Synopsis
Kate Bush embodies Cathy Earnshaw, the restless spirit from Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights." In the outdoor version, she dances across a windswept grassy landscape in a flowing red dress, expressing the character's longing, passion, and supernatural presence. The alternate UK video places Bush in a dark, mist-filled studio, where mirrored images, dramatic lighting, and ghostly movement create a more enclosed and spectral interpretation. In both versions, her angular choreography and intense facial expressions turn the song's emotional extremes into the video's central visual language.
Factoids & Trivia
- Two official videos were made for the single. The white-dress version was released in the UK, while the red-dress version was produced for the American market.
- The outdoor video was filmed on Salisbury Plain, whose open landscape stands in for the novel's Yorkshire moors.
- The white-dress video uses mist, stark lighting, crossfades, and multiple images of Bush to emphasize Cathy's ghostly quality.
- "Wuthering Heights" was Bush's debut single. Released in January 1978, it reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart and became her biggest-selling single.
- Bush's choreography became so recognizable that fans began organizing public reenactments in red dresses. The best-known celebration, The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, began in 2016 and inspired events in cities around the world.
- The video helped establish Bush as an artist whose performances, movement, styling, and visual concepts were inseparable from the music itself.