Kate Bush is no longer running up that hill. She’s gotten to the top.
Bush, 61, can say that between June 2nd and June 9th, sales of her single, “Running Up That Hill” and the album it’s from, “Hounds of Love,” rose 62%. The records were released in 1985.
“Hill” has sold all in 765,000 copies in that time. “Hounds” barked up 165,000 according to MusicConnect/MRC.
All of this is because of use of “Hill” in Netflix’s huge hit, “Stranger Things.”
Bush wrote on her website: “You might’ve heard that the first part of the fantastic, gripping new series of Stranger Things has recently been released on Netflix. It features the song, ‘Running Up That Hill’ which is being given a whole new lease of life by the young fans who love the show—I love it too! Because of this, ‘Running Up That Hill’ is charting around the world and has entered the UK chart at No. 8. It’s all really exciting! Thanks very much to everyone who has supported the song.”
It’s an amazing feat. “Hill” remains at number 1 on iTunes singles chart, and “Hounds” is number 15. Neither the single nor the album made much of a dent in ’85. Because she didn’t like to fly, Bush remained a cult artist in the States, and did only slightly better in the UK. Her one appearance on “Saturday Night Live” was in 1978, and it was typically odd in the New Wave era of Lena Lovich, Nina Hagen and others. The music world then was all about Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, and Billy Joel. Bush was ahead of her time.
If she could get on a plane now, Bush would have US media at her feet. As it is, she could do Zoom appearances from England, and turn her old releases into even bigger phenomena.
PS Now that Kate’s finally had her day. I’m waiting for Alison Moyet to have hers. She was Adele before Adele was Adele.
