Wuthering Heights

This is based on Emily Bronte's classic book of the same name. The song pretty much tells the same story as the book, only squeakier.

In the book, two young people, Catherine and Heathcliff, are brought together and become lovers. Along the way, they struggle with issues of class and family. Wuthering Heights was Bronte's only novel, although she did publish some poems.

This was the first song Bush recorded for a label. It was released as a single, and while the music press dismissed the song as a novelty, it hit #1 in Britain. It stayed there for 4 weeks and launched her career at age 19.

Kate Bush and Emily Bronte share the same birthday, July 30th.

Kate started playing piano at age 11 and wrote her first song at 13. By the time she recorded the album, she had about 50 songs to choose from, but this wasn't one of them. She came up with it shortly before recording the album. She claims she wrote the song in one night under a full moon.

This was a huge hit everywhere except the US. This is the way it remained for Bush, who has never been able to break the US market.

Bush's label, EMI, wanted to release "James and the Cold Gun" as her first single, believing that radio stations wouldn't play this because it sounded too odd. When Kate found out, she insisted that "Wuthering Heights" be released first, but as a 19-year-old who had never released a song, she didn't have much say in the matter. Her label boss decided to let her have her way, figuring the song would flop and he would prove to Bush that he knew how to do his job better than she did. He was proven horribly wrong, and Bush was allowed to select her next single. Her choice was "The Man With The Child In His Eyes."

When this rose to #1 Kate Bush became the first female to top the UK charts with a self composed song.

Pat Benatar covered this on her 1980 album Crimes of Passion.

The guitar solo is by Ian Bairnson, formerly of Pilot. In the mid-'70s, they had a #5 hit in the US with "Magic" and a chart topper in the UK with "January."