Kate Bush, “It’s All So Exciting” As She Looks Set For UK No 1
Kate Bush has made another statement about the phenomenal worldwide success of her 1985 song Running Up That Hill.
In a message to fans on her website, Kate wrote,
“It’s all so exciting! Since the last post, Running Up That Hill has gone to No 1 in Norway and Austria. This is such great news and we just heard today that it’s up from No 8 to No 4 in the US.
The track is being responded to in so many positive ways. I’ve never experienced anything quite like this before!
I just want to say a really big thank you to everyone in the US who has supported the song. It’s the first time I’ve had a top ten single over there and now it’s in the top 5!
Thank you so much again to the Duffer Brothers – because of their latest, extraordinary series of Stranger Things, the track is being discovered by a whole new audience.
Best wishes,
Kate”
Kate looks set for a UK No 1 single this week after the Chart Supervisory Committee amended chart rules in the wake of Running Up That Hill’s success. Previously, a rule called Accelerated Chart Ratio meant that streams of Running Up That Hill counted for less, as an article on the BBC website explained,
“In order to give other artists a chance and keep the charts from becoming stale, the record industry invented something called ‘accelerated decline’. It works like this. A new record earns one ‘sale’ when it is streamed 100 times on a subscription service like Apple Music or Spotify Premium; or 600 times on an ad-funded service. But older songs need to attract 200 premium/1,200 ad-funded streams before a ‘sale’ is counted.”
This rule meant that last week Running Up That Hill was the most streamed song in the UK with more than 2.5 million plays, but its streams counted for less in the chart rundown. With that rule revoked, Kate fans will be hoping the song gives the singer her first No 1 since Wuthering Heights, her 1978 debut single.