US EditionKate Bush tops the charts with Running Up That Hill – 37 years after it was released
The 63-year-old singer’s single has finally reached the pop summit following its star turn in hit Netflix series Stranger Things
Craig Simpson is Arts Correspondent for The Telegraph covering the major issues affecting British arts and culture, both at home and around the world. He has broken stories on reparations and the contested return of cultural treasures from the Caribbean to Khartoum.
Craig Simpson is Arts Correspondent for The Telegraph covering the major issues affecting British arts and culture, both at home and around the world. He has broken stories on reparations and the contested return of cultural treasures from the Caribbean to Khartoum.
Kate Bush’s singleRunning Up That Hill has reached number one 37 years after it was first released, breaking a string of records.
The 1985 song has won renewed popularity after featuring prominently in Netflix hit seriesStranger Things, and recent sales have pushed it to the top of the UK charts after almost four decades.
This gap givesBush the unusual honour of the longest time taken for a single to reach number one, but also makes the 63-year-old singer the oldest female artist to reach the top the singles chart.
Bush has also set a new record for the longest period between two number ones, with a gap of 44 years now standing between her 1978 hitWuthering Heights and the current chart-topper Running Up That Hill.
Martin Talbot, chief executive of Official Charts Company, said: “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.”
Records broken
In becoming the oldest female singer to reach number one in the UK, Bush has broken the record held by Cher, who was 52 when she had a hit with Believe in 1998.
Bush’s decades-long gap between hits surpasses the record set bySir Tom Jones’ 42-year divide between Green Green Grass of Home (1966) and charity single (Barry) Islands in the Stream (2009).
Running Up That Hill was featured in Stranger Things, a series set in the Eighties, for a scene in which one of the characters is seen escaping to the sounds of the Bush track.
