"Running Up That Hill" (also titled "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)") is a song by the English singer-songwriterKate Bush. It was released in the UK as thelead single from Bush's fifth studio album,Hounds of Love, on 5 August 1985 byEMI Records.
Bush wrote and produced "Running Up That Hill" using aFairlight CMI synthesiser and aLinnDrum drum machine. The lyrics imagine a man and a woman who make "a deal with God" to exchange places. The music video features Bush performing aninterpretive dance.
In 1983, Bush moved from London to ruralSevenoaks, where she set up a songwriting room with a piano, aFairlight CMI synthesiser and aneight-track recorder.[1] "Running Up That Hill" was the first song Bush composed for her fifth album,Hounds of Love (1985).[8] She wrote it in a single evening,[8] and recorded a demo.[1] According to Bush, the song began with the Fairlight riff.[9] She sang a drum pattern to her boyfriend and recording engineer,Del Palmer, who programmed it into aLinnDrum drum machine.[9] She said the lyrics for the first verse "came straight away".[9]
In early 1984, Bush moved to her new studio at East Wickham Farm in her childhood home ofWelling,Kent, where she recorded the final version of "Running Up That Hill".[1] Bush and Palmer recorded the first version onto8-track using the Fairlight, and used this to build the vocal.[8][9] Palmer added a "pulsing" bassline.[1] After transferring the song to 24-track, Bush, Palmer and the engineersPaul Hardiman andHaydn Bendall developed the final version, spending particular time on the Fairlight parts.[8]
The main riff was played on the Fairlight using itssampled cello sound. This replaced an earlier harp sound, which Bush found too noisy.[10][9] The drone part was developed by "freezing" a chord into aQuantec digitalreverb.[9] The drummer,Stuart Elliott,overdubbed asnare to strengthen the Linndrum, and addedfills at the end combined with sounds from the Fairlight.[9]Alan Murphy overdubbed guitar for the ending.[11] Bush's brother, Paddy Bush, performed balalaika.[1]
"Running Up That Hill" features synthesisers, guitar, bass, a driving drum beat andbalalaika, a Russian string instrument.[12] It uses thekey ofC minor, with a vocal melody focusing on theminor seventh, creating tension and a sense of pendingresolution.[12] On the word "could", Bush sings amajor seventh over anA-flat major chord, usingdissonance to create more tension.[12]
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. There's absolutely no dead space ... It's just so deceptively simple."[1]Classic FM described it as "passionate and pleading", with uncertainty and a longing for emotional resolution.[12]
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.[13] Bush originally titled the song "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".[1] On the album, it was titled "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)".[14] In 2022, Bush said she still thought of the song with the original title.[15]
Bush debuted "Running Up That Hill" in a performance on theBBC One chat showWogan to an estimated audience of nine million.[1] She performed from behind a lectern, backed by a band including Palmer and Paddy Bush. The performers wore coats similar toreligious habits and were accompanied by standard-bearers waving "billowing" flags.Mojo wrote later: "Particularly in the context of a cosy mainstream show, there was something distinctly ritualistic about the whole affair, certainly in keeping with the song's magickal theme."[1] Bush also performed it on the West German showPeter's Pop Show.[16] "Running Up That Hill" was released as thelead single fromHounds of Love on 5 August 1985,[17] and reached number three on theUK singles chart.[18]
The music video was directed by David Garfath andchoreographed by Diane Grey.[19][20] It features Bush performing aninterpretive dance with the dancer Misha Hervieu.[19] 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.[20] In the video, Bush mimics an archer pulling a bow, an idea she reused for the single cover.[20]
Hervieu said she was cast as she was not following the trends of dance in pop music at the time.[20] As Hervieu was much taller than Bush, they discovered Bush could wrap around her body "like a snake" and incorporated this into the dance.[20] To evadeEquity union rules againstmoonlighting, Hervieu said she could not appear in theWest End musicalBarnum because of illness, for which she was fired from the play.[20]
On 27 May 2022, the music video had 48.2 million views on YouTube; by 17 July 2022, after the song had been used in thefourth season ofStranger Things, the video had over 100 million views.[21]
In 1985,Smash Hits named "Running Up That Hill" its "single of the fortnight" and praised its "melodic strength" and "coolly restrained performance".[23] It was described as "nice" in an otherwise negative review in theRecord Mirror.[24]Edwin Pouncey ofSounds said he was "seduced by the sheer strangeness of Ms Bush's dramatic return".[25] It was named the year's second-best track byMelody Maker and the third-best byNME.[26][27] At the1986 Brit Awards, "Running Up That Hill" was nominated forBritish Single of the Year.[28]
In 2014,NME named "Running Up That Hill" the 108th-greatest song of all time.[29] That year,NME included it at number 25 in its "Story ofNME in 70 (mostly) seminal songs", withMark Beaumont writing that Bush was "a totemic figure in sneaking left field ideas into the heart of the charts".[30] ReviewingHounds of Love in 2016, thePitchfork critic Barry Walters wrote that "Running Up That Hill" had "brought to the mainstream gender-equality issues that female-led post-punk acts likeAu Pairs had been thrashing out for years in the underground".[31] He connected its lyrics, Bush's performance and thepitch-shifting effect on her vocals to gender issues: "As if trying to escape her body, sex, and consciousness ... Armed with equally advanced machines and melodies, Bush now creatively trumped nearly every mid-'80s rocker."[31] TheAllMusic journalist Amy Hanson wrote: "Always adept at emotion and beautifully able to manipulate even the most bitter of hearts, rarely has Bush penned such a brutally truthful, painfully sensual song."[32]
In 2021,Rolling Stone placed "Running Up That Hill" at number 60 in its updated list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[33] It was nominated for Favourite Rock Song at theAmerican Music Awards of 2022.[34] That year,Mojo described it as "timeless and unique ... barely a whiff of anachronism arises from its dated technology... Both lyrically and musically, it remains an outstanding example of how innovative, catchy and weird pop music can be."[1] In 2023, "Running Up That Hill" was named Bush's third-best song byMojo[35] and her best UK single byThe Guardian.[36] In 2024, theRolling Stone journalistRob Sheffield wrote: "Her classic synth-goth anthem sounded ahead of its time in the eighties. But only Kate Bush could make it a song thatstill sounds ahead of its time nearly 40 years later ... It became a timeless pop standard, without losing its spooky sense of dread."[16]
In May 2022, "Running Up That Hill" gained renewed attention after it featured in thefourth season of theNetflix seriesStranger Things.[37]Winona Ryder, who playsJoyce Byers, said she had been a fan of Bush since childhood and had pushed to include the song.[38] Bush, who rarely licenses her songs, agreed since she was a fan of the series.[39] The composer,Rob Simonsen, created an orchestral remix recorded inAIR Studios, London.[40] To create the feeling of a lullaby, he added a choir, combined with the "juggernaut" of a full orchestra.[40] The remix appears as a motif throughout the series and in a pivotal scene.[40][41]
After its use inStranger Things, "Running Up That Hill" became the most streamed song onSpotify in the UK and the US.[41] It became Bush's second UK number-one single after "Wuthering Heights" (1978), making Bush the solo artist with the longest gap between two number-one UK singles (44 years) and, at the age of 63, the oldest female artist to achieve a UK number one. The 37 years it took to reach number one was also a record.[42] "Running Up That Hill" also reached number one in Australia,[43] Belgium,[44] Ireland,[45] Lithuania,[46] Luxembourg,[47] New Zealand,[48] Sweden,[49] and Switzerland.[50]
On 1 September, "Running Up That Hill" was issued as aCD single for the first time.[51] It sold 1,077,284 copies in the UK in 2022.[52] In the US, "Running Up That Hill" reached number three on theBillboard Hot 100 chart, beating its 1985 peak of number 30, Bush's highest previous placement.[53][54] It also entered theBillboard rock andAlternative Airplay charts and reached number one on the Hot Alternative Songs andHot Rock & Alternative Songs charts.[55]Stranger Things popularised "Running Up That Hill" withGeneration Z, whose members were not born when it was released, and it appeared in videos on the social media platformTikTok.[41] The BritishOfficial Charts Company described the success as an example of1980s nostalgia.[56] Bush said the renewed interest was extraordinary and touching.[57]
On 22 June 2023, "Running Up That Hill" reached one billion streams on Spotify. In response, Bush wrote: "I have an image of a river that suddenly floods and becomes many, many tributaries — a billion streams — on their way to the sea. Each one of these streams is one of you. Thank you so much for sending this song on such an impossibly astonishing journey. I'm blown away."[58] After "Running Up That Hill" appeared in thefifth and final season ofStranger Things in 2025, it surpassed 1.5 billion streams on Spotify and reached number 14 on the UK singles chart in January 2026.[59][60]
The American singer-songwriterTori Amos has occasionally incorporated "Running Up That Hill" into her performances since the 1990s, often as part of a medley.[61] The English actor and comedianSteve Coogan, performing as the comedy characterAlan Partridge, performed "Running Up That Hill" as part of a medley of Bush songs for the charityComic Relief in 1999.[62] On 20 August 2022, Partridge joined the British rock bandColdplay to perform "Running Up That Hill" atWembley Stadium, London.[62] The American rock bandFaith and the Muse included agoth-style cover of "Running Up That Hill" on the 2001 compilation albumVera Causa.[63]
Placebo (pictured in 2001) released a cover of "Running Up That Hill" in 2003.
The British rock bandPlacebo included a version of "Running Up That Hill" on their 2003 compilation albumCovers,[64] which reached number 44 on the UK singles chart.[63][65]Guitar World said Placebo's version is often credited as the "defining" cover, describing it as a "glistening ‘00s update" with a "pulsating heartbeat bassline" and "quivering vocal" that "evokes the sense of a protagonist on life support, bargaining with supernatural forces".[11] In the same year, a cover by the Dutchsymphonic metal bandWithin Temptation, featuring an orchestral section and choir, reached the top 10 of theDutch Single Top 100.[11]
Bush described a version performed in 2022 by the Australian choirPub Choir, arranged byAstrid Jorgensen, as "utterly wonderful".[70] The German singerKim Petras recorded a cover forAmazon Music's playlist for 2022Pride Month,[71] which reached number 100 on the UK singles chart.[72] That year, the British singerRaye performed a stripped-back version forBBC Radio 1,[73] and the American singerHalsey performed "Running Up That Hill" at theGovernors Ball Music Festival in New York City, saying "truly wish I wrote this song more than anything in the world".[64] That September, the British singerRita Ora performed amashup of "Running Up That Hill" with her song "For You" at theRock in Rio festival.[74][75] It received negative reviews; some accused Ora ofoversinging or performing it because of its recent popularity from its use inStranger Things.[76][77] Ora's performance drew comparisons toFergie's infamous rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the2018 NBA All-Star Game.[74][77] The American musicianSt. Vincent performed "Running Up That Hill" at Bush's induction into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023, which Bush did not attend.[78]
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. † Streaming-only figures based on certification alone.
