[Aniplinipsync]

I'll admit, I do like the howls at the end of the new version...but they still seem calculated, unlike the original, which sounds like she didn't so much write the song as start singing and having it come out perfectly formed.

And I'm with everyone who thinks that the version on TWS isn't as likely to convert people...I know it was the original Wuthering Heights that convinced me to dig out my unloved copies of Hounds Of Love and The Sensual World and reevaluate them...

[ttiokjbnhjjillp]

well the 2nd version made me buy the TWS immediately after I heard it on the radio (yeah they play Kate here) I was like holy shit, this bitch is good.

but something about the original version is magical to me.

[Unakjyfk]

I wouldn't call myself a Kate Bush fan, though I definitely appreciate a lot of her work... The reason this distinction exists is that I have never gotten into her singing, so the more subdued new vocal version is better for me than the Korean Invader Villain Voice of the original.

[Ruiceara]

Yes well, the song is being sung by Cathy, the ghost of a dead woman trying to reach through the veil to her beloved Heathcliff, who is still on the earthly plane. The more histrionic the vocal, the better it reflects the subject matter.

[Unakjyfk]

I know that but the vocal didn't change much throughout "The Kick Inside" and only Wuthering Heights is about Cathy... I respect that a lot of people love exactly that vocal and I know that her voice spans several octaves but it still is way too shrieky for me as a listener.

[Ruiceara]

I understand, believe me.

[Escamsrasiush]

Original all the way. The "new vocal" is honestly a little boring.

[EspanaCamsInfo]

i love both equally, but i do listen to the "new vocal" more often. it's easier to sing along with.

[Yifnvmzp]

It's odd that they used WH86 as the b-side for Experiment IV in the promotion of The Whole Story. I'd have thought they'd use it as a second single. Maybe Kate was opposed to that, not wanting to be seen as re-hashing old material for singles chart success.

I've always presumed the "New Vocal" is actually a complete re-recording. Is that right?

[Ruiceara]

It's odd that they used WH86 as the b-side for Experiment IV in the promotion of The Whole Story. I'd have thought they'd use it as a second single. Maybe Kate was opposed to that, not wanting to be seen as re-hashing old material for singles chart success.

I've always presumed the "New Vocal" is actually a complete re-recording. Is that right?

She redid the vocal and remixed the track. Quotes:

http://gaffa.org/cloud/music/wutheri...ew_vocal_.html

I wanted to put a contemporary mark on it. I felt it sounded like a very little girl singing that to me, and the production was very much a Seventies production. And although there were some other tracks in there that you could say the same thing of, they weren't as blatant as that one was. If I had had the time I probably would have done the same to some of the other tracks. But there was just no time; there was too much to do with recording and writing `` Experiment Iv'' plus doing the video. It was a very intense period to get that out on the deadline. (1987, MuchMusic) Why did you re-do the vocals on `` wuthering heights?"

Well, to be honest, I think if we'd had more time I probably would have done the same with a couple of other songs. I just felt that ``Wuthering Heights'' felt particularly dated. It sounded dated. The other tracks were just kind of holding their heads above water. And so we liked the idea of re-doing the vocal and remixing the track - not re- recording anything else - just so we could bring it up to date, so we could give it a more contemporary sound. (1989, Reaching Out)

[stastony]

Hahah, she would have done to Wow and MWTCIHE what Tori did to Bliss and Spark? Nooooooooooooooooooooooo.

I've been on a Kate-listening kick again recently after quite a long break and I've decided the original is the better version. It's a young Kate song and so suits the young girlish vocals. Also, it's locked into a time, place and actually, an album (TKI) for me.

Wuthering Heights is a fixed point in time. Trufax. Pass it on.
/Whojack

[k1ePRlda]

People often argue that the original vocal is too squeaky but that's precisely what I love about it.

And there's a lot more vocal variation on TKI than people seem to give credit for. She uses her mellower voice a lot too. Indeed the other big single was TMWTCIHE which is her softer vocal. Indeed I think withering heights has the most extreme of the witchy vocal sound though there are degree of it in a fair few of the songs.

[RooxiaNof]

my judgment may be biasd since I heared the New Vocal version first! and it was so rich, so lush, so full! and then I heared the original version and it sounded so empty to me... but maybe if I heared the original one first I might like it more..but for now I choose the New Vocal version.

[Fiesialenp]

The original is, for me, perfect as it is.

I haven't heard the New Vocal one in ages but I remember thinking it was nice enough but not as good or as striking as the original.

[Yifnvmzp]

I wonder what a 2010 version would sound like?

[Appeselve]

Maybe it's just me, but the vocal in the original version just has that "aura" of 1978, and to me, that "nostalgic" essence surrounding the original version just lets the song brew like good wine. The new version is like pouring new wine into an old bottle. Maybe it'd be better if Kate actually re-touched the song again instead of using the original track.

[rootoronpunty]

Hahah, she would have done to Wow and MWTCIHE what Tori did to Bliss and Spark? Nooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Oh god no, there's no way that Wuthering '85 plunges of the depths of suck that TOAL did.

I would not mind a similar re-recording of Wow either... In fact I would suggest they take out those ridiculous horn synths in the chorus. The song has this amazing floating-through-space vibe, and then all of the sudden the horns come in and I'm standing in a Ren Fair surrounded by bad costumes.

[chuecaloversvvp]

The original was not the first one I heard, so I am not attached to it like some others. I prefer the "new" version.

As you may have read in some of my other posts I do not like people with very extreme voices (super-high, Super-low) because I am a fuddyduddy. (Maybe it's really because I listen to music loudly in headphones a lot and too much bass breaks the damn things and too much treble hurts my ears).

I Love some high-pitched singers like Joanna Newsom but even some of her songs get to me; for some reason her latest album is ripping apart my crappy car stereo speakers and I have to listen to that one album on really low volume

[Ruiceara]

^ My cat gets up and scratches at the door to beg me to let her out of the room when I play Kate's music.

[chuecaloversvvp]

^I love her lyrics and quite a few of her songs but she does hit the high frequencies quite a bit and I guess I'm just very sensitive to it.

I almost had an aneurysm the first time I heard Sarah Brightman doing Phantom of the Opera. Mariah Carey makes me want to stab my ears with icepicks with her "whistle register" (among other things, like her crappy songwriting or whoreish personality).