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Stranger Things season 4 sees Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill go to number one in the official charts and surge by 153% on Spotify

Kate Bush's hit Running Up That Hill has not only surged to the top of the iTunes chart and has seen its streams on Spotify increase by 153% after it appeared in the latest season of Netflix hit Stranger Things, it's now also number 1 in the official UK charts.

The song has received critical acclaim since its release, appearing in 'The story of NME in 70 (mostly) seminal songs' as well as the magazine's tracks of the year for 1985 but only peaked at number three in the chart upon its release.

Kate Bush was born in Bexleyheath
Kate Bush was born in Bexleyheath

But its inclusion in season four of the cult sci-fi show, featuring in the first episode and at key moments involving the character Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink), has seen the Bexleyheath singer's popularity boom - it now sits at the top of the hill in the official UK charts.

The track from her album Hounds of Love is now the 63-year-old's most popular on Spotify, having overtaken Wuthering Heights.

The first part of Stranger Things season four was released last week while the second part arrives on July 1 and creators The Duffer Brothers have confirmed the series will end after season five.

It's not the first time classic hits have gone viral.

Louis Theroux's Jiggle Jiggle, a rap he performed for an episode of Weird Weekends, is fourth in Spotify's viral chart after being performed again by the journalist on YouTube's Chicken Shop Date and subsequently soundtracking numerous TikTok videos.

And Nirvana's Something in the Way overtook their most famous hit Smells Like Teen Spirit after featuring in The Batman.

Stranger Things season four hit screens last week Picture: Netflix
Stranger Things season four hit screens last week Picture: Netflix

In 2018 and 2019 hundreds of fans of Bush came together to re-create the music video for her 1978 song Wuthering Heights in Folkestone for 'The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever'.

Dressed in red dresses and donning dark wigs, men, women and children and a couple of dogs joined forces for the iconic dance on the harbour arm.

Wuthering Heights was Kate Bush's debut single. She was inspired to write the lyrics after seeing the 1967 BBC adaptation of Emily Bronte's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights.

It is sung from the perspective of the Wuthering Heights character Catherine Earnshaw to her beloved Healthcliff.

The song stayed at number one on the UK Singles Chart for four weeks and received widespread critical acclaim, with Pitchfork naming it the fifth greatest song of the 1970s.

The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever at Folkestone Harbour Arm Picture: Andy Jones
The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever at Folkestone Harbour Arm Picture: Andy Jones

The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, which honours the song and the singer, started in 2013 with Shambush! in Brighton, which attempted to set a world record for the most number of people dressed as Kate Bush in one place.

It caught on and now events are held around the world including Adelaide, Perth, Northern Rivers, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Montreal, Atlanta, Berlin, Uppsala, Wellington, Hobart, Amsterdam and Dublin.

Folkestone joined in the fun in 2018 for the first time and was the first town, rather than city, to take part.

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