FEATURE:
The Ultimate Greatest Hits Album?
Kate Bush’s The Whole Story at Forty
__________
HERE is an artist…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing Hounds of Love’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: United Archives/Alamy
who is overdue a second volume of her greatest hits album. There have been compilation and best ofs, though not an official greatest hits follow-up to The Whole Story. That was released on 10th November, 1986. Just over a year after Hounds of Love came out and was a major commercial success, there was now call and opportunity to put a greatest hits album out. Not opportunistic, it would give fans a chance to hear some of the earlier singles. Those who may only have known Kate Bush for Hounds of Love, there was some great pre-1985 singles that were collected into the album. Since then, there have been people asking if we will get another greatest hits. I think it is unlikely. Many artists do this. They put out a greatest hits album at a certain point and then do not put out a second. The Whole Story went four-times platinum in the United Kingdom. During Bush’s residency in London in 2014, Before the Dawn, The Whole Story charted at eight on the U.K. album chart. It went to seventeen in 2022 following the success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and its inclusion on Netflix’s Stranger Things. Kate Bush was a little hesitant to agree to a greatest hits album. The fact it became her third album number one (after Never for Ever (1980) and Hounds of Love (1985) showed that she was right to let EMI do this. My first introduction to Kate Bush was through The Whole Story. It came out on VHS, Betamax and LaserDisc editions. It looks like the U.K. VHS edition came out in 1986. It may have been 1987 when I first saw the VHS, and I was probably four. I am going to bring in a review. Some greatest hits albums suffer because they miss out notable songs or the sound mix is not great.
It is traditional for artists to include a new or unreleased track on a greatest hits, which has always confused me, as that song is not a ‘greatest hit’. In the case of The Whole Story, Bush put out the single, Experiment IV. It did okay, and I feel this song was one that could have made way for another song. I wonder if Under the Ivy, the B-side to Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), was considered. I will combine some reviews from 1986 with more recent ones. It is great reading Kate Bush recall the moment the greatest hits album was pitched and being dead against it. How she was won over:
“(…) I was asked to put out a greatest hits album by the guy at the record company. I thought it was such a crap idea and I said, “No, no way”. He came back with all this research he’d done and just completely won me over. And of course it ended up being my biggest-selling record.
Tom Doyle, ‘Kate Bush: National treasure’. Q (UK), November 2006
Yes, I was [against the release of a compilation album] at first. I was concerned that it would be like a “K-tel” record, a cheapo-compo with little thought behind it. It was the record company’s decision, and I didn’t mind as long as it was well put together. We put a lot of work into the packaging, trying to make it look tasteful, and carefully thought out the running order. And the response has been phenomenal – I’m amazed!
Kate Bush Club newsletter, Issue 22, December 1987”.
There were a couple of negative and sexist reviews of The Whole Story. One talking about how vain Bush is and she is worried more about her looks than her voice and lyrics (Buzz are responsible for that). NME were very kind. This is what Melody Maker wrote: “This glorious retrospective collection… she’s playing a high-risk game, and more often than not her irrepressible flair, her instinct for a hook, and her gift for unusual and gripping arrangements carry her through”. Record Mirror (UK) wrote this: “A monumental tribute to this craziest, coziest girl-next-door. (…) One of the most refreshing compilation LPs it would be possible to put together”.
Perhaps I have argued before how The Whole Story is the greatest greatest hits album. In terms of the quality and the songs and videos. How we can see that evolution. The videos for The Dreaming and Hounds of Love singles more cinematic than the earlier ones. The most surprising things about The Whole Story is that Bush recorded a new vocal for Wuthering Heights. Her 1978 debut single has a perfect vocal, and not many fans prefer the newer version. Bush labelled as high-pitched or girl-like, so trying to correct that and seeing the song more from a woman’s perspective than a teenager. I am curious if there will be articles about The Whole Story on its fortieth anniversary on 10th November. I did want to bring in this review for a greatest hits album that feature some of the finest singles ever released:
“The Whole Story takes the listener away on a musical ride through some of Bush’s most iconic moments from the beginning of her career. Hearing Bush’s early work in particular showcases the evolution of her wonderfully wavy vocals and wild imagination. From her softly sung piano ballad ‘The Man With The Child In His Eyes’, written at the age of just fourteen, to her spacey-orchestral experiment track ‘Wow’, taken from her second album Lionheart.
Bush uses The Whole Story to really showcase the formation of her now trademark quirkiness. With tracks like ‘Babushka’, (about a woman romantically fooling her husband) and the iconic pop anthem ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’, being flawless demonstrations of her ability to continually surprise listeners and push boundaries. Every track on The Whole Story shows the pure creativity and song-writing talent possessed by Bush – a skill heard in every one of her song’s piano notes and every drum beat.
Opening this compilation is the genius ‘Wuthering Heights’, which Bush remixed and re-recorded herself for this project. This remixing was done purely with the intent on giving the song a more mature sound, replacing Bush’s original vocals for the track when it was released in 1978, when Bush was just 19. This minor alteration in sound really does highlight the subtle change in vocal depth and resonance Bush developed in the eight years between the original track release to the polished and perfected iteration heard on The Whole Story.
Kate Bush creates magical worlds through her music, vocals and lyrics that has the fantastic ability to transport you away to a wondrous place where anything could happen. A place where Catherine and Heathcliff are together; a place where God will let you be another person to escape from the excruciating feeling of loving someone too much. The Whole Story is a vessel that ultimately transports the listener to the depths of Kate Bush’s imagination.
Kate Bush is not a singer, she is an artist. In fact, she is one of the most important artists of our time, and one that will continue to shape the music industry forever. Listening to The Whole Story is all the proof you need”.
I have written a separate feature about Experiment IV. Though I did want to spend time with The Whole Story. It was a big commercial moment. Drawing a line under one stage of her career, Bush’s next album, The Sensual World, arrived in 1989. There are some wonderful greatest hits albums, but I feel The Whole Story is the best of them all. Forty years later, the songs and videos still shine and impact. Though it is a perfect portrait of her career up to 1986, The Whole Story is not the complete picture. When it comes to Kate Bush, there is plenty…
MORE to tell.