In Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” the line “If I only could, I’d make a...” ends with “deal.” The deal is imagined as an exchange of places between a man and a woman so they can understand each other more fully.
Bush wrote and produced the song for her 1985 album Hounds of Love. She developed it with a Fairlight CMI synthesiser and LinnDrum machine, and the track also features guitar, bass, driving drums, and balalaika. Its tense C-minor harmony and unusual vocal phrasing reinforce the song’s sense of emotional strain.
Bush originally wanted to call the song “A Deal with God,” but EMI worried that the religious wording might limit radio play. The released title became “Running Up That Hill,” with the original phrase retained in parentheses on the album. The song reached No. 3 in the UK in 1985, then surged again after appearing in Stranger Things in 2022.