Running Up That Hill

Representatives at EMI were hesitant to release the song with its original title of "A Deal with God" owing to possible negative reception because of its use of the word "God".[5] Bush relented and changed the title. However, the album version of the song is listed as "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)". The executives of EMI initially wanted to release another song, "Cloudbusting", as the lead single from the album. Bush successfully persuaded them to release "Running Up That Hill" first, claiming that it was the first song written for the album, and felt that it better represented the broader feel for Hounds of Love.

The song itself has often been misinterpreted. Bush herself has said,

I was trying to say that, really, a man and a woman can't understand each other because we are a man and a woman. And if we could actually swap each other's roles, if we could actually be in each other's place for a while, I think we'd both be very surprised! [Laughs] And I think it would lead to a greater understanding. And really the only way I could think it could be done was either... you know, I thought a deal with the devil, you know. And I thought, 'well, no, why not a deal with God!' You know, because in a way it's so much more powerful the whole idea of asking God to make a deal with you. You see, for me it is still called "Deal With God", that was its title. But we were told that if we kept this title that it would not be played in any of the religious countries, Italy wouldn't play it, France wouldn't play it, and Australia wouldn't play it! Ireland wouldn't play it, and that generally we might get it blacked purely because it had God in the title.[5][6]

The music video featured 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.[7] Bush and Hervieu are shown wearing grey Japanese hakamas.[8] 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."[9]

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 TV show Wogan. According to Paddy Bush, "MTV weren't particularly interested in broadcasting videos that didn't have synchronized lip movements in them. They liked the idea of people singing songs."[9]

"Running Up That Hill (2012 Remix)"
Single by Kate Bush
from the album A Symphony of British Music
Released	12 August 2012
Length	5:31
Label	EMI
Songwriter(s)	Kate Bush
Producer(s)	Kate Bush
Kate Bush singles chronology
"Wild Man" (2011) "Running Up That Hill (2012 Remix)" (2012)

On 12 August 2012, Bush released a new version of the song "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)". Subtitled '2012 Remix', it uses the backing track of the extended version of the 1985 12-inch single, over which new lead vocals were recorded. The track was transposed down a semitone to fit Bush's current lower vocal range. The new version was premiered during the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. Bush did not appear herself, but the recording was featured in a section of the closing ceremony, after the entry of athletes and prior to the presentation of the medals for the Marathon. The track set the theme to a dance performance, where a 'hill' or pyramid was gradually assembled by the dancers from giant white blocks, representing each of the Olympic events.[10] The performance was not shown in the United States NBC coverage due to time constraints and tape delay issues.[11]

The track is included in the official soundtrack album of the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony A Symphony of British Music: Music for the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

On 19 August the remix entered the UK charts at number 6. It was Bush's return to the top ten after nearly seven years, following "King of the Mountain" in 2005.[12]

7" single (UK)

All tracks are written by Kate Bush.

12" maxi single (UK)

All tracks are written by Kate Bush.

The song was ranked number 3 among the "Tracks of the Year" for 1985 by NME.[13] In 2022, it was included in the list "The story of NME in 70 (mostly) seminal songs", at number 25.[14]

• Kate Bush – vocals, Fairlight CMI
• Alan Murphy – guitar
• Del Palmer – bass guitar, LinnDrum programming
• Stuart Elliott – drums
• Paddy Bush – balalaika