Kate Bush on ‘Stranger Things’-Fueled Resurgence: ‘It’s All Really Exciting’
Kate Bush acknowledged the Stranger Things-fueled resurgence of her 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill” in a rare statement posted on the singer’s website Sunday.
Without spoiling the fourth season of the Netflix series, the first single from Bush’s Hounds of Love album plays a key role in a pivotal scene involving one of the show’s characters. As a result, the track has gone viral, with streams of “Running Up That Hill” have multiplied by the thousands over the past week, and the nearly 40-year-old track suddenly finds itself back on the charts.
“You might’ve heard that the first part of the fantastic, gripping new series of Stranger Things has recently been released on Netflix,” Bush wrote in a statement on her official website. “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!”
She continued, “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.”
Prior to Stranger Things’ fourth season, Bush was already a fan of the series, according to Variety, who spoke to the show’s music supervisors and the song’s publishers about landing “Running Up That Hill” for the sequence involving the Max character.
“Kate Bush’s lyrics can mean very different things to different people,” music supervisor Nora Felder told Variety. “In the face of Max’s painful isolation and alienation from others, a ‘deal with god’ could heart-wrenchingly reflect Max’s implicit belief that only a miracle of unlikely understanding and show of support could help her climb the hills of life before her.”
“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,” Sony Music Publishing’s Wende Crowley said.
The first half of Stranger Things’ fourth season arrived Memorial Day weekend. “I wait with bated breath for the rest of the series in July,” Bush added.
