It’s 2022, and Kate Bush is sitting at the top of iTunes. All is right with the world.
And it’s mostly thanks to the release of Stranger Things season 4, which features her classic hit Running Up That Hill prominently in the very first episode. It joins other notable era-appropriate needle drops in the Netflix hit show like Should I Stay or Should I Go by the Clash, Material Girl by Madonna and The NeverEnding Story by Limahl.
Kate Bush, the influential English singer-songwriter, released Running Up That Hill in 1985 as the first single from her classic album Hounds of Love. Back then it peaked at No. 3 in the UK charts and made it all the way to 30 in the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.
The song is played fairly early on in the first episode of Stranger Things season 4. Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) plays it on her Walkman while walking through the school halls. It’s played frequently throughout the entire season, which could have contributed to the song going viral. Also contributing: The fact that the song is a timeless banger.
Running Up That Hill has also cracked the top tracks of Spotify: It’s sitting at No. 13 on Spotify’s Top 200 and at 18 on the Viral 50.
