For a number of years now, the music charts have been influenced by world events, TV shows and movies. The use of a 37-year-old Kate Bush song in the latest season of Stranger Things has seen the iconic songstress hit the top of the iTunes chart. The song Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) features prominently in the first part of the Netflix show’s penultimate season, and that has propelled the song from 1985 to #1.
Stranger Things made a huge return to Netflix last week with seven episodes of its fourth season premiering and returning fans to Hawkins, Indiana for a run of bumper episodes that promised to reveal many secrets about the past of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and the Upside-Down. With each episode running at least 75 minutes, this has been the biggest season of Stranger Things to date, and it has to be said that the extra length has been so packed with action that the time just flies by when watching it.
Music has always played a big part in the world of Stranger Things, pulling on a rich 80s hit collection, the series has used music to foreshadow events as well as add to the nostalgic feel of the series. In the latest series, Running Up That Hill is first heard in the opening episode, when it is being listened to by Max (the fantastic Sadie Sink), and later in the season it becomes an important plot point and recurs a number of times throughout the season. It seems that many fans have not been able to get the song out of their head either, leading to a huge surge of interest for the Kate Bush classic from her Hounds of Love album.
Stranger Things Has Helped Kate Bush Beat New Songs To The Top of the Chart
Running Up That Hill originally peaked at #3 in the UK singles chart as the first single released from her Hounds of Love album, and re-entered the charts at #6 in 2012 when a remixed version was released to coincide with the 2012 Olympic Games. The song also entered the Top 30 in the Billboard 100 charts in the U.S. The use of the song in Stranger Things has now given the song an unexpected burst of life, as it has outperformed songs from Lizzo, Harry Styles and Lady Gaga on the iTunes chart.
The song is not the only nostalgic throwback in the charts right now, as thanks to Tom Cruise’s return in Top Gun: Maverick, the Kenny Loggins track Danger Zone has found itself jumping up to #9 in the singles chart, despite it not being featured in the new movie. Once again, it proves how the music charts have been impacted by any song being available to stream at any time. Unlike twenty years ago, when a song had to be officially released as a single, and songs from three or four decades earlier were not able to be considered, thanks to the likes of TikTok, as well as movie and TV uses, many older songs have found their way back into relevance, and no doubt will continue to do so in the future.