Song of the Day 6/1: Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”
Digitalized music has played havoc with the old-fashioned record charts compiled by the likes of Billboard magazine. Songs released decades ago keep popping up near the top, their spikes in popularity cued by their use in popular movies and TV shows.
The latest overnight sensation, Kate Bush’s 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill,” was used as a major plot point in a season 4 episode of the show “Stranger Things,” which dropped last Friday. It soared to No. 1 on iTunes and Amazon and No. 2 on Spotify, and is expected to be No. 1 in the next issue of Billboard, which sticks to the print media motto of yesterday’s news today.
Bush changed the original title, “A Deal With God,” after record company execs told her the song would be banned in several European countries for naming the deity. She agreed at the time, but she has used the original title — a play on the idea of a deal with the devil — ever since. She explained,
“It’s about a relationship between a man and a woman. They love each other very much, and the power of the relationship is something that gets in the way. It creates insecurities. It’s saying if the man could be the woman and the woman the man, if they could make a deal with God, to change places, that they’d understand what it’s like to be the other person and perhaps it would clear up misunderstandings. You know, all the little problems; there would be no problem.”
In a nice bit of irony, the song’s surging popularity comes on the heels of Bush’s third nomination-and-snub by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Her vast influence on most female singer-songwriters who came after her apparently is lost on an electorate keen on honoring Lionel Richie.
You know it’s a good song when it sounds good in almost any style. First Aid Kit’s harmonies and acoustic guitar make it sound folky.
Los Angeles singer-songwriter Meg Myers uses a stripped-down arrangement to give the song an arresting intensity.
Another one of her songs was used in the movie She’s Having a Baby. They used This Woman’s Work also at a pivotal point
This Woman’s Work was written specifically FOR ‘She’s Having a Baby.’ Kate also wrote the theme song for Terry Gilliam’s film ‘Brazil.’ There was a live performance of Running Up That Hill featuring Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour (who also played on the 12 inch extended studio mix), on the ‘Secret Policeman’s Third Ball’ benefit album from 1987 (now out of print). Maxwell covered This Woman’s Work in 2002. Within Temptation and Placebo both did cover versions of Running Up That Hill in 2003 (Placebo’s rendition used in several TV shows, including Bones and CSI), and Futureheads covered Hounds of Love in 2004. First person I recall covering Kate was Pat Benatar’s version of Wuthering Heights on her ‘Crimes of Passion’ album (1981).