"Hammer Horror" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Kate Bush | ||||
from the album Lionheart | ||||
B-side | "Coffee Homeground" | |||
Released | 27 October 1978 | |||
Recorded | July–September 1978 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 4:39 4:25 (edit) | |||
Label | EMI | |||
Songwriter(s) | Kate Bush | |||
Producer(s) | Andrew Powell assisted by Kate Bush | |||
Kate Bush singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Hammer Horror" on YouTube |
"Hammer Horror" is a song by Kate Bush, released as first single from her second album Lionheart . It was released on 27 October 1978. The song peaked at No. 44 on the UK Singles Chart. [1] The parent album, released a few weeks later and charted in the top 10. "Hammer Horror"'s low chart position proved to be temporary phenomenon, for Bush's next single returned her to the top 20. In other countries it fared better, such as Ireland and Australia, where the song reached No. 10 [2] and No.17 respectively.
Whilst in Australia during a promotional tour, Kate Bush devised the dance routine for the song in her Melbourne hotel room, and performed the song on the television show Countdown . [3]
The song references Hammer Films, a company specializing in horror movies. However, Bush conceived of the song after viewing the film Man of a Thousand Faces , a biographical film – not produced by Hammer – about Lon Chaney starring James Cagney. "The song was inspired by seeing James Cagney playing the part of Lon Chaney playing the hunchback", Bush stated in 1979. "He was an actor in an actor in an actor, rather like Chinese boxes, and that's what I was trying to create." The story of the song concerns an actor who gets thrust into the lead role of The Hunchback of Notre Dame after the original actor dies in an accident on the film set. [4] The guilt-ridden narrator of the song ends up being haunted by the ghost of the jealous original actor, who was a former friend. A promotional video was made for the single featuring Bush and a black-masked dancer performing the song against a black background.
The B-side of the song was "Coffee Homeground", which also featured on Lionheart.
All tracks written and composed by Kate Bush.
7" vinyl
7" vinyl (Japan) [5]
Musicians
Production
Chart (1978–79) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australia (Kent Music Report) [6] | 17 |
Ireland (IRMA) [2] | 10 |
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40) [7] | 25 |
Netherlands (Single Top 100) [8] | 25 |
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ) [9] | 21 |
Spain (AFE) [10] | 35 |
UK Singles (OCC) [1] | 44 |
Catherine Bush 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 artist to achieve a UK number one with a self-written song. Bush has since released 25 UK Top 40 singles, including the Top 10 hits "The Man with the Child in His Eyes", "Babooshka", "Running Up That Hill", "Don't Give Up", and "King of the Mountain". All nine of her studio albums reached the UK Top 10, with all but one reaching the top five, including the UK number one albums Never for Ever (1980), Hounds of Love (1985) and the greatest hits compilation The Whole Story (1986). She was the first British solo female artist to top the UK album charts and the first female artist to enter the album chart at number one.
Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney was an American actor and makeup artist. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted, characters, and his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. Chaney was known for his starring roles in such silent horror films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). His ability to transform himself using makeup techniques that he developed, earned him the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Faces".
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