20 January 1978, London: 19-year-old Kate Bush releases her debut single “Wuthering Heights” on EMI Records. By early March 1978 - #1 UK Singles Chart (four consecutive weeks). It is the first UK single written and performed by a female author to reach #1 in the national chart. Before Kate Bush, every British female #1 single had been either a cover or written by a male composer. Single sales - 1 million UK copies (platinum), 3 million worldwide. At 19 Bush became the youngest female songwriter with a UK #1; the record stood until 2005, when broken by Kate Nash. Kate Bush grew into one of the most original and influential British artists of the 20th century, but this first single, which she wrote aged 18 in a single night, remains her calling card.
Who Kate Bush was before 1978
Catherine Bunny Bush was born on 30 July 1958 in Bexley (Kent, England). Her family was Irish-English: father Robert Bush, a GP; mother Hannah Daly, an Irish folk dancer. Older brothers - Paddy (multi-instrumentalist) and John (poet). Kate played piano from age 11, teaching herself from scores of Chopin, Debussy, Satie.
In 1973, when Kate was 14, her family's friend (a musician and singer) Ricky Hopper handed her home-demo tapes to David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. Gilmour was impressed and paid for a professional studio session for 3 tracks at AIR Studios. Through Gilmour, Bush signed to EMI in 1976 - aged 17.
EMI, however, were in no hurry to release anything. Bush had to “ripen” - her biography records two years of development: mime classes with Lindsay Kemp (the same teacher Bowie had), songwriting classes, recording of numerous demos. By January 1977 she had 200+ songs, from which she chose 10 for the debut album.
A detail: Bush wrote “Wuthering Heights” in June 1977 - in one night, without sleeping. She had watched a BBC adaptation of Emily Brontë's novel (the 1967 one with Ian McKellen as Heathcliff), couldn't fall asleep, sat at the piano at 10 PM and finished the song by 6 AM.
How EMI didn't want “Wuthering Heights”
When Bush played the finished “Wuthering Heights” recording to EMI in September 1977, marketing categorically refused to release it as the first single. Arguments: “too strange”, “too high a vocal” (Bush sings in the upper register, almost falsetto), “literary theme - not for pop radio”, “teenagers haven't read "Wuthering Heights"”.
EMI's original plan - release “James and the Cold Gun” as the debut. Bush refused. She met EMI chief Bob Mercer and insisted that “Wuthering Heights” be first. Mercer gave in - in his own words, “out of the stubbornness of a 19-year-old girl I, a 45-year-old man, lost the marketing argument”.
Twenty years later Mercer told Q Magazine: “I was ready to bury her career with a safe pick. She insisted on the right pick. It was the best listener-check the industry had seen in 30 years.”
Tracking at AIR Studios
“Wuthering Heights” was tracked August 1977 at AIR Studios (Oxford Circus, London). Producer - Andrew Powell, engineer - Jon Kelly. Single budget - £6,500.
- Steinway Model D - main grand piano (Bush played it herself)
- Fender Rhodes 88 - electric piano on the bridge
- ARP Odyssey - light synth background
- Fender Stratocaster - guitar (Ian Bairnson)
- Music Man StingRay bass - bass (David Paton)
- Ludwig drum kit - drums (Stuart Elliott)
- Bass clarinet - clarinet (Adam Skeaping)
- String section - 18 players, conducted by David Katz
- Studer A80 24-track
Bush tracked her own vocals over a single day. Her signature “high flageolet” on the word “Heathcliff!” in the chorus hits E5 - higher than most commercial pop vocalists of the period. Bush later admitted that “by the 20th take I could no longer feel my voice”, but that upper register became the song's calling card.
The video - the first female pop video with a dance
Two videos were shot for “Wuthering Heights”:
- “Red Dress” version - shot first in October 1977, a 3-minute dance performance by Bush in a red dress on blue background. Choreography - Liz Finnegan, a mime-style ritual dance. This version aired on German and Dutch TV
- “White Dress” version - shot November 1977, Bush in a white dress on the Yorkshire moors. This version went to British and American TV
Before Bush, pop-video women either stood with a microphone or enacted a domestic scene. Bush was the first female pop singer to perform a full dance in a video - arms raised, turns, jumps. It was a shock for the BBC editorial board: clips were being reviewed before airing to “filter out overly dramatic scenes”.
Numbers
- UK: #1 UK Singles Chart, 4 weeks (March 1978); platinum
- Ireland: #1, 3 weeks
- Australia: #1, 2 weeks
- New Zealand: #1, 1 week
- Netherlands: #3
- Germany: #16
- Italy: #9
- US: the single was not released in the US market (EMI America judged Americans wouldn't get the literary reference)
- Album The Kick Inside: 3M UK copies, 8M worldwide
Spotify 2024 - over 280 million streams. In 2022 the original recording lived a renaissance after Stranger Things 4 used a different Kate Bush track - “Running Up That Hill”. But overall Bush interest surged, pushing “Wuthering Heights” streams up 320%.
Cultural significance
Bush with “Wuthering Heights” opened a new audience for the artistic pop singer: literary lyrics, theatrical-dance videos, upper-register vocal. That influenced Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, Björk, Fiona Apple, Lorde, Florence Welch (Florence + the Machine) - everyone who built an image on eclectic authorial concept rather than the standard pop format.
“I didn't know I was doing anything revolutionary. I was writing about a book I'd loved since I was 12. I wasn't thinking about marketing, about radio format, about female roles in pop. I was just writing a song. But it turned out that sincerity and stubbornness alone could reshape an industry”, - Kate Bush in NME, 1980.
Career after 1978
Kate Bush released 10 studio albums between 1978 and 2011. After The Kick Inside came Lionheart (1978), Never for Ever (1980, the first platinum record with the Fairlight CMI), The Dreaming (1982), Hounds of Love (1985, #1 UK, with “Running Up That Hill” and “Cloudbusting”), The Sensual World (1989).
Since 2011 Bush has mostly not performed and rarely gives interviews. She lives in Reading (Berkshire), married, one son. In 2022, after the Stranger Things renaissance, Kate Bush gave her first radio interview in 12 years - BBC Radio 4. She was 64.
Related: “Running Up That Hill” Kate Bush, Fairlight CMI, “Video Killed the Radio Star” Buggles. “Wuthering Heights” is a loner track in its own category: 1978, a literary theme, a high vocal, a dance video, UK #1. In other circumstances it could have stayed a niche experiment. The stubbornness of 19-year-old Bush made it a breakthrough that opened new possibilities for authorial women in British pop.