Running Up That Hill

"Running Up That Hill", titled "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" on some releases, is a song by the British singer and songwriter Kate Bush. It was released in the United Kingdom as the lead single from Bush's album ''Hounds of Love'' on 5 August 1985 by EMI Records. The lyrics imagine a scenario in which a man and a woman make "a deal with God" to exchange places. Bush wrote and produced "Running Up That Hill" using a Fairlight CMI synthesiser and a LinnDrum drum machine.

Upon its original release, "Running Up That Hill" reached number three on the UK Singles Chart and number 30 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the United States, and was Bush's first US Top 40 hit. Bush first performed it live in 1987 at the Secret Policeman's Third Ball, accompanied by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour; she did not perform it again until her 2014 Before the Dawn concerts. Other appearances were promotional lip synced television performances, which were common at the time.

In 2012, a remix of the song featuring newly recorded vocals premiered during that year's Summer Olympics closing ceremony, and entered the UK top 10 for one week, at number six.

In 2022, "Running Up That Hill" received renewed attention when it was featured in the fourth season of the Netflix series ''Stranger Things''. Its appearance led to the song's resurgence on charts around the world, topping the charts in eight countries, including the United Kingdom for three consecutive weeks, Ireland for seven consecutive weeks and Australia for nine non-consecutive weeks. The song also reached a new peak of number three on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.

Writing and recording

"Running Up That Hill" was the first song Bush composed for her fifth album, ''Hounds of Love'' (1985). She wrote it in a single evening at her home, and recorded the first version with the engineer Del Palmer, using a Fairlight CMI synthesiser and a LinnDrum drum machine. The main riff was played on the Fairlight using its sampled cello sound. Bush, Palmer and the engineers Paul Hardiman and Haydn Bendall built upon this version to develop the final song, spending particular time on the Fairlight part.

Bush said the lyrics address the inability of men and women to understand each other. She imagined that by making "a deal with God", they could exchange places and reach a greater understanding. The song was originally titled "A Deal with God", but representatives at EMI Records feared this would make it unpopular in more religious countries.Radio 1 Classic Albums interview with Richard Skinner aired 26 January 1992
/ref> The album version of the song is listed as "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)".

Music video

The music video features Bush performing an interpretive dance with dancer Michael Hervieu. The video was directed by David Garfath while the dance routines were choreographed by Diane Grey. Bush and Hervieu are shown wearing grey Japanese hakamas. Bush wanted the dancing in "Running Up That Hill" to be more of a classical performance. She stated that dance in music videos was "being used quite trivially, it was being exploited: haphazard images, busy, lots of dances, without really the serious expression, and wonderful expression, that dance can give. So we felt how interesting it would be to make a very simple routine between two people, almost classic, and very simply filmed. So that's what we tried, really, to do a serious piece of dance."http://gaffa.org/cloud/music/running_up_that_hill.html Dance comments

The choreography draws upon contemporary dance with a repeated gesture suggestive of drawing a bow and arrow (the gesture was made literal on the cover for the single in which Bush poses with a real bow and arrow), intercut with surreal sequences of Bush and Hervieu searching through crowds of masked strangers. At the climax of the song, Bush's partner withdraws from her and the two are then swept away from each other and down a long hall in opposite directions by an endless stream of anonymous figures wearing masks made from pictures of Bush and Hervieu's faces. MTV chose not to show this video (at the time of its original release) and instead used a playback "live" performance of the song recorded at a promotional appearance on the BBC
...