December 9, 1989
- STAYED AT #1:3 Weeks
In The Alternative Number Ones, I'm reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This column is a companion piece to The Number Ones, and it's for subscribers only. Thank you to everyone who's helping to keep Stereogum afloat.
A couple of weeks ago, Kate Bush was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, and she surprised exactly zero people by neglecting to show up. Kate Bush doesn't show up to things. It's a key part of her mystique. Bush has toured exactly once, in 1979. She's performed in the US exactly once -- musical-guest duties on a 1978 Saturday Night Live episode with Eric Idle as the guest host. Whenever Kate Bush leaves the house for any reason, it's a five-alarm story in the music press. She wasn't going to no damn Hall Of Fame induction ceremony. I wonder if she even watched Big Boi give her induction speech and St. Vincent cover "Running Up That Hill."
"Running Up That Hill," as you probably already know, is the reason that the Hall Of Fame inducted Kate Bush after all of her years of eligibility. In 2022, that song caught a sudden and glorious surge of attention after being featured heavily on the most recent season of Stranger Things. (Winona Ryder, one of that show's stars, says that she pushed for the song's inclusion, which absolutely tracks.) "Running Up That Hill" suddenly became a global smash, topping charts around the planet and coming very close to the apex of the Billboard Hot 100. It was one of the most beautiful feel-good stories of the past few years of pop music, and Kate Bush didn't have to do a single thing to set its wheels in motion. "Running Up That Hill" was already her biggest hit before Stranger Things, and the song was just sitting there, waiting for entire new generations to notice.