The Kick Inside

Produced by Andrew Powell and released on 17 February 1978, it reached number three in the UK, spent 71 weeks on the chart and went platinum. Two demos from June 1975, The Man with the Child in His Eyes and The Saxophone Song, ended up on it. EMI gave her an advance of 3,000 pounds, and Guinness recognized her as the first woman to write every track on a million-selling debut album. Musicians on the record included Duncan Mackay, Ian Bairnson, David Paton, Stuart Elliott and Morris Pert.

The demos began with her brothers' help. A friend, Ricky Hopper, took the tapes to record companies in 1972, when she was 13, and they were passed over, but he played them to David Gilmour, who paid for better-quality demos. Before recording she studied dance with Lindsay Kemp, whom she credited in the liner notes and honored in the song Moving. After pub shows with the KT Bush Band, the remaining songs were recorded in July and August 1977 at AIR Studios in London. Bush wanted the KT Bush Band on the record, but EMI insisted on experienced session players, and Powell hired Bairnson, Mackay and Elliott among others. Gilmour is credited as executive producer on two tracks.

Singles and reception

EMI first planned James and the Cold Gun as the single, but Bush insisted on Wuthering Heights. The second single, The Man with the Child in His Eyes, reached number six in the UK and number 85 on the Billboard Hot 100, her only Hot 100 entry until 1985. Them Heavy People, Moving (number one in Japan) and Strange Phenomena followed. She appeared on Saturday Night Live in December 1978, but the album did not enter the Billboard 200.

Billboard praised Wuthering Heights and Them Heavy People. Sandy Robertson of Sounds mocked the lyrics of Kite. Marcello Carlin of Stylus wrote that the album probably kicked down more doors than the first and second waves of punk combined. In a 2019 Pitchfork review, Laura Snapes called it the sound of a young woman getting what she wants, and noted that the title song is about childbearing, with the young woman pregnant by her brother, a turn on the folk song Lucy Wan.