first female British solo artist to achieve that status. Technically, Never for Ever is the first studio album (i.e. not a greatest hits compilation) by any solo female artist to reach number 1 in the UK as only Barbra Streisand and Connie Francis had achieved the feat prior to 1980 but with compilation albums (Diana Ross had also achieved three UK number 1 albums by then but these were also compilations and were credited to Diana Ross & The Supremes, and were therefore not solo albums). Three singles were released from the album—all of which fared well in the charts. The first, "Breathing", reached No. 16 in the UK, as did the third, "Army Dreamers". The second single, "Babooshka", became one of Bush's biggest hits, peaking at No. 5 in the summer of 1980 in the UK and faring even better in Australia, where it reached No. 2 and was the 20th best-selling single of the year. The album was favourably received by music critics at the time, save for a curiously critical review in Record Mirror, which appears to criticise the album (and Bush herself), while complimenting a number of tracks. Based largely on this album, Bush was voted "Best female artist of 1980" in polls taken in Melody Maker, Sounds, the Sunday Telegraph, and Capital Radio. Bush herself has said that it was her favourite album to date. More recently, AllMusic gave the album a favourable review, complimenting the three singles most highly but said that Bush would improve on the formula on later albums. In 2020, Rolling Stone included Never for Ever in their "80 Greatest albums of 1980" list, praising Bush for her songwriting and her imagination. Track listing Personnel Credits are adapted from the Never for Ever liner notes. Kate Bush – vocals; piano; keyboards; harmony vocals; Fairlight CMI digital sampling synthesizer; Yamaha CS-80 polyphonic synthesizer (1, 4); arranger John L. Walters and Richard James Burgess – Fairlight CMI programming Max Middleton – Fender Rhodes piano (1, 3, 5, 6, 11); Minimoog (5); string arrangements (3, 6) Duncan Mackay – Fairlight CMI (4, 10) Michael Moran – Prophet-5 synthesizer (5) Larry Fast – Prophet synthesizer (11) Alan Murphy – electric guitar (1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 11); electric guitar solo (7); acoustic guitar (4, 10); bass (10) Brian Bath – electric guitar (1, 6, 7, 11); acoustic guitar (3, 4, 10); backing vocals (6, 10)