"Hounds of Love" is a song written, produced and performed by English art rock singer

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single " Wuthering Heights", becoming the first female ...

. It is the title track and the third single released from her No. 1 studio album ''

Hounds of Love ''Hounds of Love'' is the fifth studio album by English musician Kate Bush, released on 16 September 1985 by EMI Records. It was a commercial success and marked a return to the public eye for Bush after the relatively low sales of her previous ...

''. The single was released on 24 February 1986, and reached No. 18 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

Overview

The song is about being afraid to fall in love; in the song this feeling is compared to being chased by a pack of hounds. The versions worldwide differ slightly: the US single mix included an additional chorus just after the second chorus. The words "it's in the trees, it's coming!" heard at the beginning of the track are sampled from the British 1957 horror film ''

Night of the Demon ''Night of the Demon'' (in the United States, released as ''Curse of the Demon'') is a 1957 British horror film, produced by Hal E. Chester and Frank Bevis, directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall MacG ...

'' and are mouthed by an actor from the film, Reginald Beckwith, who plays a medium channelling a character played by

Maurice Denham William Maurice Denham OBE (23 December 1909 – 24 July 2002) was an English character actor who appeared in over 100 films and television programmes in his long career. Family Denham was born on 23 December 1909 in Beckenham, Kent, the son ...

, who provides the voice. In October 2004, '' Q'' magazine placed this song at No. 21 in its list of the 50 greatest British songs of all time. The song was performed live for the first time as part of the 2014 Before the Dawn residency, in which the lyrics were slightly altered. English

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...

band

the Futureheads The Futureheads are an English post-punk band from Sunderland, formed in 2000. The band consists of Ross Millard (vocals and guitar), David "Jaff" Craig (vocals and bass guitar) and brothers Barry Hyde (vocals and guitar) and Dave Hyde (drums ...

covered the song in 2005, scoring a UK Top 10 hit with it. Faroese singer Eivør also covered the song in 2010 on her album ''Larva''.

Music video

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

was made for the song, which Bush herself directed. It was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's thriller film '' The 39 Steps'' (1935) and a Hitchcock lookalike also features in the video (a nod to the director's famous cameo appearances in his movies).

Track listings

All songs written and composed by Kate Bush, except "The Handsome Cabin Boy", which is a traditional composition. "Alternative Hounds of Love" is not a remix, but an early version, with slightly different lyrics. 7-inch single (UK) 7-inch single (US) 12-inch single (UK) 12-inch single (US)

Personnel

– vocals,

Fairlight CMI The Fairlight CMI (short for Computer Musical Instrument) is a digital synthesizer, sampler, and digital audio workstation introduced in 1979 by Fairlight. — with links to some Fairlight history and photos It was based on a commercial lic ...

* Stuart Elliott – drums * Charlie Morgan – drums *Jonathan Williams –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

Charts

Certifications

The Futureheads version

"Hounds of Love" was covered by English

band

for their self-titled debut album and was released as a single in February 2005. The single peaked at No. 8 on the UK charts in its first week and was named Best Single of 2005 by ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

''. In October 2011, ''NME'' placed it at No. 89 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".

Music video

The music video for the Futureheads version was filmed at a

public park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to r ...

in Los Angeles at night. Various dog breeds run around the band throughout the video. The video was finished by Sunrise.

Track listings

7-inch vinyl single CD single No. 1 CD single No. 2

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control Kate Bush songs 1986 singles The Futureheads songs 2005 singles Songs written by Kate Bush 1984 songs