Running Up That Hill

Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" arrived on 5 August 1985 as the lead single from her fifth album, Hounds of Love, released through EMI Records. Written and produced by Bush herself, the track was built around a Fairlight CMI synthesiser and a LinnDrum drum machine. The song's lyrics imagine a man and a woman making a deal with God to trade places, exploring themes of empathy and the struggle to understand one another. Its ethereal, art-pop sound, marked by Bush's soaring vocals and the distinctive synth hook, stood out on the mid-80s charts.

Bush debuted the song on BBC One's Wogan, and the accompanying music video featured her performing an interpretive dance. The single climbed to number three on the UK charts, her best showing since "Wuthering Heights" in 1978, and reached number 30 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Critics at Melody Maker and NME named it among the year's best tracks, and it earned a nomination for British Single of the Year at the 1986 Brit Awards. Rolling Stone later ranked it 60th on its 2021 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song gained new life when a remix played at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony, and again in 2022 after appearing in Stranger Things, hitting number one in eight countries and surpassing a billion streams on Spotify. Covers by Placebo, Within Temptation, St. Vincent, Chromatics, Faith and the Muse, and Meg Myers have further extended its reach. [edit]