Kate Bush: 5 Things About The Singer Whose Song Hit #1 After ‘Stranger Things 4’ Premiere

Kate Bush may have gotten a brand new batch of younger fans! With the release of Stranger Things 4, Kate’s classic 80s song “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” is featured heavily in the first volume of the new season, and it definitely got stuck in a few people’s heads. The 1985 single climbed to the number one slot on the iTunes charts, likely due to so many fans either finding it for the first time or re-discovering the classic. While many new listeners may discover Kate, 63, through her song in Stranger Things 4, she has had a very long and prolific career in the music industry. Find out everything you need to know about her here!

1. Kate dropped her debut album in 1978

While “Running Up That Hill” didn’t come out until 1985, Kate started her career much earlier! When Kate was a teen, her family helped her produce a demo, which got into the hands of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, who helped her get a record deal. “He was really responsible for me getting my recording contract with EMI in the first place,” Kate said in the past, via Far Out Magazine. Kate made her debut in 1978 with The Kick Inside, which included the classic “Wuthering Heights,” and she quickly followed it up with Lionheart, later that same year.

Now over 40 years later, Kate has 10 albums under her belt, with her most recent being 2011’s 50 Words For Snow. Similar to her debut, her most recent two albums were both released in 2011, with her dropping Director’s Cut earlier in the year.

2. She has performed with fellow music legends

While Kate famously began her career with David Gilmour, she’s had plenty of other classic rock icons that she’s gotten a chance to play with. Her 1993 album The Red Shoes featured contributions from rock royalty like Prince, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton. Elton John also provided guest vocals for 2011’s “Snowed In At Wheeler Street.” Of course, David has also lent his guitar skills for her 1989 songs “Love and Anger” and “Rocket’s Tail.”

3. Her husband plays guitar for her

In 1992, Kate married Dan McIntosh, and it’s clear the two have a creative bond as well as a romantic one. Dan made his earliest contributions to Kate’s 1993 album The Red Shoes, and he’s played guitar on each of Kate’s albums since then. He was also a member of the 70s group Bandit.

4. ‘Running Up That Hill’ was on the Billboard Charts for 20 weeks in 1985

While “Running Up That Hill” has found a new audience and a resurgence in popularity due to Stranger Things, it was also a massive hit when it was first released. The song peaked at number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1985. It stayed on the charts from early September of that year, until the end of November. The song was also Kate’s highest charting track on the Hot 100 charts.

5. She took a 35-year hiatus from touring

While it’s commonplace for artists to hit the road after each album release, Kate has notoriously avoided live performances for much of her career. After her first two albums came out in 1978, she embarked on a series of dates throughout Europe called “The Tour of Life” in 1979. After that, she stopped touring for a very long time, aside from occasional one-off appearances. She returned to the stage once more in 2014 for a residency at London’s Hammersmith Apollo, called “Before The Dawn.” She opened up about what it was like to get back out there in a 2016 interview with The Independent. “I was very nervous about going onstage and performing. But the response was just beyond anything I could have wished for, every night, the audiences were so excited and so responsive,” she said.

Other than being “nervous” for her comeback performance, Kate also explained that she had planned to tour more, but became much more involved in the visual aspects of a record. “The plan at the time was that I was going to do another two albums’ worth of fresh material, and then do another show. But of course, by the time I got to the end of what was The Dreaming album, it had gone off on a slight tilt, because I’d become so much more involved in the recording process,” she told The Independent. “So I started to veer away from the thing of being a live performing artist, to one of being a recording artist with attached visuals.”