Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ hits No.1 in UK charts 37 years after release

Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ has officially reached No. 1 in the UK charts, 37 years after its release.

Originally featured on the English artist’s 1985 album ‘Hounds of Love,’ the single has seen widespread success following its appearance in the opening episode of the fourth season of hit Netflix series Stranger Things.

Over the last couple of weeks, the single has been steadily climbing the UK Charts, reaching No. 2, before officially hitting the top spot today. It marks Bush’s second-ever UK Number One single, 44 years after her debut single ‘Wuthering Heights’ topped the charts.

‘Running Up That Hill’ is currently the UK’s most-streamed song, averaging 700,000 plays per day on Spotify. Upon its original release in August 1985, ‘Running Up That Hill’ entered the UK Singles Chart at number nine, and eventually peaked at number three — her second-highest single peak. Doubling up as Bush’s first 12-inch single, it also became her most successful release of the 1980s.

As well as reaching the top of the charts in countries such as Norway and Austria, the single also hit number eight in the Billboard Top 100 Singles — the first time any song by Bush has appeared in a US Top 10. Bush also landed her first-ever Billboard Number One album, when ‘Hounds of Love’ claimed the top spot in Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums earlier this month.

In a recent statement, Bush said: “The track is being responded to in so many positive ways. I’ve never experienced anything quite like this before! I just want to say a really big thank you to everyone in the U.S. who has supported the song. It’s the first time I’ve had a top ten single over there and now it’s in the top 5! Thank you so much again to the Duffer Brothers — because of their latest, extraordinary series of Stranger Things, the track is being discovered by a whole new audience.”

All ten of Kate Bush’s studio albums have reached the UK Top 10, including number one albums ‘Never For Ever’ (1980), ‘Hounds of Love’ and the 1986 compilation ‘The Whole Story’.

Watch the original video for ‘Running Up That Hill’ below and revisit DJ Mag’s long-read on how ‘Hounds of Love’ influenced the evolution of electronic music.