FEATURE:
Inspired by the 1967 BBC Mini-Series…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
Kate Bush’s Incredible Debut Single, Wuthering Heights, at Forty-Two
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MAYBE a forty-second anniversary…
is not worth covering but, as Kate Bush is entering her sixth decade as a recording artist, I wanted to look back at her almighty and utterly unique debut single. Wuthering Heights was originally slated for a November 1977 release, but it was delayed until 20th January, 1978. Bush wanted to change the sleeve design and was not happy with it and, also, there were huge Christmas singles like Wings’ Mull of Kintyre – that was released on 11th November, 1977 and was a huge hit. I will come to my thoughts and particular experiences of the song soon but, before moving on, here is some background and information about Wuthering Heights courtesy of the Kate Bush Encyclopedia:
“Song written by Kate Bush, released as her debut single in January 1978. She wrote the song after seeing the last ten minutes of the 1967 BBC mini-series based on the book ‘Wuthering Heights’, written by Emily Brontë. Reportedly, she wrote the song within the space of just a few hours late at night. The actual date of writing is estimated to be March 5, 1977.
Lyrically, "Wuthering Heights" uses several quotations from Catherine Earnshaw, most notably in the chorus - "Let me in! I'm so cold!" - as well as in the verses, with Catherine's confession to her servant of "bad dreams in the night." It is sung from Catherine's point of view, as she pleads at Heathcliff's window to be allowed in. This romantic scene takes a sinister turn if one has read Chapter 3 of the original book, as Catherine is in fact a ghost, calling lovingly to Heathcliff from beyond the grave. Catherine's "icy" ghost grabs the hand of the Narrator, Mr Lockwood, through the bedroom window, asking him to let her in, so she can be forgiven by her lover Heathcliff, and freed from her own personal purgatory.
The song was recorded with Andrew Powell producing. According to him, the vocal performance was done in one take, "a complete performance" with no overdubs. "There was no compiling," engineer Kelly said. “We started the mix at around midnight and Kate was there the whole time, encouraging us… we got on with the job and finished at about five or six that morning." The guitar solo that fades away with the track in the outro was recorded by Edinburgh musician Ian Bairnson, a session guitarist.
Originally, record company EMI's Bob Mercer had chosen another track, James And The Cold Gun as the lead single, but Kate Bush was determined that ‘Wuthering Heights’ would be her first release. She won out eventually in a surprising show of determination for a young musician against a major record company, and this would not be the only time she took a stand against them to control her career.
The release date for the single was initially scheduled to be 4 November 1977. However, Bush was unhappy with the picture being used for the single's cover and insisted it be replaced. Some copies of the single had already been sent out to radio stations, but EMI relented and put back the single's launch until the New Year. Ultimately, this proved to be a wise choice, as the earlier release would have had to compete with Wings' latest release, ‘Mull of Kintyre’, which became the biggest-selling single in UK history up to this point in December 1977.
‘Wuthering Heights’ was finally released on 20 January 1978, was immediately playlisted by Capital Radio and entered their chart at no. 39 on 27 January. It crept into the national Top 50 in week ending 11 February at No.42. The following week it rose to No.27 and Bush made her first appearance on Top of the Pops ("It was like watching myself die", recalls Bush), The song was finally added to Radio One's playlist the following week and became one of the most played records on radio. When the song reached number 1, it was the first UK number 1 written and performed by a female artist.
For those who were growing up in the late-1970s, hearing an artist like Kate Bush on the radio would have been mind-blowing! Punk was still raging in 1978 and, when you look around the scene forty-two years ago, there was nothing on the same planet as Kate Bush! Sure, there were talented female songwriters, but Bush’s voice, sound and look was very much her own. A debut single concerning a classic novel (it was published in 1847 and written by Emily Brontë) is not the most conventional of things and, in 2020, it would still be considered rare! Also, although there are plenty of artists inspired by Kate Bush, if Bush arrived fresh today, I still think we would be mesmerised. My discovery of the song happened when I was a child when I saw Wuthering Heights’ video; it would have been on the ‘best of’ VHS, The Whole Story.
It was not the first of her videos I saw – that would be Them Heavy People; also from her debut album, The Kick Inside (1978) -, but I was mesmerised the first time I saw the Wuthering Heights video. Two music videos were created for the song. In one version, directed by Nick Abson, Bush dances on Salisbury Plain while wearing a red dress. It was filmed before the intended November 1977 release date. In the second version, directed by Keef, Bush is seen performing the song in a dark room filled with mist while wearing a white dress. It was the U.K. video of her in the white dress that I saw – and the preferable of the two. Although Bush, when talking about the choreography, said she was inspired by Lindsay Kemp – she attended dance lessons Kemp held in Covent Garden; she was drawn to dance due to Kemp’s Flowers (Kemp’s free interpretation of Jean Genet’s novel, Our Lady of the Flowers, with Kemp playing the central role of Divine, a transvestite transcending gender in a world of criminals, whores and angels) -, the choreography credit should have gone to Robin Kovac (or most of it). Bush did mention in interviews the influence of Lindsay Kemp but, learning of Kovac’s sense of exclusion, Bush wrote her an apology letter and mentioned her in some big interviews. The marriage of the simple-yet-compelling video with the song is amazing. Bush, wide-eyed and entranced, created a video that still seems alien and utterly beguiling all these years later. Whilst she created more developed and sophisticated videos – and looked back with a modicum of embarrassment at early videos like Wuthering Heights -, the song itself is, in my mind, the best debut single ever.
My favourite album ever is The Kick Inside, and I play Wuthering Heights and still have the same response I did as a child: disbelieving of this pure and gorgeous sound and highly unusual song. In 2019/2020, there has not been a debut single as powerful and original as Wuthering Heights. Written by an eighteen-year-old Bush in March 1977, I can imagine her with the window open as the night held silent. The fact Bush wrote the song so quickly and naturally amazes me. To have that sort of talent and unorthodox creative inspiration so young is inspiring. Wuthering Heights is the most-streamed song of Bush’s and remains her most notable track; it is her signature and, in my view, is more nuanced and staggering than some of her later hits like Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and Cloudbusting – both from 1985’s Hounds of Love. Although a remixed version featuring rerecorded vocals was included on the greatest hits album, The Whole Story, the original is still the superior version (why re-record a perfect vocal performance?!). On 20th January (Monday), I do hope radio stations play it and, if you are unfamiliar with the song or have not heard it for a while, make sure you do! Radio stations do play Kate Bush’s music but, as I have said before, many focus on a few songs from Hounds of Love and do not dig any deeper.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Harbron
Wuthering Heights is where it all began, and it introduced the world to an artist who is practically a national institution; she has gone beyond the level of a national treasure and is almost a deity to some. The word ‘unique’ is bandied about so often, and it usually is misjudged in many cases. When we call Kate Bush unique, nobody can argue against it. She has evolved and produced stunning album after stunning album since 1978 and, although her latest album, 50 Words for Snow, was released in 2011, I am hopeful an eleventh studio album will arrive in the next year or two. Wuthering Heights scored high in charts around the world - Australia: 1, Belgium: 6; France: 14, Germany: 11; Ireland: 1, Italy: 1; Netherlands: 3, New Zealand: 1 and Switzerland: 8 – and features a truly incredible performance from Bush and her band. With some legendary shredding from Ian Bairnson – whose impassioned notes take the song over the horizon –, Wuthering Heights mixes the heavenly highs of Bush’s voice with the electricity and intensity of the guitar. Before wrapping up, I want to return to the Kate Bush Encyclopedia and a quote relating to Wuthering Heights:
“When I first read Wuthering Heights I thought the story was so strong. This young girl in an era when the female role was so inferior and she was coming out with this passionate, heavy stuff. Great subject matter for a song.
I loved writing it. It was a real challenge to precis the whole mood of a book into such a short piece of prose. Also when I was a child I was always called Cathy not Kate and I just found myself able to relate to her as a character. It's so important to put yourself in the role of the person in a song. There's no half measures. When I sing that song I am Cathy.
(Her face collapses back into smiles.) Gosh I sound so intense. Wuthering Heights is so important to me. It had to be the single. To me it was the only one. I had to fight off a few other people's opinions but in the end they agreed with me. I was amazed at the response though, truly overwhelmed “ - Kate’s Fairy Tale, Record Mirror (U.K.), February 1978.
Over forty years after its release, Kate Bush’s debut single is instantly recognisable, magical and out of this world. I am not sure whether she is releasing a new album this year, but no matter. Bush’s back catalogue is finding new fans all of the time and there is so much to enjoy. When it comes to songs that knock you sideways, they don’t come…
MUCH better than Wuthering Heights.