Yea, her every single song is different - thats why she is so unique. And it was popular because of the book, Wuthering Heights from Emily Bronte. Billie Eilish is uncomparable to her - because Billie Eilish is that same (boring) sht over and over. Maybe because it's composed by people who compose stuff for a bunch of other artists. And unlike her, Kate Bush not only wrote it but composed it herself. And she produced it.
100% agree. It was popular because it wasn’t run of the mill like some of the absolute rubbish in today’s charts! Admittedly overly manufactured, production line songs aren’t a new thing (thanks stock aitken and waterman) but todays music is just converging into the same sound - I can barely distinguish between songs on the radio now. Wuthering Heights was different then, it still is different now and that’s why it’s a masterpiece.
I'm a Brit, and I was in my early 20s when this song came out and went straight to the top of the charts. She's playing a ghost from a famous Victorian novel, a young woman haunting her lover after a passionate, doomed affair. Hence the very high register in which she sings, the exaggerated facial expressions. Its meant to be creepy and mesmerising. This was a massive hit, was number 1 in the charts. Britain has a long tradition of gifted, eccentric geniuses, so the public is quite flexible when it comes to musicians. So you get songs like Bohemian Rhapsody, I am the Walrus, and Wuthering Heights. Not in the normal pop categories, yet widely embraced. Kate Bush is viewed with huge respect, no newspapers or media outlets tried to draw her into any celebrity gossip etc. And radio and tv in the UK this week has been celebrating her return to the charts with a record she made over 30 years ago.
I first time I really paid attention to Kate Bush was like 5 years ago and has a theater kid in the 90s. I feel like she was the 1st or only remi-fair girl in pop music. Sure some may say Stevie Nicks, but she was more witchy and didn’t have the nerdy level of Kate Bush.
It's sad that people don't read a book for a change and would discover the amazing story of Wuthering Heights but also how extraordinary it was for a young woman, Emily Brontë to be able to write this novel, as amazing as Kate Bush who started as a teenage musical genius with something that was absolutely not mainstream.
@@pieternieuwenhuijs3417 Kate even said that the fact that Emily Bronte was able to do what she did inspired her a as a woman artist and next thing you know her song of the same name as Emily’s breakout was also Kate’s breakout. If you wrote that as a movie people wouldn’t believe it. Kate Bush is so popular because she happened to the world. We are all so lucky to have lived in a time to experience her artistic existence.
You don't get this anymore because creativity is snatched at the cradle and repackaged into something corporate, plastic and conforming to the current thing which itself is defined by soulless corporatocratic ghouls to be consumed by their zombie hoards.
Well, she's portraying the protagonist of Wuthering Heights (a classic novel by Emily Brontë). In the story -SPOILER ALERT- Cathy dies and "hunts" Heathcliff, she's kinda like a ghost to him, that's why she's dancing like that haha.
@@pasemospagina8 The characters are horrible. Hearhcliffe should be in jail for abuse and the entitlement from Kathy is unbelievable. I read ar 15 and then at 33 for my degree. I think i disliked it more as i got older and realising how awful and selfish pretty much all the characters were. I have at least want to know how a story ends for me to enjoy it. I didn't care about them at all. But we all like different things, thank goodness we are lucky there is such a variety for us.
@@wereleopard58yepihavetwo2 hahaha, that's the reason why I love it so much! I also read it when I was 14/15 for the first time (and thought it was a romance, omg) but then I re-read it two more times and was so impressed by how I cared for the characters, even though they all are unlikeable. I think it takes a superb writer to be able to do that. But of course we are lucky to like different things! 💛 (Excuse me for my English, I'm from Argentina).
Kate’s actually the youngest and the oldest female artist in history to have an entirely self-written song chart at number one in the UK. The woman is an absolute genius. As a singer, songwriter, dancer, producer, musician and creative genius she’s unrivalled by any other female artist in history. Her music and her style isn’t for everybody because it’s so unique (and this & RUTH are still fairly tame for Kate 😂) but she’s respected by everybody. She’s influenced pretty much every creative female artist after her from Lady Gaga to Tori Amos to Bjork to Florence Welch. She was also the first artist ever to use a wireless mic during a live performance during her tour in 1978. Madonna & Peter Gabriel following shortly after 🙌🏻 Babooshka is fun but I’d try something more emotional next, either This Woman’s Work or Moments of Pleasure which are both beautiful. 👍🏻
I used to sing in bands and I'd get a lot of requests to learn some Kate Bush because, I don't know why, maybe I sound like her to them. To me I do not, but I could probably work it out and still do okay, but I don't like this song at all. To me sometimes her voice is strange (I like her lower register and I'm save I think Bayonne and her son's like nearly three same person in the lower register sometimes) but I do understand why she was so popular with the art kids of the day that knew stuff about music and loved it. I feel like she is a musicians musician. Like the ones you mentioned. I lived for Tori Amos (saw her live was awesome👍) and I saw lady Gaga recently as well. That was also fantastic. Even Lana does that little operatic thing with her voice that is actually quite interesting at times. I didn't know all of this what you just said. Maybe I should have just learned some darn Kate Bush songs. Just not this one, okay... Lol! Thanks for the good information there.
@@kf10126 yeah that’s understandable, this song is pretty weird haha. But it’s meant to be, she’s singing as a ghost 👻 Yeah I agree, she’s a musician’s musician for sure, she’s such a unique and complex artist. Like I said above, not everybody likes her or her music but everybody respects her. 🙌🏻
@@crazycatpetera1404 Just to correct you: She is respected by a lot of people , but NOT everyone. Because that would imply the whole world likes Kate Bush, there are a few people who dislike her music , but you get that with every type of music, band and singer!! music is subjective. I think Kate Bush is amazing singer. I wish she would release a new album
@@michaelhawkins7389 No it doesn’t. Respect and personal taste aren’t the same thing. You can respect someone’s insane talent without enjoying it personally.
she wrote this song when she was very young (still a teenager), and those of us who liked this song back in the day (I still love it) were weird. it's bizarre to hear you compare her to current artists. I think one of her brothers helped film the video. so it's about Wuthering Heights, which is a pretty well-known story. LOL
4101 well I 'm from this time, when she came out, it was like a bombshell, nothing like her before and after. I doubt, that another person can sing like her. Then she is beautiful, shy, humble, singer songwriter, performer, dancer, arranged her songs in her own studio. Its really important to watch a biography of her ( here on yt are some good ones) to understand. We in europe knew about emily brontes book and understand the lyrics.
@@verenamenzel8958 it was like she was from an entirely different, magical world. I have SO much respect for her and always did. she's definitely a musical genius.
She recorded this in one take. She insisted, against the wishes of her record company, that it be her very first single. They gave in, thinking it would flop and she'd learn to listen to them. It went to #1 for FOUR WEEKS -- the first self-written song by a female to do so in the UK. The reason it became so popular is that it is so weird ... not only is she a child ghost back from the dead to possess her childhood love, Heathcliff ... but the song refuses to give up its Home Key for an astounding 23 measures, leaving you lost on the moors yourself until she sings the word "home." It's genius. And she was only 18 when she wrote it.
I think the reason why I liked this song was because of the book mainly. A lot of people who adored the book thought this captured the mood of wuthering heights so perfectly. It's eerie, dark, twisted, beautiful and just so hauntingly perfect. Cathy's come home, Heathcliff. Chapter 16 fucks you up so bad 😫😭
For really fun Kate Bush, try Babooshka! :D I have always been so in love with her "crazy" eyes. Also, Pat Benatar's version was the first one I heard, and it is beautiful and more like a rock song, but this original version is magical.
I found Kate Bush through Pat Benatar and never looked back I love Pat Benatar for her kickass Rock Energy and adore Kate Bush for her singular artistic expressions
Those crazy eyes have always hypnotized me. There is a band from Japan called Band Maid that has a singer named Saiki that can get those same crazy eyes. Their song Black Hole she channels Kate Bush ( in her facial expressions and wild eyes).
This was the debut single from her debut album. The record execs wanted to use a different, more “standard” track as the single. But Kate, a 19 year old with her first recording, stood her ground and INSISTED they release Wuthering Heights as the single. She was immediately proved right by the track hitting #1. She’s an amazing talent, not only as a songwriter and singer, but arranger, producer, dancer, choreographer and more. She later produced her own albums and wrote and directed all her music videos. It isn’t possible to understate her talent or her impact on the music industry. Babooshka is a lot of fun as well, but you should also check out something like Moments of Pleasure and Rocket’s Tail to begin to get a sense of the range and variety of her work.
Kate is signing essentially as the character Cathy from Wuthering Heights. It’s deliberate. The deranged, desperate and passionate pleas of the character.
That song dethroned ABBA's "Take a Chance on Me" from the top spot in the UK Singles Chart and peaked there for 4 weeks. As a die hard ABBA fan, I can only have respect for her. Such an eccentric but very talented artist! She’s now being discovered by today’s generation and she deserves every bit of it.
Thank you for reminding me, what song that was. Spares me looking it up. I'd only remembered, that it was an ABBA song, and that #1 lasted for 4 week in early 1978 (just after christmas business)...
I think this song hits more when you have read the book Wuthering Heights. The song is based on the part where the ghost of Cathy rattles the windows of Heathcliffe's bedroom at night to be let in.
When you read "Wuthering Heights" you'll truly understand just how hauntingly beautiful this song is. It gives me chills every time. Great reaction and video.
For some context, Kate Bush was around 19/20 when she recorded and released this song. Running Up That Hill was 7 years later when she was 26/27. Her voice not only matured but I can imagine her artistic sensibilities when it came to singing also changed. We're all quite different from when we were 18 to 25 lol. She had talked about how before her first record was released she considered her voice to be very "plain" (you can hear this on the track "Man With A Child In His Eyes") and so in her first two albums she did a lot of experimentation when it came to her voice. Not just singing the songs but playing around with her vocals. Also, I think people did find this weird in the late 70s, but I guess that's what the charm of it was, haha. And to be fair it didn't do very well outside of Europe.
She dos’nt try to sound like any type of singer. She just sounds like any particular character in the song she is doing. Her art comes first. It’s Kate Bush. A musical genius. In the UK and around Europe you still hear this on the radio. Seems like America is starting to discover/open up to her thanks to exposure on Stranger Things although I know she has a very passionate fan base in America but not so well known in the mainstream there. Enjoyed your review.
It was popular because it was so inherently different from anything else that was played on the radio at that time. This was a time where disco tunes were super hot. Suddenly there is this new artist completely out of the blue who is so strange sounding, so unique and so unapologetically herself. She came on the scene and already seemed so completely formed which is extremely rare. The fact that she was only 19 years old with material this deep... all the elements were there, it's like the perfect storm that is Kate Bush
She's Cathy, from "Wuthering Heights" she was in love with a boy who she accidentally discouraged away when she spoke to a matronly servant, saying, he's poor, how could she marry a poor boy, but she had decided that she would be with Heathcliff( I might be wrong with the guy's name.) But this is Cathy of Withering Heights, who is a ghost, and is asking to be let inside~ ok, you looked it up, so I'll stop now.. lol! YeH, I'm old, and watch your show, lol
I do remeber the fist time I heard this and I switched it off after the first sentence. A few days later I heard the full song, half way through I had goosebumps and tears running down my face and not really knowing why as I couldn't really hear what she was singing about, music had never done that before. At the weekend I convinced my parents to buy me a record player and that was the first record I played on it. I'm now 60 and her songs still give me goosebumps and tears still flow. She got in my head and never left. If you do a search on youtube there is also "The most wuthering day ever" where people all around the world dressup as Kate Bush and perform Wuthering heights in the parks.
Kate Bush is back on the mainstream charts thanks to zoomers discovering her and this song could be next! I think this was a bigger hit with theater geeks and literary nerds. But people love weird! React to some Tori Amos. And Laura Nyro.
growing up in the US i wasn't aware of Kate Bush in 1978. thank God for my literary nerd friends who forced me to listen to this and then LOVE it! to me it was a slow burn of a song, i was startled by the opening vocals but by the end i was intrigued and had to hear it again. what a talented artist who always amazes me.
Your smile at the end says it all, you could definitely become a fan! Her voice is so versatile, she uses it as an instrument. This is my favorite song of all time. I wasn't alive back then so I can't know exactly why this song got popular, but I can imagine it's the uniqueness, nothing like this had ever been made before and it's just such a haunting song and video, and the fact that it's based on one of the most famous classic English novels probably helped of course. Her record label wanted her to release another song first, but she insisted it would be this one, and she became the first female artist in the UK to have a #1 song that was self-written! And now this week she finally got her second #1! I'm so happy for her!
Kate was always interested in dance of all sorts, and practiced with David Bowie's instructor. She wrote this song when she was very young, and her label was kind of terrified she was adamant about releasing it as her first single -- they wanted it to be "James and the Cold Gun" -- which is also fabulous. If you listen to her debut album called "The Kick Inside" I totally recommend it. You don't come across many young singer songwriters who write that beautifully much anymore, it's such a beautiful piece of work (as is her entire career and discography basically. she can do so much with her voice.) BTW -- she was a pioneer with music videos too. Which is why this one seems kinda crazy and a head scratcher. I think folks back then were just trying to figure it out and if you add Kate's love of dance with a song about a ghost, well -- you get this. 😅
We love Kate in the UK. She is so iconic and unique. I was just at the right age to totally appreciate this song when it came out. Everyone of a certain age knows it. Absolutely adored the video too! Hypnotic and so different at the time. Listen to "The Man With The Child in His Eyes". A truly beautiful song.
Tristan being so clueless about Wuthering Heights is very cute :) it is a novel by Emily Brontë and it is actually about a really toxic relationship between Heathcliff and Kathy (both mentioned in the song) who try to control each other beyond the grave. So Kathy really isn't a nice ghost. And Heathcliff is very cruel and tries to ruin the life of Kathy's daughter. There was also a movie adaptation that used Kate Bush's song as the soundtrack. So if you are curious about the story, you could pick up the book or watch the movie :)
This song is based on 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte which is a classic novel. She is singing it from the point of view of the main female protagonist, Cathy, who has died and is haunting her lost love, Heathcliffe. It was so different to the other music that was around in 1978 that we all were blown away (it was of course no. 1 in the UK charts). She was writing music from a very early age (you must listen to 'the man with the child in his eyes') and she was signed up in her teens and did some dance, mime and stuff until she was old enough to bring out her records; she always brought her perfomring arts to her videos. Some of her songs have great stories (try 'Cloudbusting' or 'Experiment IV') too.
03:33 Do watch the BBC documentary (available on UA-cam)! It gives a lot of insight and perspective on why she's such a legend and became so popular in the mainstream.
Heard that wail squeaking out of a tinny transistor radio when I was 14 years old, back in 1977. I fell in love with her that moment, and I have never fallen out of love. She is a unique storyteller; she sings as a male in some songs, as a female in others. She attacks topics that no one else ever would, and she is utterly brilliant. WH is also my favourite book, entirely by coincidence. Probably
I'm loving the Kate Bush Renaissance - I've been a huge fan of her music for years. If you really want to see her go crazy in terms of vocals, I recommend the track "Violin" from the great Never for Ever album, or maybe "Get Out Of My House", which is from what is by far her most experimental (and, in my opinion, best - tied with Houds of Love) Album, "The Dreaming."
I'm 28 and live in Ireland, and this has been one of my favourite songs since I heard it about 10 years ago. Her music is mostly weird as fuck and everybody just respected/respects her doing her thing because it's strange and beautiful. Reading a background about her songs definitely helps, cos there's a story, characters, points of reference etc.
I was at the end of my primary school education when this came out and it was a strange experience, this wild-eyed wailing woman in red ballet gear suddenly appeared on Top of the Pops (weekly mainstream music chart show) and the record went to No. 1 where it stayed, like forever. As I got a little older and Kate released more records, she really grew on me and by the time I was well into my teens, I was a big fan. Wuthering Heights is a very familiar book in Britain, so maybe the song was more accessible because of that. The name Heathcliff is well and truly in the vocabulary. You could spend many weeks exploring Kate's music as no two songs are the same. Moreover, voice review alone is just one layer - she was a real pioneer with the Fairlight CMI and went on to produce all her own albums. If you think Wuthering Heights is weird, then you need to listen to Get out of My House, where she, amongst other things, makes donkey noises at one point. ua-cam.com/video/Lm2eYTjkqLk/v-deo.html
when I first discovered your channel about year ago I searched through your videos to find if you reacted to Kate. But it's happening now, so glad you found her! Kate Bush is one of the most important artists and influenced so many people like Tori Amos, Bjork, Florence and even BigBoi from Outkast.
Yes I was a young Londoner at the time she arrived on the scene. She was a total original and the most creative, unique and talented artist of her generation. Her first deal was with EMI Records when she was 15!!! after Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd (no less) introduced her and recorded 3 tracks with her...check out The Man with the Child In His Eyes which was the track that got her the deal. Dave Gilmour (a creative genius and player obviously)! Now you know!
I was around when this first came out. I loved it because it was so eccentric but beautiful at the same time. She was an original in a sea of sameness! And David Gilmour from Pink Floyd knew a good thing when he saw & heard it… he “discovered” her when she was still a young teen, and set her on her recording path…
You need to do "Cloudbusting"! Or "This Woman's Work", which you will have undoubtedly already heard before, probably from Maxwell, but it was her song originally. It's such an emotional and affecting song, it's truly beautiful! Both songs were featured in Handmaid's Tale and they made the scenes they were in so compelling and emotional! She's such a unique artist!
I am so glad you cant understand a mainstream audience liking this! Thats what makes it so special and magical and what drew me into her mad enchanted world in the first place. Her movements are so graceful and unique. Watch her documentary 'Running up that Hill' if you want to know more about her and alot of unusual out there musicians are so influenced by her🎶💚🙏
Fun fact about Kate Bush, she was so committed to her dancing that her sound engineer fashioned a makeshift headset microphone from a radio mic and a wire coat hanger. We would not have had many major pop influences without Kate Bush.
Edit: made this comment at the beginning ! Loved Kate way before running up that hill regaining popularity do to stranger things. I believe this is supposed to sound like a spirit out for revenge. Like the book by Emily Bronte wuthering heights . She was also 15 or 16 when she wrote this if I'm not mistaken.
he complimented her voice several times over in this video. he just also said that her voice is very strange, which in "wuthering heights," it is! it's very strange on purpose!! he never said her voice wasn't stunning, just weird
For context, she wrote this when she was 17 after watching a television adaptation of the classic Emily Bronte novel Wuthering Heights. The lyrics of the song and the novel itself are quite dark. Kate Bush is taking on the role of Kathy, Heathcliff is the male who she is after. It's very theatrical. It was very popular in England because most people on England are not only familiar with Wuthering Heights, but look at it with the love that an American views a story like Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn.
She's an amazing unique artist (and dancer), she has never been "mainstream" - I love "This Woman's Work|,it is one of the most beautiful emoting songs.
Back in the Fay it was so different to everything else so wild literary crazy and theatrical we all fell in love with Kate and withering Heights instantly!!!💕
loved this. this song always reminds me of my literature teacher at uni. we read Wuthering Heights in one of his classes, which I love dearly, and he showed us this song. I‘ve been in love with it ever since. I visited Haworth with a friend a couple of years ago-it‘s the place that apparently inspired Emily Brontë to write her novel. while wandering through that moor we sang this song NON-STOP, people probably thought we needed help 😂😂😂
It's basically because it was based on the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. It was just so different and out there during the 1980s and she just came across as being so cool bringing together a classical doomed love story into the pop world.. She made me feel like I belonged because as a teen and I was a bit freaky and different 💖 in fact little and teenage girls everywhere used to sing the song and do the dance about Heathcliff and Cathy 😂🤩😍 I think you have to be British to get it and have been born and brought up in that era even a British Bangladeshi girl like myself 💖
I wasn’t alive in the 70’s or 80’s but I just found out about Kate bush from stranger things, I know, don’t come for me, but she’s a really unique and outstanding vocalist. She’s got a great vocal range and I think she didn’t want to release withering heights at first cuz she thought it was too weird and no one would like it, but turns out she did and people love her. So yeah she’s pretty cool
Actually, she insisted to have "Wuthering Heights" as the first single. It's said, that she went really mad, when her record label tried to convince her to take a different song. Following a big drama with the manager, EMI backed down and went with "Wuthering Heights". After all, Kate was right, who would have thought! ;-) BTW: Even 7 years later, there was a struggle about "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)". They wanted a different single, IIRC "Cloudbusting" (not quite sure), but even more controversely, they didn't like "God" in the title for commercial reasons. In the end, it was the correct song with an unwanted title for Kate...
If anyone comes for you because you discovered Kate via Stranger Things just ignore them. 99% of us old timer Kate fans are THRILLED that new people are discovering and listening to Kate. If someone thinks it's not at "pure" or some such silliness because the discovery was from a TV show, just roll your eyes because that what I do. My husband discovered Kate in 1979, because of a TV show. I discovered Kate in 1980, because of a TV show. We met in 1982 and I can't even tell you how delighted we both are by this newfound exposure. Keep on listening, she's a treasure trove of great music. Happy future discoveries.
@@xenussister Totally agree. I remember, how some "gatekeepers" handled newly acquired fans of Aerial in 2005. How silly that is! But I think, they are a little minority. Most people (and I am with them) are really thrilled for what's happening at the moment. I believe, some of them used it to rewatch/listen to the whole back calalogue and remember, how exciting it is, just like I do!
My 7 year old LOVES kate bush (we are from the uk and my mum loves her) Babooshka was my daughter’s favourite song when she was 3 and insisted on standing infront of her class at school to sing it 😂 would love to see your reaction x
I was alive back then mate, I was only 8, but I heard this and fell in love with it immediately. A beautiful, beautiful unique song, way, way out of time or culture (remember this was the height of punk & curiously enough, disco). Absolutely the most evocative memory of early '78. I remember it well, I was there.
I've been listening to Kate Bush since middle school and I am just SO GLAD she's being rediscovered by a younger generation. She's so incredibly talented. EDIT: Also, "Babooshka" is another classic, but I think songs like "Jig of Life" and "The Dreaming" would also be interesting studies.
Jig of Life! Yes! Genius storyteller is Kate. This song from the perspective of a drowning woman speaking to her future self in her mind, urging her to live. The Ninth Wave suite, Hounds of Love side B.
Kate Bush is my FAVORITE artist of all time, ever. I found her via Wuthering Heights, and I realize it can be a bit bizarre at first, but her music is so worth a listen to. I play her albums back to back to back. I love watching her live performances from the 70s, her show was such a performance. Outrageous dances and faces. Then you see her in an interview and she's this sweet, soft spoken person. She is... gosh, I could talk about her for hours. lol
I was around back in the early days of MTV and distinctly remember this video. I think this fit with the very experimental, not so polished nature of videos back then. For me, and I imagine many people, Kate Bush's music was intensely personal for me. Other singers had great voices and were great performers, but Kate Bush touched my heart in a way few did.
In the 1970s I think the charts in the UK were very open to all kinds of music. The charts were full of punk, pop, rock, prog, disco, funk, ballads.. even jazz vocal groups like Manhattan Transfer... this song was weird back for everyone then but I think that's what people were drawn to... I love the 2/4 bar thrown in there, the non diatonic chord progression... (A to F to E... etc) not to mention the orchestration... a real pioneer.
Challenge accepted - I'm old enough I was young in the late 70s it was just after punk and the period in music until about the mid 80s was really experimental terms of what a lot of artists were doing but also what was entering the mainstream enough to chart. Joy Division had a number one, bands like The Specials and Madness doing neo ska music had number ones. Wuthering Heights was number 1 - the first song to top the charts written and performed by a female artist in the UK. The mention of punk is especially ironic in that Bush was discovered and sort of sponsored by Dave Gilmore of Pink Floyd. The lyrics: Out on the wild and windy moor We roll and fall in green You had a temper like my jealously Too hot, too greedy How could you leave me When I needed to Possess you? I hated you I loved you too Bad dreams in the night They told me I was going to lose the fight Leave behind... My Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights Chrous: Heathcliff, it's me It's Cathy I've come home So cold Let me in at your window Oooh it gets cold It gets lonely On the other side from you I pine a lot I find a lot Falls through without you I'm coming back now Cruel Heathcliff My one dream My only ...master Too long I've roamed in the night Coming back to his side to put it right Coming back to Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights Repeat chrous Ooh let me have it Let me grab at your soul Ooh let me have it Let me grab at your soul You know it's me Cathy Repeat chrous
I was maybe 7 when this came out. We had a TV (no radio), and the only music we had was once a week at 7.30pm. I remember being utterly blown away when Kate came on and sang this. I prayed it would be number 1 in the charts so i could see it again next week on TOTP, and it inspired me to read Wuthering Heights. You can technically evaluate her vocals all you want - and you might be correct in your technical criticism, but so what? I will forever remain deeply touched by a piece of wonderful art. Her songs are incredible. Younger generations might find her a bit odd, but listen and it gets into your soul.
This came out at the time when traditional rock ‘n’ roll was transitioning into punk. There was nothing like it anywhere on the radio. “Babooshka” is good but I would recommend “Man with the Child in His Eyes”, “This Woman’s Work” (recently covered by Maxwell) or “Hounds of Love”.
It's popular because it's a great Tiktok version of the greatest book ever written in the English language, Wuthering Heights. A beyond brilliant family love story. Here Kate is the ghost of Catherine, 'Cathy', who scares Lockwood by banging on the window. And she rubs her wrists on the broken glass in true gothic horror.
In case no one has said so in the comments (I can't read 'em all!), Kate's vocal in this song is a performance of character. Cathy in Wuthering Heights is a ghost who torments Heathcliff. They had a tumultuous relationship--what today would be called "toxic"--and it's taken to the extreme in Wuthering Heights, as Heathcliff eventually dies in the end to be buried with Cathy. Not a good relationship role model! So Kate isn't meant to sound "pretty" here so much as to come across like a banshee or something similar, a ghost who is freaking out Heathcliff and telling him that she hates him and loves him and wants "to grab your soul away." She succeeds in the endeavor. As you can hear in Running Up That Hill, This Woman's Work, Breathing and other songs, Kate has a comfortable lower register that is resonant and can be called "pretty," but she is a performance-art expressionist who uses extremes from the world of mime in her facial expressions and body language, along with dance and vocal performance to convey stories and characters. She's a prime example of the expression "don't rest on pretty."
Kate Bush is weird. She’s weird, gorgeous, Uber talented, the best female singer/songwriter bar none. You should listen to her home demos which she sang (at home) when she was in her mid teens, they’re brilliant. Her jumping back and forth with her voice is one of the most gorgeous things about her. I’ve been a big fan since 1978.
She has this charming, captivating voice and presence. Her tone has purity and a pierceing quality. She is raw and authentic, very expressive and heartfelt. I love this lady! Wait till people discover "Cloudbusting", "This Woman's Work", "Dont Give Up", "Sunset" and one of the greatest songs ever "Nocturn". Its game over for other female singers. This is the year of the Bush!
Please don't do that. You can (deservedly) praise Kate to the heavens without having to say "It's game over for other female singers" because there's room for everybody. I've been a Kate fan for 42 years, met my husband of 40 years because we were both fans, and have even traveled to England from America to see her in person (twice at Fan conventions where she appeared, and once for a live show in 2014). Kate is my favorite artist of all time, and yet there are so many other female artists I love, (chief among them Happy Rhodes). I don't compare any other artists I love to Kate and I suppose I feel bad when others do. It's not their fault they're not Kate. There's only one Kate, she headlines, always, but others can be invited to the party. I don't mean to be telling you what to do or how to feel, though I suppose it's coming off that way. Sorry.
@@xenussister it was light hearted comment, my point was to highlight the quality of her past work and how highly she is regarded as an artist in the traditional sense of writing and producing her work and how she deserves to be at the top in the pop arena where she is amongst other forgettable manufactured female acts. She also has stood the test of time. I want 2022 to be her year.
I am ashamed that you don't know this song. 😂😂 I grew up listening and singing to this and when I was younger and still even now, this is one of my favourite songs to sing to and practice my high notes with. I have and always will love this song and her voice and all the emotion she's able to convey with it. I can easily see why this was popular back in the day.
Kate is singing in character. The dance is part mime and she's telling a story. The moves she makes whirling her arm around represents the wind and storms blowing across the moors. If you've never read the book, just read the lyrics. Kate managed to encapsulate an entire book plot into a 3 minute song. Check out Experiment IV. Or Cloudbusting!
Kate is such an intriguing enigma! Look up some old interviews and compare her singing voice persona with her speaking voice persona. Kate is such a complex person that I'm not at all sure what is real and what might be deception! Did I say deception? Maybe should have said illusion?
The outro in the original cut (you get a much shortened version of it here) is so beautiful and uplifting and wistful at the same time. Whenever music can conjure up these complex emotions, you really have to appreciate it and be grateful for it.
‘This woman’s work’ would be a good one to listen to and analyse. I think you can hear more of a range within her voice with it and it’s a really beautiful but sad song
she's in her falsetto the whole time bc she's intentionally trying to sound like a spirit, in honor of the character she's playing in the song (cathy from wuthering heights)
Yep, was a teen then! Wuthering Heights (also the novel by Emily Bronté) was more of a girl thing, we imitated her ethereal shrill voice and witchy expression dance moves, loved it! At that time a friend, a Velvet Underground and The Nuns fan, said about Kate Bush: "The singing parthenogenesis" ;-)
Their vocal styles are so different, but with the Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic, and interpretive dance, references to ghosts and literature, I would see Florence Welch as filling in the niche these days that Kate did back in the day.
She’s just unique. Nobody was doing anything like this in 1978. Female singer songwriters weren’t so prevalent and she enabled many others to follow. She’s just a genius and I love and respect her work as do many others across the world. Bear in mind also, in 1978 pop videos were still young and she was playing the part of a ghost.
I first heard Wuthering Heights around 15 years ago when I read the book, and at first I was completely unprepared. I was like "wtf is this?" And then it really grew on me and I sang along a lot. "so co-ho-hold let me in your window-ho-ho."
I grew up in the 80s. Never heard it but I do love running up that hill. Btw have you reacted to Yebba??? If not, you must. Tiny desk concert or electric lady live sessions. An absolutely insane voice.
I’m 18 and Irish and I grew up listening to this on the radio and when parties are coming to an end this is always a must play, surprised you don’t know it. I’m pretty sure Kate Bush was like 16 writing this song and was just looking to write songs she could dance to, that’s why you always see her dancing to her songs because she was first a dancer I’m pretty sure and of course this song is based of the book “Wuthering Heights”, where the lyrics are based on the plot.
Kate Bush is THE goat. She is so artistic and free. Every song sounds so different because she really treats each performance like a new artistic piece. Love her so much
Kate recorded the vocals for this song again in 1986 (8 years after the original release, right after recording Running up that hill) and it's very very different. Look it up.
4:36 I didn’t know queen cat was a singer!! 🤩
😏😄😂
Try at least to be funny next time.
@@victorcoutinho156 you’re so sad bro i can see your other comments under this video from a month ago. get a hobby or get banned
omg i LITERALLY clicked on the 4:36 link AT 4:36 😛
Yea, her every single song is different - thats why she is so unique.
And it was popular because of the book, Wuthering Heights from Emily Bronte.
Billie Eilish is uncomparable to her - because Billie Eilish is that same (boring) sht over and over.
Maybe because it's composed by people who compose stuff for a bunch of other artists.
And unlike her, Kate Bush not only wrote it but composed it herself. And she produced it.
“Why was this popular?” Because it was and is a masterpiece.
Because we all sang the chorus at the top of our lungs and tried to dance like her. It was great fun.
Cuz it was the 70's music was still not manufactured. Its catchy af. It's based on Wutherings Highs so the themes are known by most.😊
Has Tristan looked into the Story of wuthering Heights. He should watch a movie.
100% agree. It was popular because it wasn’t run of the mill like some of the absolute rubbish in today’s charts! Admittedly overly manufactured, production line songs aren’t a new thing (thanks stock aitken and waterman) but todays music is just converging into the same sound - I can barely distinguish between songs on the radio now. Wuthering Heights was different then, it still is different now and that’s why it’s a masterpiece.
Emphasis on IS absolute genius at 19
I'm a Brit, and I was in my early 20s when this song came out and went straight to the top of the charts. She's playing a ghost from a famous Victorian novel, a young woman haunting her lover after a passionate, doomed affair. Hence the very high register in which she sings, the exaggerated facial expressions. Its meant to be creepy and mesmerising. This was a massive hit, was number 1 in the charts.
Britain has a long tradition of gifted, eccentric geniuses, so the public is quite flexible when it comes to musicians. So you get songs like Bohemian Rhapsody, I am the Walrus, and Wuthering Heights. Not in the normal pop categories, yet widely embraced.
Kate Bush is viewed with huge respect, no newspapers or media outlets tried to draw her into any celebrity gossip etc. And radio and tv in the UK this week has been celebrating her return to the charts with a record she made over 30 years ago.
I first time I really paid attention to Kate Bush was like 5 years ago and has a theater kid in the 90s. I feel like she was the 1st or only remi-fair girl in pop music. Sure some may say Stevie Nicks, but she was more witchy and didn’t have the nerdy level of Kate Bush.
It's sad that people don't read a book for a change and would discover the amazing story of Wuthering Heights but also how extraordinary it was for a young woman, Emily Brontë to be able to write this novel, as amazing as Kate Bush who started as a teenage musical genius with something that was absolutely not mainstream.
@@pieternieuwenhuijs3417 Kate even said that the fact that Emily Bronte was able to do what she did inspired her a as a woman artist and next thing you know her song of the same name as Emily’s breakout was also Kate’s breakout. If you wrote that as a movie people wouldn’t believe it. Kate Bush is so popular because she happened to the world. We are all so lucky to have lived in a time to experience her artistic existence.
Thank God for British music
You don't get this anymore because creativity is snatched at the cradle and repackaged into something corporate, plastic and conforming to the current thing which itself is defined by soulless corporatocratic ghouls to be consumed by their zombie hoards.
Well, she's portraying the protagonist of Wuthering Heights (a classic novel by Emily Brontë). In the story -SPOILER ALERT- Cathy dies and "hunts" Heathcliff, she's kinda like a ghost to him, that's why she's dancing like that haha.
Hahaha ok you googled it 💜
Love the song, hate the book.
@@wereleopard58yepihavetwo2 ohh :( I love both
@@pasemospagina8 The characters are horrible. Hearhcliffe should be in jail for abuse and the entitlement from Kathy is unbelievable. I read ar 15 and then at 33 for my degree. I think i disliked it more as i got older and realising how awful and selfish pretty much all the characters were.
I have at least want to know how a story ends for me to enjoy it. I didn't care about them at all.
But we all like different things, thank goodness we are lucky there is such a variety for us.
@@wereleopard58yepihavetwo2 hahaha, that's the reason why I love it so much! I also read it when I was 14/15 for the first time (and thought it was a romance, omg) but then I re-read it two more times and was so impressed by how I cared for the characters, even though they all are unlikeable. I think it takes a superb writer to be able to do that.
But of course we are lucky to like different things! 💛
(Excuse me for my English, I'm from Argentina).
She was just the ultimate manic Pixie dream girl singing about the literal plot of the novel Wuthering Heights.
Kate’s actually the youngest and the oldest female artist in history to have an entirely self-written song chart at number one in the UK. The woman is an absolute genius. As a singer, songwriter, dancer, producer, musician and creative genius she’s unrivalled by any other female artist in history. Her music and her style isn’t for everybody because it’s so unique (and this & RUTH are still fairly tame for Kate 😂) but she’s respected by everybody. She’s influenced pretty much every creative female artist after her from Lady Gaga to Tori Amos to Bjork to Florence Welch. She was also the first artist ever to use a wireless mic during a live performance during her tour in 1978. Madonna & Peter Gabriel following shortly after 🙌🏻 Babooshka is fun but I’d try something more emotional next, either This Woman’s Work or Moments of Pleasure which are both beautiful. 👍🏻
I used to sing in bands and I'd get a lot of requests to learn some Kate Bush because, I don't know why, maybe I sound like her to them. To me I do not, but I could probably work it out and still do okay, but I don't like this song at all. To me sometimes her voice is strange (I like her lower register and I'm save I think Bayonne and her son's like nearly three same person in the lower register sometimes) but I do understand why she was so popular with the art kids of the day that knew stuff about music and loved it. I feel like she is a musicians musician. Like the ones you mentioned. I lived for Tori Amos (saw her live was awesome👍) and I saw lady Gaga recently as well. That was also fantastic. Even Lana does that little operatic thing with her voice that is actually quite interesting at times. I didn't know all of this what you just said. Maybe I should have just learned some darn Kate Bush songs. Just not this one, okay... Lol! Thanks for the good information there.
@@kf10126 yeah that’s understandable, this song is pretty weird haha. But it’s meant to be, she’s singing as a ghost 👻 Yeah I agree, she’s a musician’s musician for sure, she’s such a unique and complex artist. Like I said above, not everybody likes her or her music but everybody respects her. 🙌🏻
@@crazycatpetera1404 Just to correct you: She is respected by a lot of people , but NOT everyone. Because that would imply the whole world likes Kate Bush, there are a few people who dislike her music , but you get that with every type of music, band and singer!! music is subjective.
I think Kate Bush is amazing singer. I wish she would release a new album
@@kf10126 Kate Bush was famous before Tori Amos and was singing long before Tori Amos
@@michaelhawkins7389 No it doesn’t. Respect and personal taste aren’t the same thing. You can respect someone’s insane talent without enjoying it personally.
she wrote this song when she was very young (still a teenager), and those of us who liked this song back in the day (I still love it) were weird. it's bizarre to hear you compare her to current artists. I think one of her brothers helped film the video.
so it's about Wuthering Heights, which is a pretty well-known story. LOL
@1984 is now. oh, you've totally got it! she's always been ahead of her time.
@@DianeH2038 And time is only just finally catching up with her. She had to slow her output down to one record every ten years to give time a chance.
4101 well I 'm from this time, when she came out, it was like a bombshell, nothing like her before and after. I doubt, that another person can sing like her. Then she is beautiful, shy, humble, singer songwriter, performer, dancer, arranged her songs in her own studio. Its really important to watch a biography of her ( here on yt are some good ones) to understand. We in europe knew about emily brontes book and understand the lyrics.
@@verenamenzel8958 it was like she was from an entirely different, magical world. I have SO much respect for her and always did. she's definitely a musical genius.
I love this song tbh. 😅 I don't think it's weird. I think it's no different from Ariana Grandes high pitched notes that everyone rants and raves about
She recorded this in one take. She insisted, against the wishes of her record company, that it be her very first single. They gave in, thinking it would flop and she'd learn to listen to them. It went to #1 for FOUR WEEKS -- the first self-written song by a female to do so in the UK. The reason it became so popular is that it is so weird ... not only is she a child ghost back from the dead to possess her childhood love, Heathcliff ... but the song refuses to give up its Home Key for an astounding 23 measures, leaving you lost on the moors yourself until she sings the word "home." It's genius. And she was only 18 when she wrote it.
This should be a top comment, brilliant observation!
I think the reason why I liked this song was because of the book mainly. A lot of people who adored the book thought this captured the mood of wuthering heights so perfectly. It's eerie, dark, twisted, beautiful and just so hauntingly perfect. Cathy's come home, Heathcliff. Chapter 16 fucks you up so bad 😫😭
Yes!!
Same! I LOVE songs that reference classic literature, so I like this song.
Do you think this guy has any idea it was based on a novel ? Save yourself the pain.
@@victorcoutinho156 He may know, what a novel is, reduced pain!
I agree
For really fun Kate Bush, try Babooshka! :D I have always been so in love with her "crazy" eyes. Also, Pat Benatar's version was the first one I heard, and it is beautiful and more like a rock song, but this original version is magical.
I like Pat Benatar’s version a lot, too.
I heard Pat Benatar's cover first. It was on her album in 1980 (??). Years later I saw KB on MTV and thought she stole it from PB!
I found Kate Bush through Pat Benatar and never looked back I love Pat Benatar for her kickass Rock Energy and adore Kate Bush for her singular artistic expressions
I heard Pat’s version first too I love it as well
Those crazy eyes have always hypnotized me. There is a band from Japan called Band Maid that has a singer named Saiki that can get those same crazy eyes. Their song Black Hole she channels Kate Bush ( in her facial expressions and wild eyes).
This was the debut single from her debut album. The record execs wanted to use a different, more “standard” track as the single. But Kate, a 19 year old with her first recording, stood her ground and INSISTED they release Wuthering Heights as the single. She was immediately proved right by the track hitting #1. She’s an amazing talent, not only as a songwriter and singer, but arranger, producer, dancer, choreographer and more. She later produced her own albums and wrote and directed all her music videos. It isn’t possible to understate her talent or her impact on the music industry.
Babooshka is a lot of fun as well, but you should also check out something like Moments of Pleasure and Rocket’s Tail to begin to get a sense of the range and variety of her work.
Did Kate have any 'standard' tracks?? 😂😂
Kate was never mainstream….you either knew who she was or you didn’t get her. I love her.
Well, she started with a #1 song.
@@RhettAnderson I think I know, what Eddie means. Whenever Kate was #1, mainstream wasn't mainstream but distorted... Just like today!
Yes she was lol. She was huge in UK
Kate is signing essentially as the character Cathy from Wuthering Heights. It’s deliberate. The deranged, desperate and passionate pleas of the character.
That song dethroned ABBA's "Take a Chance on Me" from the top spot in the UK Singles Chart and peaked there for 4 weeks. As a die hard ABBA fan, I can only have respect for her. Such an eccentric but very talented artist! She’s now being discovered by today’s generation and she deserves every bit of it.
Thank you for reminding me, what song that was. Spares me looking it up. I'd only remembered, that it was an ABBA song, and that #1 lasted for 4 week in early 1978 (just after christmas business)...
I think this song hits more when you have read the book Wuthering Heights. The song is based on the part where the ghost of Cathy rattles the windows of Heathcliffe's bedroom at night to be let in.
kate bush is talented. It's fun getting to know her.
Listen to babushka
Oh to be in love and army dreamer is my favorite songs of her
When you read "Wuthering Heights" you'll truly understand just how hauntingly beautiful this song is. It gives me chills every time. Great reaction and video.
For some context, Kate Bush was around 19/20 when she recorded and released this song. Running Up That Hill was 7 years later when she was 26/27. Her voice not only matured but I can imagine her artistic sensibilities when it came to singing also changed. We're all quite different from when we were 18 to 25 lol. She had talked about how before her first record was released she considered her voice to be very "plain" (you can hear this on the track "Man With A Child In His Eyes") and so in her first two albums she did a lot of experimentation when it came to her voice. Not just singing the songs but playing around with her vocals.
Also, I think people did find this weird in the late 70s, but I guess that's what the charm of it was, haha. And to be fair it didn't do very well outside of Europe.
Didn't it do quite well in Japan?
It did well in Australia and New Zealand, but we are part of the Commomwealth and got a lot of our entertainment from the UK.
@@rainerzufall42 I couldn't find chart info for the song for Japan, though I know they gave her decent promo there, at least.
@@AngelaWells This is true!
She dos’nt try to sound like any type of singer. She just sounds like any particular character in the song she is doing. Her art comes first. It’s Kate Bush. A musical genius. In the UK and around Europe you still hear this on the radio. Seems like America is starting to discover/open up to her thanks to exposure on Stranger Things although I know she has a very passionate fan base in America but not so well known in the mainstream there. Enjoyed your review.
It was popular because it was so inherently different from anything else that was played on the radio at that time. This was a time where disco tunes were super hot. Suddenly there is this new artist completely out of the blue who is so strange sounding, so unique and so unapologetically herself. She came on the scene and already seemed so completely formed which is extremely rare. The fact that she was only 19 years old with material this deep... all the elements were there, it's like the perfect storm that is Kate Bush
She's Cathy, from "Wuthering Heights" she was in love with a boy who she accidentally discouraged away when she spoke to a matronly servant, saying, he's poor, how could she marry a poor boy, but she had decided that she would be with Heathcliff( I might be wrong with the guy's name.) But this is Cathy of Withering Heights, who is a ghost, and is asking to be let inside~ ok, you looked it up, so I'll stop now.. lol!
YeH, I'm old, and watch your show, lol
I do remeber the fist time I heard this and I switched it off after the first sentence. A few days later I heard the full song, half way through I had goosebumps and tears running down my face and not really knowing why as I couldn't really hear what she was singing about, music had never done that before.
At the weekend I convinced my parents to buy me a record player and that was the first record I played on it.
I'm now 60 and her songs still give me goosebumps and tears still flow. She got in my head and never left.
If you do a search on youtube there is also "The most wuthering day ever" where people all around the world dressup as Kate Bush and perform Wuthering heights in the parks.
"Why is there no one like this today?"
That says it all. Thanks for the video. Great job.
Kate Bush is back on the mainstream charts thanks to zoomers discovering her and this song could be next!
I think this was a bigger hit with theater geeks and literary nerds. But people love weird!
React to some Tori Amos. And Laura Nyro.
No 1. in the U.K. and Ireland. with well over 1/2 a million sales. that's a lot of literary nerds and theatre goers. :-)
growing up in the US i wasn't aware of Kate Bush in 1978. thank God for my literary nerd friends who forced me to listen to this and then LOVE it! to me it was a slow burn of a song, i was startled by the opening vocals but by the end i was intrigued and had to hear it again. what a talented artist who always amazes me.
She’s telling a story of a crazy woman. Her songs always have a context and she’s always playing a character.
Ghost. Not a crazy woman. There's a bit of a difference.
@@crabbieappletoncrazy ghost maybe
Your smile at the end says it all, you could definitely become a fan! Her voice is so versatile, she uses it as an instrument. This is my favorite song of all time. I wasn't alive back then so I can't know exactly why this song got popular, but I can imagine it's the uniqueness, nothing like this had ever been made before and it's just such a haunting song and video, and the fact that it's based on one of the most famous classic English novels probably helped of course. Her record label wanted her to release another song first, but she insisted it would be this one, and she became the first female artist in the UK to have a #1 song that was self-written! And now this week she finally got her second #1! I'm so happy for her!
Kate was always interested in dance of all sorts, and practiced with David Bowie's instructor. She wrote this song when she was very young, and her label was kind of terrified she was adamant about releasing it as her first single -- they wanted it to be "James and the Cold Gun" -- which is also fabulous. If you listen to her debut album called "The Kick Inside" I totally recommend it. You don't come across many young singer songwriters who write that beautifully much anymore, it's such a beautiful piece of work (as is her entire career and discography basically. she can do so much with her voice.)
BTW -- she was a pioneer with music videos too. Which is why this one seems kinda crazy and a head scratcher. I think folks back then were just trying to figure it out and if you add Kate's love of dance with a song about a ghost, well -- you get this. 😅
We love Kate in the UK. She is so iconic and unique. I was just at the right age to totally appreciate this song when it came out. Everyone of a certain age knows it.
Absolutely adored the video too! Hypnotic and so different at the time. Listen to "The Man With The Child in His Eyes". A truly beautiful song.
Tristan being so clueless about Wuthering Heights is very cute :) it is a novel by Emily Brontë and it is actually about a really toxic relationship between Heathcliff and Kathy (both mentioned in the song) who try to control each other beyond the grave. So Kathy really isn't a nice ghost. And Heathcliff is very cruel and tries to ruin the life of Kathy's daughter.
There was also a movie adaptation that used Kate Bush's song as the soundtrack. So if you are curious about the story, you could pick up the book or watch the movie :)
This song is based on 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte which is a classic novel. She is singing it from the point of view of the main female protagonist, Cathy, who has died and is haunting her lost love, Heathcliffe. It was so different to the other music that was around in 1978 that we all were blown away (it was of course no. 1 in the UK charts). She was writing music from a very early age (you must listen to 'the man with the child in his eyes') and she was signed up in her teens and did some dance, mime and stuff until she was old enough to bring out her records; she always brought her perfomring arts to her videos. Some of her songs have great stories (try 'Cloudbusting' or 'Experiment IV') too.
03:33 Do watch the BBC documentary (available on UA-cam)! It gives a lot of insight and perspective on why she's such a legend and became so popular in the mainstream.
Heard that wail squeaking out of a tinny transistor radio when I was 14 years old, back in 1977. I fell in love with her that moment, and I have never fallen out of love. She is a unique storyteller; she sings as a male in some songs, as a female in others. She attacks topics that no one else ever would, and she is utterly brilliant. WH is also my favourite book, entirely by coincidence. Probably
I'm loving the Kate Bush Renaissance - I've been a huge fan of her music for years. If you really want to see her go crazy in terms of vocals, I recommend the track "Violin" from the great Never for Ever album, or maybe "Get Out Of My House", which is from what is by far her most experimental (and, in my opinion, best - tied with Houds of Love) Album, "The Dreaming."
I absolutely Love 'Get out of my house' and 'violin' Never forever and The Dreaming are so experimental and immense albums!!
I'm 28 and live in Ireland, and this has been one of my favourite songs since I heard it about 10 years ago. Her music is mostly weird as fuck and everybody just respected/respects her doing her thing because it's strange and beautiful. Reading a background about her songs definitely helps, cos there's a story, characters, points of reference etc.
She writes from the perspective of a character rather than from her own thoughts. Army dreamers and breathing are two other amazing songs by her.
The closest to her “today” is old Marina.
Yes Marina we love
This song inspired me to read the book its based off! The song def took time to grow on me
It’s a great English classic!
It's probably my all time favorite novel.
same as me! I love this song so much!
I was at the end of my primary school education when this came out and it was a strange experience, this wild-eyed wailing woman in red ballet gear suddenly appeared on Top of the Pops (weekly mainstream music chart show) and the record went to No. 1 where it stayed, like forever. As I got a little older and Kate released more records, she really grew on me and by the time I was well into my teens, I was a big fan. Wuthering Heights is a very familiar book in Britain, so maybe the song was more accessible because of that. The name Heathcliff is well and truly in the vocabulary. You could spend many weeks exploring Kate's music as no two songs are the same. Moreover, voice review alone is just one layer - she was a real pioneer with the Fairlight CMI and went on to produce all her own albums. If you think Wuthering Heights is weird, then you need to listen to Get out of My House, where she, amongst other things, makes donkey noises at one point. ua-cam.com/video/Lm2eYTjkqLk/v-deo.html
A teachers boon for teaching the novel “wuthering heights”, it’s a tragic love story of two people who could not get together. It’s a classic story.
Yesss more kate Bush!
The facial expressions Tristan makes gets me every time lol 😂
SAME! I had to replay the first 10 seconds of his reaction omg hahah
Tbf I had the same ones watching this 💀
when I first discovered your channel about year ago I searched through your videos to find if you reacted to Kate. But it's happening now, so glad you found her! Kate Bush is one of the most important artists and influenced so many people like Tori Amos, Bjork, Florence and even BigBoi from Outkast.
The production of 70s and 80s songs feels so much more articulated and textured compared to today’s standard. Great melodies and minimal voice effect.
So many artists took inspiration from Kate Bush, she's such an icon
Yes I was a young Londoner at the time she arrived on the scene. She was a total original and the most creative, unique and talented artist of her generation. Her first deal was with EMI Records when she was 15!!! after Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd (no less) introduced her and recorded 3 tracks with her...check out The Man with the Child In His Eyes which was the track that got her the deal. Dave Gilmour (a creative genius and player obviously)! Now you know!
I was around when this first came out. I loved it because it was so eccentric but beautiful at the same time. She was an original in a sea of sameness! And David Gilmour from Pink Floyd knew a good thing when he saw & heard it… he “discovered” her when she was still a young teen, and set her on her recording path…
You need to do "Cloudbusting"! Or "This Woman's Work", which you will have undoubtedly already heard before, probably from Maxwell, but it was her song originally. It's such an emotional and affecting song, it's truly beautiful!
Both songs were featured in Handmaid's Tale and they made the scenes they were in so compelling and emotional! She's such a unique artist!
I am so glad you cant understand a mainstream audience liking this! Thats what makes it so special and magical and what drew me into her mad enchanted world in the first place. Her movements are so graceful and unique. Watch her documentary 'Running up that Hill' if you want to know more about her and alot of unusual out there musicians are so influenced by her🎶💚🙏
It’s the story of the book Wuthering Heights. You need to do the video for Cloudbusting next. Another totally different sound.
Her voice is so unique, I discovered her through Running Up That Hill and am obsessed!!
Fun fact about Kate Bush, she was so committed to her dancing that her sound engineer fashioned a makeshift headset microphone from a radio mic and a wire coat hanger.
We would not have had many major pop influences without Kate Bush.
Edit: made this comment at the beginning !
Loved Kate way before running up that hill regaining popularity do to stranger things. I believe this is supposed to sound like a spirit out for revenge. Like the book by Emily Bronte wuthering heights . She was also 15 or 16 when she wrote this if I'm not mistaken.
Man we are hearing two very different things...Kate bush had one of the most beautiful voices in pop music.
he complimented her voice several times over in this video. he just also said that her voice is very strange, which in "wuthering heights," it is! it's very strange on purpose!! he never said her voice wasn't stunning, just weird
"She is a friendly ghost....like Casper"
"Let me grab your soul"
She is bloody awesome. I am so lucky I was bought up on this kind of music.
For context, she wrote this when she was 17 after watching a television adaptation of the classic Emily Bronte novel Wuthering Heights. The lyrics of the song and the novel itself are quite dark. Kate Bush is taking on the role of Kathy, Heathcliff is the male who she is after. It's very theatrical. It was very popular in England because most people on England are not only familiar with Wuthering Heights, but look at it with the love that an American views a story like Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn.
She's an amazing unique artist (and dancer), she has never been "mainstream" - I love "This Woman's Work|,it is one of the most beautiful emoting songs.
Have to dry my tears every time after listening to "This Woman's Work"...
Back in the Fay it was so different to everything else so wild literary crazy and theatrical we all fell in love with Kate and withering Heights instantly!!!💕
loved this. this song always reminds me of my literature teacher at uni. we read Wuthering Heights in one of his classes, which I love dearly, and he showed us this song. I‘ve been in love with it ever since. I visited Haworth with a friend a couple of years ago-it‘s the place that apparently inspired Emily Brontë to write her novel. while wandering through that moor we sang this song NON-STOP, people probably thought we needed help 😂😂😂
It's basically because it was based on the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. It was just so different and out there during the 1980s and she just came across as being so cool bringing together a classical doomed love story into the pop world.. She made me feel like I belonged because as a teen and I was a bit freaky and different 💖 in fact little and teenage girls everywhere used to sing the song and do the dance about Heathcliff and Cathy 😂🤩😍 I think you have to be British to get it and have been born and brought up in that era even a British Bangladeshi girl like myself 💖
I was born in the early 2000s and grew up hearing this on the radio pretty frequently in Europe, it’s a classic!
I wasn’t alive in the 70’s or 80’s but I just found out about Kate bush from stranger things, I know, don’t come for me, but she’s a really unique and outstanding vocalist. She’s got a great vocal range and I think she didn’t want to release withering heights at first cuz she thought it was too weird and no one would like it, but turns out she did and people love her. So yeah she’s pretty cool
Actually, she insisted to have "Wuthering Heights" as the first single. It's said, that she went really mad, when her record label tried to convince her to take a different song. Following a big drama with the manager, EMI backed down and went with "Wuthering Heights". After all, Kate was right, who would have thought! ;-)
BTW: Even 7 years later, there was a struggle about "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)". They wanted a different single, IIRC "Cloudbusting" (not quite sure), but even more controversely, they didn't like "God" in the title for commercial reasons. In the end, it was the correct song with an unwanted title for Kate...
@@rainerzufall42 oh wow. Yeah I didn’t know that. Well people should just really trust Kate lol
If anyone comes for you because you discovered Kate via Stranger Things just ignore them. 99% of us old timer Kate fans are THRILLED that new people are discovering and listening to Kate. If someone thinks it's not at "pure" or some such silliness because the discovery was from a TV show, just roll your eyes because that what I do. My husband discovered Kate in 1979, because of a TV show. I discovered Kate in 1980, because of a TV show. We met in 1982 and I can't even tell you how delighted we both are by this newfound exposure. Keep on listening, she's a treasure trove of great music. Happy future discoveries.
@@xenussister Totally agree. I remember, how some "gatekeepers" handled newly acquired fans of Aerial in 2005. How silly that is! But I think, they are a little minority. Most people (and I am with them) are really thrilled for what's happening at the moment. I believe, some of them used it to rewatch/listen to the whole back calalogue and remember, how exciting it is, just like I do!
My 7 year old LOVES kate bush (we are from the uk and my mum loves her) Babooshka was my daughter’s favourite song when she was 3 and insisted on standing infront of her class at school to sing it 😂 would love to see your reaction x
I was alive back then mate, I was only 8, but I heard this and fell in love with it immediately. A beautiful, beautiful unique song, way, way out of time or culture (remember this was the height of punk & curiously enough, disco). Absolutely the most evocative memory of early '78. I remember it well, I was there.
I was at the same age and "The Kick Inside" was the first LP I ever bought.
I've been listening to Kate Bush since middle school and I am just SO GLAD she's being rediscovered by a younger generation. She's so incredibly talented. EDIT: Also, "Babooshka" is another classic, but I think songs like "Jig of Life" and "The Dreaming" would also be interesting studies.
Jig of Life! Yes! Genius storyteller is Kate. This song from the perspective of a drowning woman speaking to her future self in her mind, urging her to live. The Ninth Wave suite, Hounds of Love side B.
Kate Bush is my FAVORITE artist of all time, ever. I found her via Wuthering Heights, and I realize it can be a bit bizarre at first, but her music is so worth a listen to. I play her albums back to back to back. I love watching her live performances from the 70s, her show was such a performance. Outrageous dances and faces. Then you see her in an interview and she's this sweet, soft spoken person. She is... gosh, I could talk about her for hours. lol
Her songs charted pretty well in Australia back in the day. I'm only 30 but I knew her songs growing up.
Kate Bush. Simply Brilliant !!!
I was around back in the early days of MTV and distinctly remember this video. I think this fit with the very experimental, not so polished nature of videos back then. For me, and I imagine many people, Kate Bush's music was intensely personal for me. Other singers had great voices and were great performers, but Kate Bush touched my heart in a way few did.
In the 1970s I think the charts in the UK were very open to all kinds of music. The charts were full of punk, pop, rock, prog, disco, funk, ballads.. even jazz vocal groups like Manhattan Transfer... this song was weird back for everyone then but I think that's what people were drawn to... I love the 2/4 bar thrown in there, the non diatonic chord progression... (A to F to E... etc) not to mention the orchestration... a real pioneer.
Challenge accepted - I'm old enough I was young in the late 70s it was just after punk and the period in music until about the mid 80s was really experimental terms of what a lot of artists were doing but also what was entering the mainstream enough to chart. Joy Division had a number one, bands like The Specials and Madness doing neo ska music had number ones. Wuthering Heights was number 1 - the first song to top the charts written and performed by a female artist in the UK. The mention of punk is especially ironic in that Bush was discovered and sort of sponsored by Dave Gilmore of Pink Floyd.
The lyrics:
Out on the wild and windy moor
We roll and fall in green
You had a temper like my jealously
Too hot, too greedy
How could you leave me
When I needed to
Possess you?
I hated you
I loved you too
Bad dreams in the night
They told me I was going to lose the fight
Leave behind...
My Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights
Chrous:
Heathcliff, it's me
It's Cathy
I've come home
So cold
Let me in at your window
Oooh it gets cold
It gets lonely
On the other side from you
I pine a lot
I find a lot
Falls through without you
I'm coming back now
Cruel Heathcliff
My one dream
My only ...master
Too long I've roamed in the night
Coming back to his side to put it right
Coming back to
Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights
Repeat chrous
Ooh let me have it
Let me grab at your soul
Ooh let me have it
Let me grab at your soul
You know it's me
Cathy
Repeat chrous
I was maybe 7 when this came out. We had a TV (no radio), and the only music we had was once a week at 7.30pm. I remember being utterly blown away when Kate came on and sang this. I prayed it would be number 1 in the charts so i could see it again next week on TOTP, and it inspired me to read Wuthering Heights. You can technically evaluate her vocals all you want - and you might be correct in your technical criticism, but so what? I will forever remain deeply touched by a piece of wonderful art. Her songs are incredible. Younger generations might find her a bit odd, but listen and it gets into your soul.
This came out at the time when traditional rock ‘n’ roll was transitioning into punk. There was nothing like it anywhere on the radio. “Babooshka” is good but I would recommend “Man with the Child in His Eyes”, “This Woman’s Work” (recently covered by Maxwell) or “Hounds of Love”.
I'm sure that this guy is a good vocal coach, but I don't think, he truly understood how fantastic she were and still is...
Also, consider reacting to some of her later material. The Sensual World is a masterpiece album in its entirety.
It's popular because it's a great Tiktok version of the greatest book ever written in the English language, Wuthering Heights. A beyond brilliant family love story. Here Kate is the ghost of Catherine, 'Cathy', who scares Lockwood by banging on the window. And she rubs her wrists on the broken glass in true gothic horror.
In case no one has said so in the comments (I can't read 'em all!), Kate's vocal in this song is a performance of character. Cathy in Wuthering Heights is a ghost who torments Heathcliff. They had a tumultuous relationship--what today would be called "toxic"--and it's taken to the extreme in Wuthering Heights, as Heathcliff eventually dies in the end to be buried with Cathy. Not a good relationship role model!
So Kate isn't meant to sound "pretty" here so much as to come across like a banshee or something similar, a ghost who is freaking out Heathcliff and telling him that she hates him and loves him and wants "to grab your soul away." She succeeds in the endeavor.
As you can hear in Running Up That Hill, This Woman's Work, Breathing and other songs, Kate has a comfortable lower register that is resonant and can be called "pretty," but she is a performance-art expressionist who uses extremes from the world of mime in her facial expressions and body language, along with dance and vocal performance to convey stories and characters. She's a prime example of the expression "don't rest on pretty."
Love Kate Bush amazing singer and song writer
Kate Bush is weird. She’s weird, gorgeous, Uber talented, the best female singer/songwriter bar none. You should listen to her home demos which she sang (at home) when she was in her mid teens, they’re brilliant. Her jumping back and forth with her voice is one of the most gorgeous things about her. I’ve been a big fan since 1978.
She has this charming, captivating voice and presence. Her tone has purity and a pierceing quality. She is raw and authentic, very expressive and heartfelt. I love this lady! Wait till people discover "Cloudbusting", "This Woman's Work", "Dont Give Up", "Sunset" and one of the greatest songs ever "Nocturn". Its game over for other female singers. This is the year of the Bush!
Please don't do that. You can (deservedly) praise Kate to the heavens without having to say "It's game over for other female singers" because there's room for everybody. I've been a Kate fan for 42 years, met my husband of 40 years because we were both fans, and have even traveled to England from America to see her in person (twice at Fan conventions where she appeared, and once for a live show in 2014). Kate is my favorite artist of all time, and yet there are so many other female artists I love, (chief among them Happy Rhodes). I don't compare any other artists I love to Kate and I suppose I feel bad when others do. It's not their fault they're not Kate. There's only one Kate, she headlines, always, but others can be invited to the party. I don't mean to be telling you what to do or how to feel, though I suppose it's coming off that way. Sorry.
@@xenussister it was light hearted comment, my point was to highlight the quality of her past work and how highly she is regarded as an artist in the traditional sense of writing and producing her work and how she deserves to be at the top in the pop arena where she is amongst other forgettable manufactured female acts. She also has stood the test of time. I want 2022 to be her year.
I am ashamed that you don't know this song. 😂😂
I grew up listening and singing to this and when I was younger and still even now, this is one of my favourite songs to sing to and practice my high notes with. I have and always will love this song and her voice and all the emotion she's able to convey with it. I can easily see why this was popular back in the day.
Kate is singing in character. The dance is part mime and she's telling a story. The moves she makes whirling her arm around represents the wind and storms blowing across the moors. If you've never read the book, just read the lyrics. Kate managed to encapsulate an entire book plot into a 3 minute song. Check out Experiment IV. Or Cloudbusting!
Kate is such an intriguing enigma! Look up some old interviews and compare her singing voice persona with her speaking voice persona. Kate is such a complex person that I'm not at all sure what is real and what might be deception! Did I say deception? Maybe should have said illusion?
Maybe inception? ;-)
The outro in the original cut (you get a much shortened version of it here) is so beautiful and uplifting and wistful at the same time. Whenever music can conjure up these complex emotions, you really have to appreciate it and be grateful for it.
‘This woman’s work’ would be a good one to listen to and analyse. I think you can hear more of a range within her voice with it and it’s a really beautiful but sad song
YES This Woman’s Work
Wutherng heights was her first single and was released late 70s many years before running up that hill
Kate Bush was considered more “alternative” back in the 80s and wasn’t on pop stations - at least to my recollection.
Have you heard the other end of her register yet? She plays her voice up and down from note to note if she feels like it.
she's in her falsetto the whole time bc she's intentionally trying to sound like a spirit, in honor of the character she's playing in the song (cathy from wuthering heights)
damn it you mentioned that
Yep, was a teen then! Wuthering Heights (also the novel by Emily Bronté) was more of a girl thing, we imitated her ethereal shrill voice and witchy expression dance moves, loved it! At that time a friend, a Velvet Underground and The Nuns fan, said about Kate Bush: "The singing parthenogenesis" ;-)
tristan becoming a kate bush stan !?
I love how you went from hating it to loving it! Just like when I heard this song for the first time.
Their vocal styles are so different, but with the Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic, and interpretive dance, references to ghosts and literature, I would see Florence Welch as filling in the niche these days that Kate did back in the day.
She’s just unique. Nobody was doing anything like this in 1978. Female singer songwriters weren’t so prevalent and she enabled many others to follow. She’s just a genius and I love and respect her work as do many others across the world. Bear in mind also, in 1978 pop videos were still young and she was playing the part of a ghost.
I first heard Wuthering Heights around 15 years ago when I read the book, and at first I was completely unprepared. I was like "wtf is this?" And then it really grew on me and I sang along a lot. "so co-ho-hold let me in your window-ho-ho."
I've been a fan of her since I was a child, and saw this on top. Of the pop's.. I was mesmerised by her.. And have loved her ever since...
I grew up in the 80s. Never heard it but I do love running up that hill. Btw have you reacted to Yebba??? If not, you must. Tiny desk concert or electric lady live sessions. An absolutely insane voice.
I’m 18 and Irish and I grew up listening to this on the radio and when parties are coming to an end this is always a must play, surprised you don’t know it. I’m pretty sure Kate Bush was like 16 writing this song and was just looking to write songs she could dance to, that’s why you always see her dancing to her songs because she was first a dancer I’m pretty sure and of course this song is based of the book “Wuthering Heights”, where the lyrics are based on the plot.
If you've read the book, the lyrics make total sense.
Whats book?
@@artiaslari5594 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brönte
@@artiaslari5594 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brönte
Kate Bush is THE goat. She is so artistic and free. Every song sounds so different because she really treats each performance like a new artistic piece. Love her so much
Kate recorded the vocals for this song again in 1986 (8 years after the original release, right after recording Running up that hill) and it's very very different. Look it up.