27/02/2025
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On this day in 1978, Kate Bush released the single “Wuthering Heights” (January 20)
Kate Bush’s big break was when Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour was given a demo tape by a mutual friend of the family, that Kate recorded while she was still attending a Catholic girls' school in Abbey Wood in southeast London.
Gilmour was moved to help the 16-year-old record a professional demo tape which secured her a deal with EMI, and her prodigious talent took over from there…
I’m not sure what’s more impressive, the fact that she wrote “Wuthering Heights” aged just 18, or that she recorded the vocal track in only one take....
“Wuthering Heights” was of course based on the famous Emily Brontë novel, and the single went all the way to #1 in the UK, and stayed at the top for a month.
With it, Kate Bush became the first female artist to have an entirely self-penned #1 hit in the UK.
"Wuthering Heights" also spent three weeks at #1 in Australia, five weeks at #1 in New Zealand, and also topped the charts in Ireland and Portugal.
Her debut single from her debut album “The Kick Inside” also reached the Top 10 in Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland, as well as the Top 20 in Austria and West Germany.
The guitar solo is played by the talented Ian Bairnson (Pilot, The Alan Parsons Project), who allegedly played the solo with a broken arm. The engineer, Jon Kelly, said he regretted not placing the iconic solo louder in the mix.
Fun fact: Kate Bush and Emily Brontë were both born on 30 July, Bush in 1958 and Brontë in 1818, 140 years apart.
A hauntingly beautiful and unique song....
One of the two clips for the song has inspired The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, which is an annual event held at locations around the world where participants recreate the “red dress” music video for “Wuthering Heights".
Click on the link below to watch the “red dress” clip:
https://youtu.be/Fk-4lXLM34g?si=9zna17zhsGoAqcWX
Or click on the link below to watch the “white dress” clip:
https://youtu.be/-1pMMIe4hb4
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