Prime 40 Kate Bush Songs

For our Prime 40 listing of the very best Kate Bush songs we regarded again over the singer’s 40-plus-year profession… 

4o Ken, 1990

Few individuals would look forward to finding a Kate Bush deep lower on the soundtrack to GLC: The Carnage Continues, a 1990 Comedian Strip Presents… TV episode about Ken Livingstone and the Better London Council, however Kate had an extended historical past of working with comedians. The Shaft-referencing Ken was launched with different tracks from the soundtrack because the B-side to Love And Anger.

39 Residence For Christmas, 1992

This was Kate’s contribution to a different Comedian Strip Presents… concoction, a story of avian revenge entitled Wild Turkey. The primary of two festive choices on this listing, Residence For Christmas is usually neglected because of its relative unavailability compared to December Will Be Magic Once more. It was launched because the B-side to Moments Of Pleasure, and Kate’s kindly now popped it on Spotify too.

38 Suspended In Gaffa, 1982

Gaffa/gaffer is, in fact, the infamously robust and sticky black tape broadly brandished within the theatre and rock industries. Mysterious and but deeply autobiographical, Suspended In Gaffa appears to the touch upon the topics of God, of emotions of powerlessness and of the issue of proving one’s personal value. It was launched as single throughout Europe and Australia, however not within the UK. 

37 Ne t’enfuis pas, 1982

With French lyrics by Patrick Jeaneau and Vivienne Chandler, Ne T’enfuis Pas (Don’t Run Away) sees Bush envisioning herself as a slowly stalking cat and her lover as a hen; no matter is about to occur, it appears extremely probably that feathers will fly. Launched because the B-side to There Goes A Tenner, the track’s title was misspelt on the label as Ne T’en Fuis Pas, which implies nothing in any respect. The clots.

36 Evening Of The Swallow, 1982

Launched as a single from The Dreaming solely in Eire due primarily to the musical presence of members from the favored traditional-based Irish acts Planxty and The Chieftains, Evening Of The Swallow tells the story of a lover pleading along with her smuggler boyfriend for him to not exit on one other job; nevertheless, he will get a bit uppity and tells her to not tie him down. It turned an Irish No. 12 in 1983.

35 Transferring, 1978

A tribute to her dance instructor Lindsay Kemp, The Kick Inside’s opener Transferring was solely launched as a single in Japan – and Wuthering Heights, relatively extremely, was relegated to the B-side. Sadly, in that nation it did solely modest enterprise regardless of Kate having carried out the track on the Tokyo Music Pageant in entrance of a TV viewers of 35 million. Perhaps the whale sound at the beginning put them off.

34 Love And Anger, 1989

The primary track written however the final one accomplished two years later for The Sensual World, Kate struggled with Love And Anger’s topic: “That is about who you’ll be able to or can’t speak in confidence to when there’s one thing you’ll be able to’t discuss. Who did I’ve within the lyrics? Was it sister or mom? I can’t keep in mind.” David Gilmour’s solo apparently helped, and it made the album – and likewise reached No. 38 in 1990.

33 The Crimson Sneakers, 1994

This track about enchanted ballet slippers from the album of the identical identify – and the important thing observe from her movie The Line, The Cross And The Curve, which co-starred Miranda Richardson with choreography from Kemp – noticed Kate enterprise into dance remixes, with a second CD single launch that includes a clanking 10-minute remix entitled Shoedance that sadly didn’t ignite any dancefloors. 

32 The Dreaming, 1982

Initially entitled The Abo Tune, this Aboriginal-themed tune about sacred floor getting used for uranium mining might be extra problematic lately due to the presence of disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris on digeridoo, denying it a lot airplay. It solely managed to get to No. 48 when Kate selected to make a comeback with it in 1982, after a profession hole of 18 months. 

31 Eat The Music, 1991

This hypnotic, hi-life inflected track with regards to embracing honesty in relationships was enlivened by a video crammed filled with squashy fruit. It was launched within the states on Columbia because the lead-off from The Crimson Sneakers (in every single place else went with Rubberband Lady). A number of copies have been pressed by EMI within the UK however have been later recalled earlier than it was lastly launched throughout Europe in 1994. 

3o Rubberband Lady, 1993

In keeping with Kate, Rubberband Lady was her least favorite observe on The Crimson Sneakers. This reality hardly boded effectively when the track was launched because the very first single from the album in 1993, but it surely hit the Prime 12 regardless. “I had thought-about taking it off, to be trustworthy, as a result of it didn’t really feel fairly as attention-grabbing as the opposite tracks. It’s only a foolish pop track, actually,” she revealed to Mojo in 2011. 

29 And So Is Love, 1994

Launched as a single in 1994, And So Is Love additionally noticed Kate return to the highlight of the Prime Of The Pops studio for the primary time since 1985. Eager-eared Bush followers will likely be conscious that there are two variations of the track: the album model from 1993, and the model from Director’s Minimize in 2011, on which the important thing lyric “However now we see that life is gloomy” is tellingly modified to “However now we see that life is good”. 

28 Them Heavy Folks (Dwell), 1979

Them Heavy Folks was the lead observe from Kate’s On Stage EP, which climbed to No. 10 within the autumn of 1979. The disc carried 4 numbers recorded on the Hammersmith Odeon on 13 Could 1979 from her sole tour up to now. She did launch an entire stay ‘album’ on video from the tour, however these variations of those songs differed considerably, regardless of claiming to be recorded on the identical day.  

27 The Large Sky, 1986

Launched because the fourth and last single from Hounds Of Love, The Large Sky displays on the easier issues one used to do when youthful. In keeping with Kate’s e-newsletter in 1985, it’s about “somebody sitting wanting on the sky, watching the clouds change… I feel we overlook these pleasures as adults. We really feel foolish about what we used to do naturally.” It marked Kate’s first foray into video directing.

26 There Goes A Tenner, 1982

A story of a bungled financial institution theft, seen via the eyes of a paranoid perpetrator who begins freaking out on the dimension of the heist he’s grow to be concerned with, There Goes A Tenner was a one-off single which has been just about been erased from historical past as a result of lack of curiosity in it on the time. Even the sound of Kate just about inventing Blur along with her Mockney accent wasn’t sufficient to push it previous No. 93. 

25 Be Sort To My Errors, 1987

Initially written for the soundtrack of the 1986 Nic Roeg-directed film Castaway (therefore the looks of hellraising actor Oliver Reed, who’s heard muttering the title). Whereas the track exists in varied variations, the unique soundtrack model was launched as a single in Germany with the Brian Eno observe Chemistry on the flip; a remix additionally pops up because the B-side to This Girl’s Work.

24 The Man I Love, 1994

Written in 1927, this basic tune was dropped from the stage present Woman Be Good till heiress and face-about-town Woman Mountbatten fell in love with it; quickly,  dance bands started masking the track and it turned vastly standard. Kate Bush recorded her model in 1994 for the album The Glory Of Gershwin, which additionally featured Cher, Peter Gabriel and Robert Palmer, plus Larry Adler on harmonica. 

23 Experiment IV, 1986

Recorded as a brand new observe for her hits assortment The Entire Story, Experiment IV was a couple of secret navy plan to develop a sound, a black noise, that might kill individuals. The video, directed by Kate and starring Gary Oldman, Daybreak French and Hugh Laurie, was banned by Prime Of The Pops for being too violent. She did, nevertheless, carry out it stay on Wogan with violinist Nigel Kennedy. 

22 Rocket Man, 1991

Lifelong fan Kate was requested to contribute to an album of covers of Elton John and Bernie Taupin songs. “When you cowl information, it’s best to try to make them totally different,” the singer mused. “It’s like remaking films: you’ve obtained to try to give it one thing that makes it value re-releasing. And the reggae therapy simply appeared to occur, actually.” Her model reached No. 12 in 1991.

21 Hammer Horror, 1979

From her second album, Lionheart. The track isn’t, as many first thought, about Hammer movies, however about an actor changing a buddy who died portraying The Hunchback of Notre Dame. “It was impressed by seeing James Cagney enjoying the a part of Lon Chaney enjoying the hunchback – he was an actor in an actor in an actor, relatively like Chinese language packing containers, and that’s what I used to be making an attempt to create,” confirmed Bush.

20 Deeper Understanding, 2011

Kate’s unique 1989 model foreseeing the probabilities of turning into too concerned with know-how – “You may get your purchasing from the Ceefax!” – appeared prescient on the time, so when it was launched in a brand new model forward of Director’s Minimize, it took on a brand new relevance. The video featured her son because the voice of the pc, plus comedians Robbie Coltrane and Noel Fielding. 

19 And Dream Of Sheep (Dwell), 2016

And Dream Of Sheep started The Ninth Wave suite on the Hounds Of Love album in 1985. It’s a track about being “left alone within the water for the night time”; Bush recreated the track for her reveals in 2014, recording and filming a video in a tank at Pinewood Studios and utilizing the ends in the Hammersmith reveals. A ‘stay’ model was launched in 2016 forward of the Earlier than The Daybreak album launch.

18 Lyra, 2007

Recorded for the movie The Golden Compass, this one-off crept out on the finish of 2007. The brief discover of the fee – which additionally stipulated that the track ought to reference the lead character, Lyra Belacqua – meant Kate ended up writing and recording it in 10 days. The Magdalen Faculty Oxford Choir recorded their elements to an early demo, and the track will be discovered on the unique soundtrack.

17 Wild Man, 2011

From 50 Phrases For Snow, Wild Man sees Kate referring to the assorted names the Yeti is understood by, however as she defined to The Quietus in 2011, “I don’t discuss with the Yeti as a person within the track. However it’s meant to be an empathetic view of a creature of nice thriller, actually.” With an accompanying brief movie, it was launched as a obtain solely, however some uncommon promos have been pressed; they go for foolish cash.

16 Military Dreamers, 1980

This No. 16 hit from 1980 provides voice to a grieving mom mourning the waste of her younger son, who’s killed whereas serving within the military. Although the track contained Irish accents, it wasn’t particularly about that battle: “I’m not slagging off the Military, it’s simply so unhappy that there are children who haven’t any O-levels and nothing to do however grow to be troopers, and it’s probably not what they need. That’s what frightens me.”

15 Respiration, 1980

Songs from the perspective of a foetus had but to be a factor till Kate got here alongside along with her Pink Floyd-inspired quantity Respiration in 1980. Primarily based across the menace/aftermath of a nuclear occasion – there’s a spoken-word description of bomb fallout on the album model – there’s a risk that inhaling nicotine was the least of the unborn’s worries. John Giblin provided the beautifully melodic bass. 

14 King Of The Mountain, 2005

Written decade earlier than its eventual launch as a part of Aerial, King Of The Mountain – her first single in 12 years – wonders if Elvis continues to be on the market, someplace dwelling usually, having been subjected to such intense fame throughout his profession. It additionally referenced parallels between Presley and Citizen Kane, therefore ‘Rosebud’. Her greatest hit in over 20 years, it went to No. 4 within the autumn of 2005. 

13 Don’t Give Up, 1986

Peter Gabriel had written Don’t Give Up with Dolly Parton in thoughts for the feminine half. Sadly she didn’t fancy it, so he requested earlier backing vocalist Kate (she had sung on Video games With out Frontiers) to step in. Bush wasn’t positive about her first vocal, so she went again to Gabriel’s home to re-record it. The duo sang it stay on one event, at Earl’s Courtroom in 1987. It reached No. 9 in late 1986. 

12 Babooshka, 1980

A spouse tries to check her husband’s loyalty, and turns into the ‘Babooshka’ within the title, though babooshka truly interprets as ‘grandmother’, which may show awkward. It was a sequence of coincidences – an opera, the identify of a buddy’s cat – that prompted Kate to keep it up. She carried out it on a Dr Hook TV particular and created a personality with dual-sided make-up to ram the purpose house. 

11 Hounds Of Love, 1985

A track about individuals’s worry of falling in love, encouraging them to throw off their worries and make the leap. As Kate advises, “Perhaps being concerned isn’t as horrific as your creativeness can construct it as much as being – maybe these baying hounds are actually pleasant.” It was lined by the Futureheads in 2005; Kate left a message for them on the cellphone at their studio, however they have been too terrified to cellphone her again.

Learn extra: The Lowdown – Kate Bush

10 December Will Be Magic Once more, 1980

December Will Be Magic Once more was premiered (in its “bongo model”) as a part of Christmas Snowtime Particular, a BBC compilation of pop appearances from the likes of Abba, Boney M and Leo Sayer, on December twenty second, 1979. Bush then carried out it as a part of her personal TV particular on the twenty ninth, and it was launched as a one-off single in November 1980. 

9 The Sensual World, 1989

After listening to a rendition of the closing soliloquy from James Joyce’s Ulysses, Kate was impressed to jot down a track utilizing chunks of it, assuming the copyright was public area. After a yr of makes an attempt to acquire permission to make use of it, she settled on rewriting the phrases. Kate stated on the time, “It changed into a pastiche, and that’s why the character, Molly Bloom, steps into the true world and turns into certainly one of us.”

8 Cloudbusting, 1985

Peter Reich’s The Ebook Of Goals is about his relationship together with his psychologist/thinker father Wilhelm Reich, inventor of a ‘life power power’ known as orgone, who was pilloried for his beliefs within the Nineteen Fifties. “The e book is filled with imagery of an harmless little one and but it’s being written by a tragic grownup, which provides it a sort of private intimacy and magic that’s fairly extraordinary,” stated Bush. 

7 Wow, 1979

Wow and its video of a whirling Bush turned ripe for parody from the comics of the day. “It was sparked off once I sat all the way down to try to write a Pink Floyd track, one thing spacey; I’m not shocked no-one has picked that up, it’s probably not recognisable as that, in the identical method as individuals haven’t observed that Kite is a Bob Marley track, and Don’t Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake is a Patti Smith track.”

6 This Girl’s Work, 1989

This track first appeared on the soundtrack to John Hughes’ 1988 movie She’s Having A Child. Hughes despatched Kate clips of an emotional flashback sequence; written shortly as she watched the rushes, it turned the primary track accomplished for The Sensual World, the place a re-edited model would find yourself a yr later. It’s been a success in 1989 (reaching No. 25), 2008 (76) and as a Director’s Minimize model, 2012 (63).

Learn extra: Making The Hounds Of Love

5 The Man With The Baby In His Eyes, 1978

Famously written when she was 13, and recorded at 16 beneath the steering of David Gilmour in entrance of an orchestra that scared her. Kate defined the track: “It was a idea that I had had for some time that I simply noticed in a lot of the males that I do know: the truth that they only are little boys inside and the way fantastic it’s that they handle to retain this magic.” 

4 Sat In Your Lap, 1981

A track about information: “The extra you study, the extra ignorant you realise you might be and that you just recover from one wall to search out an excellent larger one.” It was a rowdier departure from the singles launched thus far, extra percussive and synth primarily based, with a vocal that Kate imagined being sung excessive on a hill on a windy day. Initially a single in June 1981, it turned a part of The Dreaming album in 1982.

3 Wuthering Heights, 1978

The place all of it started. It’s laborious now to think about the impression that this had when launched as Kate’s first single in January 1978, having been held again in order to not compete with Mull Of Kintyre. There may be solely the one model, and Bush irked some followers barely when she re-did the vocal for The Entire Story in 1986. It was, astonishingly, the primary UK No. 1 single written and carried out by a feminine artist. 

2 Moments Of Pleasure, 1993

Written about her mom, particularly the road “to these we love, to those that will survive”, Moments Of Pleasure has shapeshifted through the years from the model on The Crimson Sneakers to the one on Director’s Minimize, the place she eliminated the refrain and created extra of a story. Each are able to decreasing even the toughest coronary heart right into a sobbing wreck. Launched as a single in November 1993, it reached No. 26.

1 Working Up That Hill (A Deal With God), 1985

Why have we put Working Up That Hill on the very prime of our listing? In equity, any of our prime 5 may argue its case for the highest slot. For us, nevertheless, this isn’t only a track that enjoys near-iconic standing, but it surely additionally marked a key second in Bush’s musical timeline, the place she began to decelerate and take extra management of her profession after a near-frantic 4 albums in 5 years.

Written in 1983 as the primary track for Hounds Of Love, it will even be the oldest track in her setlist on the Earlier than The Daybreak reveals. 

It marks nearly a rebirth for Kate and signposts the journey her music would take within the subsequent three many years, with a basis on theories of affection and relationships. “It is vitally a lot concerning the energy of affection, and the power created between two individuals after they’re very a lot in love,” she allowed, “however the power may also be threatening, violent, harmful in addition to light, soothing, loving.”

The Energy Of Love

Bush herself refers back to the track utilizing the unique title of A Deal With God, however EMI weren’t wild a couple of track with “God” within the title, as they feared it wouldn’t go down effectively in sure territories all over the world. Kate relented on this event, though the total title is on the album. EMI additionally needed Cloudbusting to be the primary single, because it was extra suited to the Bush work they’d launched earlier than. The artist put her foot down firmly there, fortunately.

Hitting No. 3 in 1985, it opened the way in which for Hounds Of Love to grow to be her biggest-selling album, one thing Cloudbusting, with all its charms, won’t have pulled off as effectively. It was revisited in 2012 as a part of the closing ceremony of the London Olympics, when a reswizzled model – with Kate singing a contemporary vocal over the unique 12-inch combine – and reached a creditable No. 6.

The observe gained renewed consideration in Could 2022 after it was featured repeatedly within the fourth season of the Netflix sequence Stranger Issues. Reaching No.1 within the UK, it  was Bush’s second UK chart topper after Wuthering Heights in 1978, making her the solo artist with the longest hole between two No.1 singles on the chart – the 37-year hole between the one’s launch and it reaching primary was additionally a chart report.

Try Kate Bush’s web site right here

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