Fanatic since 1978. No matter how long I go without listening to he r albums (I know that all note for note) she remains the cente of my musical instruments verse. For decades the only people I knew who were aware of her, with a couple of notable exceptions (@equipoise), were people I had introduced her to.
Almost tearfully grateful to see her finally gaining some mainstream recognition in the U.S.
Although I had a somewhat sheltered life, a co-worker of my mom’s introduced me to KT’s music in the early 80’s when I was a young teen. He had videos, and shared his albums as well.
“Running Up That Hill” and “Babooshka” are probably her most well known. They get played on an alternative radio station here in Chicago from time to time. I’m a little surprised as to how obscure Kate Bush seems to be in the US, as she was reasonably known among the crowd I hung out with in Chicago. A bunch of Chicago musicians also put together a tribute album called “I Wanna Be Kate” back in 1998 with covers of her work. She was certainly well loved here if you were in the right crowd.
ETA: Smack my head. “Hounds of Love,” too.
ETA2: She’s also featured as the female voice in Peter Gabriel’s “Games Without Frontiers.”
Oh, very cool! A cafe coworker of mine (Eddie Carlson) played bass on the Aluminum Group and I think Mouse songs. (Mouse was formed at the cafe a few years previous to me working there.)
I’ve only been aware of her since 2009 or so, though I had heard her sing with both Peter Garbiel on “Don’t Give Up” and with George Harrison on “Dream Away” from the soundtrack to Time Bandits without know it’s her. She’s something of an, uh, acquired taste for most Americans I think. The first song I saw from her was “Wuthering Heights” I think, and it led me down a rabbit hole to “Army Dreamers,” “Them Heavy People,” “Hammer Horror,” and “Babooshka,” and “Running Up that Hill.” She’s a bit weird, but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen.
I’m flabbergasted that she’s rocketed up the charts because Stranger Things introduced her to a wider audience here.
The thing is, these “Billboard #1” type of ratings these days come from stream counts and Google searches. People aren’t looking her up because they like her suddenly. They’re doing it because they heard the song in Stranger Things, episode 4, and went “I didn’t know that 2019 alt-rock song was a cover! Who sang the original?” and presto, instantly to the top of the charts.
I’ve heard her being played on that station since at least the 90s, so I’m not thinking of that. (Though they also play the Myers version, as far as I remember.)
Not that I’m going to be able to dig deeply into their playlist, but here’s a playlist from 2020 where they played the Kate Bush version (though the cover was mentioned by the DJ):