Kate Bush

according to my last.fm, the first time i heard "running up that hill" was 13 july 2010 at 1202pm and i listened to it at least 7 more times in the next 24 hours and about 30 times in the following week. if i heard the song before that, i don't remember.

but yeah: as soon as i started paying attention to it, it was an immediate hit.

There was a remix I got from ILM maybe a decade ago that I kept on my iTunes, and it really made me hear the song with fresh ears.

In the past couple days on social media I've seen one record store offer an original picture sleeve 45 of RUTH for $50, and another shop announce they'd just gotten in a US first press Hounds of Love on vinyl which can be yours for $75.

if i only could, i'd make a deal with todd and i'd get him to slash those prices

lollll a+

running up that bill

I hope #StrangerThings keeps going to be based in 1994 @Portisheadinfo pic.twitter.com/LueqgAnYVn

— 🏴‍☠️ Geoff Barrow 🏴‍☠️ (@jetfury) August 2, 2022

Okay, "classic pop"-type radio stations are working this into their playlists as if this was really played on US mainstream radio in 1985. It was played on college radio and some album rock stations.

Which is bullshit everywhere except Hollywood's mind.

It peaked at 30 but people weren't bopping to it with Cyndi Lauper and Huey Lewis.

Although the track’s streaming numbers have recently declined – down 12.5% in official U.S. streams since last week, according to Luminate – copious radio airplay has more than compensated for the dip, making “Running Up That Hill” an even bigger hit than it was during the peak of Stranger Things hype in May and June. For the Aug. 6 charts, the track held at No. 3 for a second week on the Hot 100, and climbed from No. 10 to No. 7 on Billboard‘s Radio Songs listing, an increase of 17%, to 48.4 million impressions. The crossover to massive radio success is a rarity for recent viral catalog hits – from Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” on TikTok in 2020 to Nirvana’s “Something in the Way” from The Batman earlier this year to Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” in the same Stranger Things season last month, none of which have made it to Radio Songs this decade – making “Running Up That Hill” a sort of unicorn.

“Somehow we’ve been able to traverse that Stranger Things moment,” Chester says. “It’s transcended and bridged to passive audiences.” Adds Michael Martin, Audacy’s senior vp of programming, as well as program director for pop station Alice@97.3 in San Francisco, which has played the track 1,100 times — more than any other station, according to Luminate — “This is a rarity. This happens few and far between.”

Also:

Between the latest season debut of Stranger Things on May 27 and the end of June, Bush earned an estimated $2.3 million in streaming royalties, Luminate, an independent company that provides data for Billboard’s charts, told Fortune, and Quartz originally reported.

A spokesperson for Luminate said the company calculated the $2.3 million figure by using a standard formula to convert streams into projected revenue.

“We can’t speak to who actually earns the money, as that involves taking a deeper dive into individual contracts/publishing/master ownership, and we don’t track that with our data,” the spokesperson said.

But in a rarity for the music industry, Bush owns the entire copyright to original recordings of her songs—including “Running Up That Hill”—through her independent record label Noble & Brite, Quartz reported. As a result, Music Business Worldwide, a global music industry news site, estimates the singer retains the majority, possibly up to 80%, of royalties generated from her biggest hits. Many major artists do not own their original recordings, giving their labels the rights to distribution and therefore giving up a significant cut of any royalties.

https://fortune.com/2022/07/07/kate-bush-running-up-that-hill-stranger-things/

It still amuses me every time I hear this on the radio sandwiched between Doja Cat and Jack Harlow.

I heard it on the radio last Monday after "Levitating."

“Somehow we’ve been able to traverse that Stranger Things moment,” Chester says. “It’s transcended and bridged to passive audiences.” Adds Michael Martin, Audacy’s senior vp of programming, as well as program director for pop station Alice@97.3 in San Francisco, which has played the track 1,100 times — more than any other station, according to Luminate — “This is a rarity. This happens few and far between.”

hahahaha

But in a rarity for the music industry, Bush owns the entire copyright to original recordings of her songs—including “Running Up That Hill”—through her independent record label Noble & Brite

this keeps getting better and better

I'm going to remember this and Alex Jones as the interregnum high point

Seems like someone adding "Hounds of Love" or "Cloudbusting" to a playlist would do something with this momentum.

Okay, "classic pop"-type radio stations are working this into their playlists as if this was really played on US mainstream radio in 1985. It was played on college radio and some album rock stations.

KROQ here in LA always being the odd exception. ROTH was in semi-heavy rotation - enough to get into the station's top songs of 1985 (in between "A View To A Kill" and Arcadia's "Election Day").

yeah alternative (or rather, 'modern rock') stations of the period clearly the outliers. I'm frankly rather surprised it ever got as high on regular charts in 1986 in the US as it appeared to; I can assure you I never heard it once on the radio here until sometime in 1987 when I lived in the bay area and had a modern rock station to listen to. even then I didn't hear it very regularly.

My kids have always been fans of "Stranger Things," and I remember the first season getting them to play "Should I Stay Or Should I Go," and the second season "Every Breath You Take." But of course neither of those songs took off (again) in the mainstream, I suspect because Tik Tok wasn't quite a thing yet (right?). Tik Tok appeared around 2017, the same year as the second season of "Stranger Things." (As my kids noted, there was no big breakout song moment of Season 3.) Curious what others songs will benefit from this new way of consuming/discovering music going forward. Saw someone post this well-edited fan movie giving a taste of things to come:

The Future of Marvel

Song: Running Up That Hill
*Headphones On*
pic.twitter.com/vLVSojwkXY

— Aaron (@ShangChiTheGOAT) August 5, 2022

that was fan made, certainly?

oh duh as noted I should like actually read

I'm frankly rather surprised it ever got as high on regular charts in 1986 in the US as it appeared to; I can assure you I never heard it once on the radio here until sometime in 1987 when I lived in the bay area and had a modern rock station to listen to. even then I didn't hear it very regularly.

The crazy story I have is that I first heard "Big Sky" when the video was in semi-heavy rotation on MTV. There was somewhat of a promo push behind The Whole Story comp - I think the video for "Experiment IV" was on the first episode of 120 Minutes.

i hear the song pretty much every time i put the radio on now. once after the adult contemporary station played it the on-air guy said that he hates the song, hated it back in the 80s, and doesn't like any of kate bush's music, but "we know you all like it so we're playing it anyway". rude! but i appreciate the honesty regardless since it's abundantly clear that most ppl who work for radio now couldn't give less of a shit about any of the music they play

haha wow I can't believe there are still DJs on normal radio TBH. I haven't listened to anything but NPR in several years.

yeah and with inferior banter like that, they should be phased out by award season i would hope.

I still listen to terrestrial radio and the patter's as lame as ever.

This is a vision. (It's not a GOOD vision.)

Obsessed with this. Absolutely deranged.

A complete massacre of the original. Each note more wild and unpredictable than the next. Ending with a cocky kiss, like she just fucking killed it.

100% perfect. No notes. https://t.co/9oFbYPbCPV

— Bradley Stern (@MuuMuse) September 14, 2022

It wasn’t THAT bad, pretty much standard MPB interpretation isn’t it?

Also “no notes” is apparently the newest completely meaningless catchphrase now?

as I have said before, all Kate Bush covers are terrible and should be illegal

the cycle will not be complete until it's on ukulele and it's selling a motor vehicle

If I only could
Get a deal from Dodge
And get them to swap a trade-in

Honestly would like to hear her do all of Hounds of Love now.

"I hid my Yooooooooo-yooooooooo"

Still wild to hear this on the Top 40 station between Doja Cat, Lil Nas X and Harry Styles.

i'd make a deal with gyaaaayyyyaaaayyyyyaaaad

It wasn’t THAT bad

au contraire, mon frere

initially read that as "i'd make a deal with gay dad"

x-post

xpost

xp

Do you really think EVERY note was off? I don’t listen to much if any MPB these days but what I’m hearing is a pastiche of what would be considered R&B and C&W tropes in the cultural context of the USA.

there is nothing, I mean nothing, of MPB (which is also... a pretty meaningless term btw) in her cover.

A while back we were talking about acts that sound like Kate Bush, a friend of mine put me on to Li Garattoni’s ‘Find Out What I'm Dreaming’ LP from 1982 on the weekend, and some of the record fits the bill such as ‘Find Out What I'm Dreaming’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZQXpqJvZK0

Re: Kate Bush covers, there are a few, very few. Some friends did an ambient noise cover utilizing elements from RUTH back in 2006– they were all computer music majors— and it remains excellent. Will upload if anyone wants.

can't even think of too many well known covers; Pat Benetar's Wuthering Hights (bad), maxwell's This Woman's Work (good but unnecessary) and that's about it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So2SGCMztf8

has anyone else seen the all-woman KB tribute act Baby Bushka? i went into it expecting some theater-kid preciousness and..that’s part of it to an extent but the costumes and choreography and performances are all terrific and done totally lovingly and sincerely. i actually teared up at a few points during their set.

The Futureheads cover of Hounds was how I discovered her. I posted here that discovering KB was like finding out that you'd been living next to a skyscraper without noticing. Bimble replied "please tell me that you have or are planning to buy The Dreaming" which was lovely, like having an older sibling with cool taste to nag you.

I missed baby bushka in the bay area earlier this year; I'd assumed they were from the UK but they're from San Diego! youtube clips of them are excellent

Night of a Thousand Kates is just whew for me, what an incredible events

This one is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2QPkvvrRSQ

Kate the amapiano way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1yWe4FPwTM
Mhaw Keys • I Pray

Gorgeous track, thanks for sharing.