Rocktrospectiva: Kate Bush Brilliant Single "Running Up That Hill" Turns 40

Still sounds ahead of its time "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" by the British artist, singer and composer Kate Bush is turning 40 years of its original released, 40 years ago on 5 August 1985. The single become recently a massive Top Ten in the US radio back in 2022 due in huge part by the success of the Netflix TV show "Stranger Things", even though it was a song she released back in the 1980s

Back in 1985, her classic synth-goth anthem sounded ahead of its time, there was litherally nothing like that back then. "Running Up That Hill” came out on Bush's 1985 breakthrough album, Hounds of Love. Despite Bush was already a highly acclaimed singer-songwriter, with a fervent cult following around the world, this tune and the album was the breaking point in her career.

"Running Up That Hill" features synthesisers, guitar, bass, a driving drum beat and balalaika, a Russian string instrument. It uses the key of C minor, with a vocal melody focusing on the minor seventh, creating tension and a sense of pending resolution. On the word "could", Bush sings a major seventh over an A-flat major chord, using dissonance to create more tension. The drummer, Stuart Elliott, said: "The tension in that track is just remarkable. Every step of the way, there's a little twist and turn that's different from the previous verse — an extra line or one line less, or a repeat just in the perfect places. 

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 her record label, EMI Records, felt this was sensitive and could limit its radio play. Bush agreed to change it as she had not had a hit song in some time and wanted to "give the album a chance". 

The music video was directed by David Garfath and choreographed by Diane Grey. It features Bush performing an interpretive dance with the dancer Misha Hervieu. Bush felt 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". Instead, she wanted to create a "serious piece of dance" comprising a simple routine between two people. In the video, Bush mimics an archer pulling a bow, an idea she reused for the single cover. Hervieu said she was cast as she was not following the trends of dance in pop music at the time. As Hervieu was much taller than Bush, they discovered Bush could wrap around her body "like a snake" and incorporated this into the dance. To evade Equity union rules against moonlighting.

Since her earlier days, she had her own eccentric sound, with her literary piano ballads and eerie soprano. Growing up in the English countryside, raised on Roxy Music and Elton John, she was discovered by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, leading to her 1978 debut album The Kick Inside. Her music didn’t fit into any format—but blew minds anyway. She had a surprise U.K. smash with "Wuthering Heights," her ballad based on the Emily Bronte novel. 

But Hounds of Love made her a superstar, with hits like "Cloudbursting.", "Running Up That Hill" became a goth dance-floor staple, even in the United States, the music industry was shocked when the song finally broke and crashing the Top 40.  Yet "Running Up That Hill" took on a whole new life first in the 2010s when it was remixed and performed by her again in the closing ceremony of the London Olympic Games in 2012, but the track will go up higher in the 2020s, especially after it appeared on the Eighties-themed TV show Stranger Things, turning into a timeless pop standard, without losing its spooky sense of dread. 

Bush is a famously shy recluse, refusing to take part in any aspect of the pop whirlwind. She made a few more classic albums after "Running Up That Hill," but stepped back for many years, content to let her music speak for herself as her cult just grew. Yet “Running Up That Hill” proves that as far as the 2020s audience is concerned, her moment is right now, that Last year, Bush was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that there are dozens of cover versions by: Placebo, No Resolve, Max Riebl, Betty Who, The Wombats, & Vitamin String Quartet and of course and outstanding perform with Bush alongside David Gilmour and his guitar in the place of the synthesizers back in 1987.