Running Up That Hill: The “Deal With God” That Hit #1 Thirty-Seven Years Late

By Dan Cohen · Published 2026-06-27

Running Up That Hill, from Kate Bush’s 1985 album Hounds of Love, is built on one of the most empathetic ideas in pop. Its premise: what if two people in a relationship could make a deal to swap places — to literally live inside each other’s experience for a while — so that the misunderstandings between them could finally dissolve? It’s a song about the longing to be truly understood, and the impossibility of it.

The title she had to change

Bush originally called it “A Deal With God,” which is the swap it imagines — but, by the widely told account, there were fears that radio in various countries would refuse to play a song with “God” in the title. So it became “Running Up That Hill,” with the original kept as a subtitle. The compromise didn’t dull it; the song’s pulsing, yearning drive carried the idea regardless.

A number one, decades later

Its most astonishing chapter came in 2022, when its prominent use in the series Stranger Things introduced it to a new generation and sent it surging to the top of charts around the world — roughly thirty-seven years after release. Bush set records in the process, and a thoughtful 1985 art-pop song became, improbably, the sound of a brand-new summer.

What it measures like

On our measurements it’s mid-tempo and propulsive — driven by an insistent, pulsing rhythm and a building intensity, urgent rather than gentle. Full profile on its song page.

Running Up That Hill appears on Kate Bush’s 1985 album Hounds of Love; its original title (“A Deal With God”) and its 2022 chart resurgence via Stranger Things are matters of public record. No lyrics are reproduced.