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Kate Bush once wrote the 'Wuthering Heights' lyrics out in full for a fan

The memorabilia sold for £7,000 shortly after her comeback gigs in 2014

Jess Denham
Tuesday 26 January 2016 12:19 GMT
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Tickets to Kate Bush's Hammersmith Apollo residency sold out in minutes
Tickets to Kate Bush's Hammersmith Apollo residency sold out in minutes (Rex)

Kate Bush might be one of the most influential singers ever but aged just 19 she proved she was a lovely person too by replying to a letter from a young fan.

The Ivor Novello winner, now 57, performed a sell-out 22-night residency at Hammersmith Apollo in 2014 after a decades-long absence.

But at the start of her career, she took the time to build up a dedicated fanbase and endeavoured to respond to mail. In 1978, she received a letter from 14-year-old David, who had asked her for the lyrics to her debut number one hit “Wuthering Heights”.

Bush took a sheet of paper from the Hotel Intercontinental in Paris where she was stayed and scrawled out the following message in blue ballpoint:

Dear David,

Thank you very much for writing to me - I’m thrilled that you want to know the words of my single, it’s no trouble to write them for you and it certainly won’t cost you!

I’m glad you’ve read the book, I think it is so beautiful. I hope you enjoy the album.

Best of luck with all that you’re doing,

God bless,

Love Kate Bush xxx

Bush wrote the lyrics on the back of the letter and included a signed photograph telling David to “keep smiling”.

David sold the memorabilia in London for almost £7,000 shortly after Bush’s comeback gigs.

“At the time, the song was the most extraordinary thing I had ever heard and I was utterly mesmerised by her performance when she appeared on Top of the Pops,” he said at the auction. “I was in love with the song so I wrote to EMI Records for the lyrics. Much to my amazement a few weeks later I received a reply from the lady herself.

“She had not only handwritten all the lyrics for me but also included a letter and a sign photograph of herself - an image that, at the time, was this teenage boy’s dream and made me the envy of all my friends.

“Even now, after all these years, I’m still amazed by the effort she went to in sending this to me.”

For those of you fancying a sing-a-long:

“Wuthering Heights”

Out on the wiley windy moors

We’d roll and fall in green

You had a temper, like my jealousy, too hot, too greedy

How could you leave me?

When I needed to possess you, I hated you, I loved you too

Bad dreams in the night

They told me I was going to lose the fight

Leave behind my Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights

Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy, come home

I’m so cold, let me in-a-your window

Ooh it gets dark, it gets lonely

On the other side from you

I pine a lot, I find the lot, fall throughs without you

I’m coming back, love, cruel Heathcliff

My now dream, my only master

Too long I roam in the night

I’m coming back to his side to put it right

I’m coming home to Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights

Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy, come home

I’m so cold, let me in-a-your window

Ooh let me have it, let me grab your soul away

Ooh let me have it, let me grab your soul away

You know it’s me, Cathy

Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy, come home

I’m so cold, let me in-a-your window

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