Running up that chart! Cult TV show sends Kate Bush song to No1 after record 37-year gap
SHE first released it in 1985, when it made the No 3 spot.
Now, after a 37-year climb, Kate Bush’s hit Running Up That Hill has finally topped the charts – breaking the record for the longest time taken for a single to reach No 1.
The song has had a global resurgence in popularity after it featured in the fourth series of the Netflix cult horror Stranger Things. The previous record for a so- called sleeper hit in the UK was held by Wham!, whose festive single Last Christmas topped the chart in 2021 – 36 years after its release.
Running Up That Hill is also in top spot in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland and No 4 in the US. It also made the charts in 2012 when it reached 12th place. Miss Bush has also secured the record for the longest gap between No 1 singles, as her only other charttopping moment was 44 years ago in 1978 with her debut single, Wuthering Heights. To round off a trio of records, the 63-year-old singer- songwriter has become the oldest female artist ever to score a UK No 1.
She replaces Cher, who was 52 when her song Believe topped the charts in 1998.
Running Up That Hill appears in Stranger Things when teenager Max Mayfield, played by Sadie Sink, is heard listening to the song on her Walkman.
Miss Bush said: ‘ I’m overwhelmed by the scale of affection and support the song is receiving, and it’s all happening really fast, as if it’s being driven along by a kind of elemental force. I have to admit I feel really moved by it all. Thank you so very much for making the song a No 1 in such an unexpected way.’