Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill scores a third week as UK's Official Number 1 single as LF System's Afraid to Feel continues its ascent

I think your fantasising a little. This has been achieved purely by Stranger Things exposure, it’s not like it’s suddenly taken off by itself.

Not just any song would have achieved this but you can imagine multiple songs by different artists fitting into Stranger Things and taking off like this for a new lease or life.

I didn't say it wasn't due to Stranger Things. However, as you note, the song itself must be something. If "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" was on Stranger Things, it wouldn't be global #1 for weeks. Even in the latest episodes, the songs included were Journey, "Separate Ways," Metallica, "Master of Puppets," and Siouxsie and The Banshees, "Spellbound." Metallica especially was deeply integrated into the story like RUTH was, but none of these songs are going to be global #1 for weeks

I just can't think of anything else analogous at all. "Unchained Melody" was brought back to life very strongly by the movie Ghost. "Tiny Dancer" had a similar boost from Almost Famous. But neither of those songs were as minor (in the US at least) as RUTH was. And neither went to #1 in this current environment of 2022, which let's face it is *nothing* like the music environment when Ghost or Almost Famous came out decades ago.

No other song could have done this, people have fallen for this song beaus it is so modern sounding. If arminius is fantasizing too much one way you are as delusional in the other direction.

I think you made valid points this is unparalleled.
In the UK Bush is very well known more than Vega and Bjork.

More than Vega and Bjork combined - Bush's only tour for decades sold out in minutes and everything from Red Shoes onwards has been highly anticipated.

The average music fan in UK almost won't know Suzanne Vega at all. If they do, it will be because of one song only (Tom's Diner), at push Luka for a 2nd.

Kate Bush is *FAR* form an obscure act in the UK. Especially to music fans. Today she is probably better known than Madonna.

I think it's still fair to say though that Kate Bush held an almost unique position of what one might call 'mainstream obscurity' even here in the UK.

She has of course long been widely cited as brilliant and influential by all sorts of peers and followers from John Lydon to Tori Amos, yes.

But partly due to the highly unusual nature of her music (both her voice and style are definitely what could be called a ‘Marmite’ taste), partly due to how infrequently she's released anything since about 1985, famously touring precisely once at the beginning of her career then never doing it again, and partly due to her own personal reticence to play the fame game, she’s been largely invisible to the populace at large for the thick end of three decades at least, I’d say.

In purely commercial terms she is (or was, prior to recent months) only a relatively niche interest – notwithstanding that rush the other year to get tickets when she finally returned to the stage after 35 years' absence. Even what you could call her famous songs number no more than half a dozen, in terms of what you’re ever likely to hear on the radio: in approximate order of descending likeliness that’s Wuthering Heights, Running Up That Hill, Babooshka, Cloudbusting, maybe Hounds of Love or The Man With The Child In His Eyes – plus her guest role with Peter Gabriel on Don’t Give Up, which would probably slot in at 3 or 4 on that list. And she’d added nothing to that ‘popular’ canon, in the sense of stuff that a casual listener would be likely to know, since 1986.

Yet at the same time those who love her really love her. The extraordinarily individual nature of her talent and those early successes, and the sort of fandom that bred, meant that she’s always had that constituency still out there hanging on eagerly for another release, no matter how many years go by between each record.

I don’t think even the most ardent of her supporters would ever have imagined her having a multi-week run at Number One in the singles charts, and topping other charts all over the globe, over two decades into the 21st century however...

In a way, I think Bowie is in a similar place: Huge success early in the career (1972-5), sporadic but highly anticipated albums ever since. None coming close to the pre-1975 success. He doesn't get much radio play now, and maybe 10 mega-hits that casual listeners would know. And of course, the avant-garde style. Thanks to Life On Mars / Ashes To Ashes etc. he is still popular with TV music supervisors!

I can probably think of a few others with similar stories, but they don't have the same scale of success (even their best-known records are obscure to the casual listener) e.g. Depeche Mode.

I think Bowie's a bit of a stretch there, surely?! The feted 'Berlin Trilogy' are late '70s, and then he was having some of his biggest commercial successes throughout the first half of the 1980s, with Ashes To Ashes, Under Pressure with Queen, Let's Dance, China Girl, Modern Love, Dancing In The Street with Mick Jagger and Absolute Beginners all hitting either #1 or #2 on the singles chart and the Scary Monsters and Let's Dance albums among his most successful ever.

In terms of critical success, it's fair to say there was a sharp and slippery descent around that time though, of course. And like Kate, he recorded nothing you'd truly call a mainstream hit after 1986 – in his case, Absolute Beginners was the last. But he was always a superstar, in a way that doesn't really compare with the level someone even as as successful as Ms Bush reached. And "10 mega-hits that casual listeners would know" is surely pretty good going for almost any act.

I'm completely with you on Depeche Mode, though. I'm a massive Mode fan but have always been acutely aware that that puts me in a real minority in mainstream terms – even if their global fanbase is huge and widespread overall, such that they're effectively the world's biggest cult band. I rather enjoy this, mind!

And strange factoid – the two Davids, Gahan and Bowie actually knew each other: they used to bump into each other on the school run in New York in the early years of the millennium when they both had young kids going to the same school, and would sort of hang out together at the gates. DM also recorded a live tribute version of Heroes the other year, the video for which is on YouTube.

Being a stretch to Bowie, shows how close to unique Kate's career is. Bowie called Let's Dance his nadir (speaking creatively). Commercially probably his biggest hit. He also struggled before 1972 for almost a decade with 4 or 5 different guises for an act: Mannish Boys / Lower 3rd, Davy Jones and the stylophone breakthrough Space Oddity was thought for a couple of years to be his route to One Hit Wonder status.

Contemporaries like Abba and Queen had huge sustained success then faded when they stopped recording and neither had a catalogue that went away and are just as popular 30+ years on. Bee Gees had a 10 year gap between initial success (Barry, called their SNF/disco era as "second fame"), that 2nd fame era catalogue is the really well known popular stuff now.

Kylie had huge SAW success with a gap to Spinning Around/CGYOMH and the odd #1 album recently.

None have had their late 2nd-fame era spring into resurgence decades later. All are megastar status that even people not interested in music have heard of (and probably know a few hits). Anyone less successful is truly obscure among the general public.

Seems Kate's career is that cusp point between being remembered and er, ...not!

I'm doing research to quantify (if possible) that cusp point and may use Kate as a case study yardstick :-)
Is there a point at which success breeds success? How long does it have to be sustained before an act is forgotten? Almost like a chart-stats ADSR!

Those Bowie singles you mention are among the 10 I was thinking of. The others, possibly Life On Mars (partly due to the TV show), Space Oddity, and near the lower end of ubiquity, Sound & Vision and Fashion. As you say, most acts would be happy with just one of those!