"There Goes a Tenner" is a song by the English singer

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and dancer. Bush began writing songs at age 11. She was signed to EMI Records after David Gilmour of Pink Floyd helped produce a demo tape. In 1978, at the ...

. It was released as a single on 1 November 1982, the third to be taken from her album ''

The Dreaming The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal mythology. It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by hi ...

''. It was released as a 7-inch single in the UK and Ireland only. The single peaked at No. 93 and spent two weeks in the UK singles chart.

Background

"There Goes a Tenner" attracted no interest from radio stations and television stations. The single did not sell well and became Bush's first single to miss the top 75 in the UK. It was originally intended to be Bush's first

twelve-inch single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12) is a type of vinyl (polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a "single" or a few related sound tracks on each surface, compar ...

, but its disappointing sales performance caused plans for the 12-inch to be cancelled. The song's lyrics concern a bungled bank robbery as told by a fearful and paranoid perpetrator. As Bush stated;

"It's about amateur robbers who have only done small things, and this is quite a big robbery that they've been planning for months, and when it actually starts happening, they start freaking out. They're really scared, and they're so aware of the fact that something could go wrong that they're paranoid and want to go home."

Towards the end of the song, the lyrics and tone take on a dream-like state, which is reflected in the video. A review in ''

Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper published between 1954 and 1991, aimed at pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after ''New Musical Express'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK Album ...

'' commented that despite the comic tone of the song, the end left a rather unnerving effect. Bush sang it in what has been described as "a curious accent that seemed to veer from an

aristocrat The aristocracy (''from Greek'' ''ἀριστοκρατία'' ''aristokratía'', "rule of the best"; ''Latin: aristocratia'') is historically associated with a "hereditary" or a "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the ...

to an East End villain" (see ''

mockney Mockney (a portmanteau of " mock" and "cockney") is an affected accent and form of speech in imitation of cockney or working-class London speech, or a person with such an accent. A stereotypical mockney speaker comes from an upper-middle-class b ...

''). The B-side, " Ne t'enfuis pas" ("Don't Run Away") is spelt incorrectly on the actual single as "Ne T'en Fui Pas", which has no meaning in French.

Critical reception

Upon its release as a single,

Neil Tennant Neil Francis Tennant (born 10 July 1954) is an English singer, songwriter and music journalist, and co-founder of the synth-pop duo the Pet Shop Boys, which he formed with Chris Lowe in 1981. He was a journalist for '' Smash Hits'', and assist ...

of ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand ...

'' described "There Goes a Tenner" as "very weird". He noted that Bush "sings a fractured tune partly in a cockney accent" and added the song has "a haunting atmosphere that lingers after the record has finished". Richard Hook of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' called it "a peculiar choice" for a single "from a baffling LP" and commented, "Rococo embellishments flit around this odd story like fireflies in a belfry, the tale told in the usual Berlitz range of voices."

Personnel

– piano,

Fairlight CMI The Fairlight CMI (short for Computer Musical Instrument) is a digital synthesizer, music sampler, and digital audio workstation introduced in 1979 by Fairlight. — with links to some Fairlight history and photos It was based on a commerc ...

Yamaha CS-80 The Yamaha CS-80 is an analog synthesizer introduced by Yamaha Corporation in 1977. It supports true 8-voice polyphony, with two independent synthesizer layers per voice each with its own set of front panel controls, in addition to a number of ha ...

, vocals *

Del Palmer Derek Peter Palmer (3 November 1952 – 5 January 2024) was an English musician and sound engineer, best known for his work with Kate Bush, with whom he also had a long-term personal relationship from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. He releas ...

– bass guitar * Stuart Elliott – drums *

Dave Lawson David Alexander Webster Lawson (born 25 September 1978) is an Australian actor and TV personality. Early life Lawson grew up in the Bayside area of Melbourne and completed his secondary education at Haileybury College. He performed in the ...

–

Synclavier The Synclavier is an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation manufactured by New England Digital Corporation of Norwich, Vermont. It was produced in various forms from the late 1970s into the ea ...

Chart performance

References

{{Authority control Kate Bush songs 1982 singles Songs written by Kate Bush EMI Records singles 1982 songs Novelty songs