Kate Bush -- Wuthering Heights

Wikimedia Commons

Welcome to another Holiday edition of Reminiscings of Youth.

Of course, being the long weekend, our entire family got together for dinner. No Thanksgiving turkey for 2025...we opted for sushi instead and after coming back to our place for rest and dessert, I noticed that my niece had a book on the coffee table which looked rather old and ornate. I didn't see the title on the cover so I asked her what she was reading.

Well, she answered "Wuthering Heights" from 1847. And I was rather surprised and impressed. I'm not sure whether the Emily Bronte classic was ever considered mandatory reading in high schools; it wasn't in mine but I did hear of the novel and its many adaptations for the big screen and small over the decades. Mind you, the only name I remember from the story is Heathcliff. Plus, my imagination whenever I hear the title is of two lovers from a century and a half ago in full embrace on a windy grassy plain on top of a cliff while a storm is surrounding them. I gather that the weather was really reaching the heights of wuthering at the time.

The above is the 1967 BBC adaptation of "Wuthering Heights" starring a very young Ian McShane. Wow! The earliest I remember the future manager of that hotel with assassins galore was that rather tragic episode of "Space: 1999" in the early 1970s.

Well, according to the relevant Wikipedia article, that 1967 adaptation inspired one young teenager in the UK and quickly wrote a song about it. She also decided to read the original novel and discovered that she even shared a birthday with Bronte. The lass was Kate Bush and so impressed she was with "Wuthering Heights" that she simply had to call what would be her classic song, "Wuthering Heights".

Released in January 1978 as her debut song, "Wuthering Heights" wasn't the first song by Bush that I had ever heard. There was a weird music video that I saw many years later (can't even remember the title or the song) with her and a bunch of costumed characters in a slow mass dance which would be my introduction to the ethereal and beautiful singer. However, listening to "Wuthering Heights" and seeing the two music videos attached to it, I can say that it is the Kate Bushiest Kate Bush song that I've ever encountered and that's even after coming across "Babooshka".

In both videos, she appears as this ghostly sprite on a performance art binge while this gentle art pop melody rolls away and her vocals soar above in the heavens in a way that I would describe as either godly or witch-ly. If I were to make any comparisons between her and Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）, it's always through "Wuthering Heights".

The song hit No. 1 in her native UK and even spent four weeks up at the top. Australia, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, and Portugal also gave "Wuthering Heights" their No. 1 ranking. Strangely enough, in Japan where the single was known as "Arashigaoka"（嵐が丘）, the song was known as the theme for an NTV late-night Saturday variety program "Koi no Karasawagi" (恋のから騒ぎ...Much Ado About Love).

So, just a few days before the release of "Wuthering Heights", what Oricon songs were also at the height of the chart?

1. Pink Lady -- UFO

2. Miyuki Nakajima -- Wakare Uta (わかれうた）(cover version)

4. Pink Lady -- Wanted