘Running Up That Hill,’ Kate Bush.” And that was our [mine and Ross’] top choice, completely separately. Then we started to freak out a little bit because we’re like…
Ross: “What if it doesn’t work?”
Matt: “It has to be Kate Bush. What if Kate Bush doesn’t want it?” Because it wasn’t just licensing it, getting it to play once. It was like, “No, we need it a lot.” But she’s been awesome, and we’re sending her the scenes so she’s able to see how the music is used in the show. We keep going back because we keep wanting to put more Kate Bush in there. There’s an epic Kate Bush moment in the finale [Episode 9] that we weren’t expecting, that we kind of discovered as we were editing.
Ross: We’re like, “What if we tried a little Kate Bush here?”
Matt: The sequence was really cool and we were happy with it, but it was missing a little something. And I was like, “Well, let’s try Kate. Because when has Kate let us down?” And it just took it to this new height. Then we had to go back to Kate Bush and just… [demonstrates praying] We sent her the scene and she was gracious enough to let us use her song one more time. She’s been amazing. It’s arguably the most epic Kate Bush moment. It comes back in a major way.
Shawn Levy, The director of episode 4: “Dear Billy” has responded warmly to the news of Kate’s chart success on Twitter:
Seán is on holiday (forgive the mic quality!) but I recorded a quick episode of the Kate Bush Fan Podcast to discuss the huge success of Running Up That Hill being featured on the phenomenally popular Stranger Things and to welcome the new fans discovering Kate’s music!
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.
