Three decades after she wrote it, singer Kate Bush finds herself back in the UK top 10 with her 1985 hit Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God).
Got a greatest hits compilation out?
Not a bit of it. In fact she is as surprised as everybody else. No, it’s due to something far, er, stranger – sci-fi smash Stranger Things. The show, set in 1986, has just returned to streaming platform Netflix for a much-anticipated fourth season and a certain song features very prominently on the soundtrack.
Why Kate Bush?
Well, at the risk of running plot spoilers it’s the music of choice for the show’s troubled teenager, Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink). The song plays on a loop on her Walkman as she prowls the corridors of Hawkins High School seeking solace from the death of her brother (impaled on a monstrous alien tentacle in the season three finale) and her mother’s drinking.
How does it go again?
What you hear mostly in the show is the haunting chorus: “If I only could/I’d make a deal with God/And I’d get him to swap our places”. The song features on Bush’s double platinum 1985 album The Hounds Of Love and along with Wuthering Heights is one of her most famous and recognisable songs. It reached number three in the singles charts in that year. It’s hard to believe that Stranger Things, a hymn to all things 1980s, made it to season four without deploying the work of the iconic singer somehow. But they did so they’re making up for it now.
And now the song has charted ...
Yes indeed. Season four of Stranger Things was released on Friday May 27 and within days Running Up That Hill had hit number one on iTunes in the US and the UK. In the official British charts released last Friday it debuted at number eight, ahead of Ed Sheeran. On a single day last week, the song notched up nearly a million plays on Spotify, something only a small handful of megastars normally manage.
What does Kate Bush say?
The singer is famously reclusive and not generally given to public pronouncements, but she has issued a statement on Fish People, her official website. “You might’ve heard that the first part of the fantastic, gripping new series of Stranger Things has recently been released,” she writes. “It features the song Running Up That Hill which is being given a whole new lease of life by the young fans who love the show – I love it too! Because of this, Running Up That Hill is charting around the world … It’s all really exciting! Thanks very much to everyone who has supported the song. I wait with bated breath for the rest of the series in July.”
She’s pleased then?
Sounds like it. By the by, Musical Youth’s Pass The Dutchie also features prominently in Stranger Things though it remains to be seen if they will profit similarly. Here's hoping.
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