A 1978 debut single sung as a ghost at the window, taken from a Brontë novel (1978)
"Wuthering Heights" — number one in the UK for four weeks, knocking ABBA off the top.
Popular music · Pop
Kate Bush
born 1958 · English
Art pop — literary, theatrical English songwriting
Kate Bush arrived fully formed at nineteen with a song about a Brontë heroine sung in a startling upper register, and became the first woman to reach number one in the UK singles chart with a song she had written herself. She produced her own records from 1980, used the Fairlight sampler early, built albums around song-cycles and dance, and then retreated from public life for long stretches. A Netflix series returned one of her songs to number one in 2022, thirty-seven years after its release.
How to spot them
- ▸The soprano swoops and character voices; dance and mime built into the performance; literary sources
- ▸Self-produced from Never for Ever onwards; an early adopter of the Fairlight CMI sampler and the headset radio mic
- ▸Backed early on by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, who funded her demos
- ▸Almost never tours: one tour in 1979, one residency in 2014
Songs & albums
A 1985 single about a couple swapping places, revived in 2022 by a Netflix series (1985)
"Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)", used in Stranger Things.
A 1985 album whose second side is a song-cycle about a woman adrift in the sea at night (1985)
Hounds of Love, whose second side is "The Ninth Wave".
A 1986 duet with the former Genesis singer about a man who has lost his job (1986)
"Don't Give Up", with Peter Gabriel.
A 1988 song written for a John Hughes film, sung from the corridor of a difficult childbirth (1988)
"This Woman's Work", written for She's Having a Baby.
A 1979 tour, her only one, mixing dance, mime and an early head-mounted radio microphone (1979)
The Tour of Life.
A residency of twenty-two nights at Hammersmith in 2014, her first live shows in thirty-five years (2014)
Before the Dawn.
A 2011 album of seven long songs, all on the subject of winter weather (2011)
50 Words for Snow.
Quick-fire facts
- •Born Catherine Bush on 30 July 1958 in Bexleyheath, Kent
- •David Gilmour of Pink Floyd paid for her demo recordings and helped secure her EMI contract
- •At nineteen she became the first woman to top the UK singles chart with a self-written song, in 1978
- •Never for Ever (1980) was the first UK number-one album by a British female solo artist
- •In June 2022 "Running Up That Hill" reached number one in the UK, 37 years after release, making her the oldest woman to top the chart at 63, and giving her the longest gap between number ones — 44 years
- •She was appointed CBE in 2013
- •She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023 by Big Boi of OutKast, but did not attend the ceremony
- •Her 1982 album The Dreaming was the first she produced entirely alone
- •She sang backing vocals on Peter Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers" in 1980
Drill it — 7 cards
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Sources
- Official Charts Company — Kate Bush — full Official Chart history
- Rolling Stone — St. Vincent, Big Boi Induct Kate Bush Into Rock Hall of Fame
- Official Charts Company — Running Up That Hill — full Official Chart history