Kate Bush hadn’t heard ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’ for “a really long time” before its viral success thanks to ‘Stranger Things’.
The 63-year-old pop legend has admitted she chooses not to listen back to her old music and very rarely has to revisit her back catalogue to provide edits if her music is used on other formats.
Speaking to Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Woman’s Hour’ this week, she said: “I never listen to my old stuff. But then you know, when things like this come along, I’m normally involved in something like you know, maybe doing an edit or revisiting the track for some kind of other reason, I’m working on it. So yeah, I hadn’t heard it for a really long time.”
The 1985 hit has topped the charts in the US, UK and beyond, 37 years after it was released.
It’s all thanks to the song soundtracking Sadie Sink’s character Max and her journey with her grief for her step-brother Billy in the hit Netflix sci-fi show set in the 80s.
And while the ‘Wuthering Heights’ hitmaker had anticipated “some attention”, she didn’t expect the astronomical surge in streams that sent the song flying up the charts across the globe.
She said: “Well it’s just extraordinary. I mean, you know, it’s such a great series, I thought that the track would get some attention. But I just never imagined that it would be anything like this. It’s so exciting. But it’s quite shocking really, isn’t it? I mean, the whole world’s gone mad.”
Kate compared the current obsession with ‘Stranger Things’ to the ‘Harry Potter’ films.
She said: “Our friends kept saying have you seen Stranger Things when the first series came out. So eventually we just thought OK let’s just watch it and we’ve binge-watched it and then saw every series ever since. It’s lovely because in a similar way to Harry Potter, where in those early films they were just little kids, and then as the film has progressed, it becomes heavier and darker. And those little kids turn into really talented, young, adult actors. And you have a different connection with something that’s moved through years really of watching them grow.”
Woman’s Hour is on Radio 4 weekdays at 10am and on BBC Sounds.