Kate Bush has explained why she still prefers the original title for her hit song, “Running Up That Hill”, in a rare interview to celebrate it achieving No 1 in the UK charts.
The track began climbing the charts after it was played on a recent episode of hit Netflix series, Stranger Things, prompting it to trend across viral videos on Tiktok.
It then made history as the song with the longest journey to No1, achieving the feat 37 years after it was originally released in 1985.
In an interview with Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Kate Bush said: “The thought of all these really young people hearing the song for the first time and discovering it is, well, I think it’s very special.”
“I thought that the track would get some attention. But I just never imagined that it would be anything like this. It’s so exciting. But it’s quite shocking really, isn’t it? I mean, the whole world’s gone mad.” she continued.
“It wasn't originally called ‘Running Up That Hill’, was it?” Barnett asked.
“No, it was called ‘A Deal With God’,” Bush responded. “I think they were just worried, the record company, that it wouldn't get played on the radio. That people would feel it was a sensitive title.”
Barnett suggested that the musician might feel “wedded” to the original song titles because “there are all your creations”.
“Well, yes and no,” Bush said. “Some of them have had very strange titles that you kind of have a working title that you quickly forget. But yeah, I think for me, this is still called ‘A Deal With God’.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Bush told Barnett that she liked the way “Running Up That Hill” was used as character Max’s favourite song: “What a lovely way for the song to be used in such a positive way…I think it’s very touching, actually.”
You can listen to Woman’s Hour on weekdays at 10am on BBC Radio 4, or on the BBC Sounds App.
