Kate Bush lands first ever Billboard Number One album thanks to Stranger Things feature

Kate Bush has landed her first ever Billboard Number One album with 1985’s ‘Hounds of Love’, following its appearance in the fourth season of Stranger Things. 

The album’s original lead single, ‘Running Up That Hill’, features in the opening episode of the new series, and quickly reached Number Eight in the Billboard Top 100 Singles chart as a result. It’s the first time any song by Bush has appeared in a US Top 10. The iconic track has also re-entered the UK Top 10. 

Now the full LP has claimed Number One in Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums, Number Four in Top Rock Albums, and Number 28 in the All Genre charts, bagging 17,000 equivalent album units in the week to 2nd June — a surge of more than 2000% compared with demand before the show’s arrival. 

‘Hounds of Love’ made the Billboard Top 40 when it was originally released in the US. In the UK — where it is certified double-platinum — it became Bush’s second Number One album, earning her three Brit Awards nominations: Best British Album, Best British Female, and Best British Single (‘Running Up That Hill’). 1.1million copies of the LP had been sold worldwide by 1998, making it the artist’s best-selling LP to date. 

Earlier this week, Bush made a rare public statement on her website, explaining how Stranger Things had given her iconic track a new lease of life. The series – which marries high school coming of age antics with a dark, supernatural plot — is renowned for its 1980s stylisation, and has introduced new generations to seminal synth music by names including Jean-Michelle Jarre, John Carpenter, Giorgio Moroder, and Vangelis, who sadly passed away last month. 

“When they approached us to use ‘Running Up That Hill’, you could tell that a lot of care had gone into how it was used in the context of the story and I really liked the fact that the song was a positive totem for the character, Max. I’m really impressed by this latest series,” Bush said of her work appearing in the new Stranger Things episodes, after explaining she had watched all previous seasons with her family. 

Revisit DJ Mag’s feature on how ‘Hounds of Love’ influenced the evolution of electronic music.