"Moments of Pleasure" is a song written and recorded by British musician

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 ...

, released in November 1993 as the third single from Bush's seventh studio album, '' The Red Shoes'' (1993). The song peaked at number 26 on 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 ...

Composition

In this song, Bush remembers friends and family who have died, including guitarist

Alan Murphy Alan Murphy (18 November 1953 – 19 October 1989) was a British rock session guitarist, best remembered for his collaborations with Kate Bush and Go West. In 1988, he joined the jazz-funk band Level 42 as a full-time band member, and played wi ...

, film director

Michael Powell Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a seri ...

, dancer Gary Hurst, lighting engineer Bill Duffield, and others. Composer and musician

Michael Kamen Michael Arnold Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American composer (especially of film scores), orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, songwriter, and session musician. Biography Early life Michael Arnold Kamen was born ...

arranged and conducted the orchestra, expanding on Bush's original piano accompaniment. Bush wrote the chorus "to those we love, to those who will survive" for her mother, who was sick at the time of recording. She died a short time later. The '' Director's Cut'' version features the chorus without lyrics.

Critical reception

In his review of the song, Ben Thompson from ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' commented, "A smile and a tear from the

Welling Welling is an area of South East London, England, in the London Borough of Bexley, west of Bexleyheath, southeast of Woolwich and of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater London in 1965, it was in the historical county of Kent. E ...

siren." Alan Jones from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'' gave it four out of five and named it Pick of the Week, writing, "Beautiful and traditional Bush fare with expansive orchestrations, poignant vocals and off-her-trolley lyrics. As subtle as " Rubberband Girl" was direct, and probably as big a hit."

B-sides

Prior to its inclusion in ''The Other Side 2'', part of the 2018 ''Remastered'' collection, B-side "Show a Little Devotion" was one of Bush's more elusive songs, only appearing on a small handful of CD singles that were released just prior to Christmas 1993. The version of "

December Will Be Magic Again "December Will Be Magic Again" is a festive-themed song by English singer-songwriter Kate Bush. It was released as a single in the UK in November 1980. Song release "December Will Be Magic Again" was written and originally recorded in 1979 at Ab ...

" that appears on this release is slightly different from all the other mixes previously released. It is essentially the same as the original single mix, but it is brighter, and the percussion instruments are different. The CD release also includes "

Experiment IV "Experiment IV" is a song by the English singer Kate Bush. It was released as a single on 27 October 1986, in order to promote Bush's greatest hits album ''The Whole Story''. The single peaked at 23 in the UK Singles Chart, simultaneously with " ...

" which was released in 1986. The 12-inch and cassette releases contain an instrumental version of "Moments of Pleasure", which has yet to be released on CD, and a third track entitled "Home for Christmas", which was also released on the US " Rubberband Girl", CD single. This was the first and only Kate Bush single (that received a physical release) not to be issued on 7-inch vinyl in the United Kingdom.

Track listings

12-inch CD Collectors CD Box Set (includes four colour prints) Cassette

Personnel

– vocals, piano *

– orchestral arrangements

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moments Of Pleasure Kate Bush songs 1993 singles 1993 songs EMI Records singles Commemoration songs Songs written by Kate Bush