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"Wow" is a song by the English 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 (song), Wuthering Heights", ...
. Originally released on her second album '' Lionheart'' in 1978, it was issued as the album's second single in March 1979. The song became a top 20 hit in the UK and in Ireland. "'Wow' is about the music business," she told her ''KBC'' fan club magazine in 1979. "Not just
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
music but
show business Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz or showbiz (since 1945), is a vernacular term for all aspects of the entertainment industry.''Oxford English Dictionary'' 2nd Ed. (1989) From the business side (including managers, agents, produc ...
in general. It was sparked off when I sat down to try to write a
Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...
song – something spacey."


Overview

The single version is an edited version of "Wow", although it is not labelled as such on most editions. On all European "Wow" singles, the first 12 seconds of synthesiser chords have been removed. Brazil and Canada used the full-length LP version. The Canadian single featured a unique sleeve and was pressed on transparent yellow vinyl. The song was a moderate hit on Canada's
Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
singles chart in
RPM Magazine ''RPM'' ( and later ) was a Canadian music-industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. ''R ...
. The song was released in the UK on 9 March 1979 and peaked at number 14 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 ...
, remaining on the chart for ten weeks. This was an improvement on Bush's previous single, "
Hammer Horror Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classi ...
" which had stalled at No.44 a few months earlier. She also made a guest appearance on the TV Special ''ABBA in Switzerland'', where she performed this song in April 1979. Also around the time of this release, Bush embarked on her first of only two live concert tours. Due to this and the release of the single, Bush's second album '' Lionheart'' saw a resurgence of interest in the
UK albums chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
, by making a re-entry into the top twenty for several weeks. The song became a hit in other countries such as Ireland where it reached No.17. "Wow" was a target for comedian
Faith Brown Faith Brown (born Eunice Irene Carroll; 28 May 1944) is an English actress, singer, comedian and impressionist. She was a star of the ITV impressions show '' Who Do You Do?'', and was The Voice in the TV show '' Trapped!''. Brown was born in ...
who parodied it on her show. In 2012 ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' called "Wow" the "undisputed highlight" of the ''Lionheart'' album.


Release

"Wow" was released on 5 March 1979. "Wow" also appears on Bush's compilation hits album ''
The Whole Story ''The Whole Story'' is the second compilation album by English singer Kate Bush, and first greatest hits album worldwide. Released on 10 November 1986, it earned Bush her third UK number-one album and went on to become her best-selling relea ...
'', released in 1986. For the video compilation of this album, a new video was made of "Wow", featuring a montage of Bush performing live in concert. This song was featured in the 2002
Rockstar North Rockstar North Limited (formerly DMA Design Limited) is a British video game development company and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Edinburgh. The company was founded as DMA Design in Dundee in 1987 by David Jones (video game developer), D ...
video game '' Grand Theft Auto: Vice City'' as part of the
power ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner.J. M. C ...
s radio station Emotion 98.3. However, it was not featured on the 10th anniversary edition re-release.


Music video

A video was filmed for the release, featuring Bush performing the song in a darkened studio, and then backed by spotlights during the chorus. The video for "Wow" was censored by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
because the song was considered risqué. The video shows Bush patting her bottom while singing "he's too busy hitting the Vaseline". Vaseline was once defined as a personal sexual lubricant.


Track listing

All tracks written and composed by Kate Bush. 7-inch vinyl # "Wow" (edited version) – 3:46 # "Fullhouse" – 3:13


Personnel

Musicians * Charlie Morgan – drums ("Wow") * Stuart Elliot – drums ("Fullhouse") *Brian Bath – guitar ("Wow") *
Del Palmer Derek Peter "Del" Palmer is an English singer, songwriter, bass guitarist and sound engineer, best known for his work with Kate Bush, with whom he also had a long-term relationship between the late 1970s and early 1990s. He released his first so ...
– bass ("Wow") *
David Paton David Paton (; born 29 October 1949) is a Scottish bassist, guitarist and singer. He first achieved success in the mid-1970s as lead vocalist and bassist of Pilot, who scored hits with "Magic", "January", "Just a Smile" and "Call Me Round" bef ...
– bass ("Fullhouse") *
Ian Bairnson Ian Bairnson (born 3 August 1953 as ''John Bairnson'') is a Scottish musician, best known for being one of the core members of The Alan Parsons Project. He is a multi-instrumentalist, who has played saxophone and keyboards, although he is best ...
– electric
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
*
Paddy 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 ...
–
mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
("Wow") *Kate Bush – vocals, harmony vocals,
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
* Duncan Mackay –
synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
("Wow") *
Francis Monkman Francis Monkman (born 9 June 1949, in Hampstead, North London, England) is an English rock, classical and film score composer, and a founding member of both the progressive rock band Curved Air and the classical/rock fusion band Sky. He is ...
–
Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...
("Fullhouse") Production *
Andrew Powell Andrew Powell (born 18 April 1949) is an English musical composer, arranger and performer, born of Welsh parents. He himself moved to Wales in 2003. Early life Powell was born Surrey, England. He began piano lessons at the age of four and late ...
– producer *Kate Bush – assistant producer *Patrick Jaunead – assistant engineer *David Katz –
orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
contractor *
Jon Kelly Jon Kelly is a British audio engineer and record producer, who began his career as an engineer at Air London Studios. He has produced albums and singles for Chris Rea, the Damned, Kate Bush (where he co-produced with Bush on her third album ...
–
recording engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...
*Nigel Walker – assistant engineer, mixing, mixing assistant


Charts


Cover versions

* Jazz singer Liza Lee covered the song on her 2009 album ''Anima''. Lee donated proceeds of the album to the
Society for Women's Health Research The Society for Women's Health Research (SWHR) is a national non-profit organization based in Washington D.C. SWHR is the thought leader in research on biological differences in disease and is dedicated to transforming women's health through sci ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wow (Kate Bush Song) Kate Bush songs 1979 singles Songs written by Kate Bush 1978 songs EMI Records singles Song recordings produced by Andrew Powell Songs about actors 1970s ballads Rock ballads