Approval of God: Peter Reich, who wrote the fantastical memoir A Book of Dreams that inspired Bush to compose "Cloudbusting", was hugely enthusiastic about the song after Bush sent him a VHS copy of its music video. In an interview with Dazed magazine, Reich stated that "quite magically, this British musician had tapped precisely into a unique and magical fulfilment of father-son devotion, emotion and understanding. They had captured it all."
Breakthrough Hit: "Running Up That Hill" in 1985 was Kate Bush's first Top 40 hit in the US (and her only one, until its own resurgence 37 years later), but finally made her a critical darling. The album itself would also peak at #30 on the Billboard album chart.
Defied in the case of the album's production: EMI tasked Bush with making a more commercially accessible album than The Dreaming, which had underperformed both on the charts and with critics in the UK (prior to getting Vindicated by History), and asked for the follow-up to be made in a shorter span of time. Bush ignored both requests, taking even longer to finish Hounds of Love and maintaining a noticeably experimental edge on the album.
EMI did succeed in getting Bush to rename the album's leadoff single from "A Deal With God" to "Running Up That Hill", out of concern that the proposed title would limit airplay in more religious countries like Italy, France, and Ireland. When the album was released, the two titles were combined as "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)".
Revival by Commercialization: "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" got a major resurgence in attention after being featured in the season 4 premiere of Stranger Things in 2022, to the point where it topped the iTunes charts within two days, and made a dynamic re-entry into the top radio charts over three and a half decades after it was first released. Because of this, Kate Bush is now the only person over the age of 60 to have a Billboard Hot 100 top hit — it would peak at No.3. More spectacularly still, the revived song actually topped the singles chart in the UK for three weeks, finally giving Bush a second Number One to go with her 1978 debut "Wuthering Heights". In doing so, it broke three all-time chart records: it was the longest ever wait from initial release for a song to go to No.1 (36 years 310 days), made Bush the oldest female chart-topper ever at nearly 64, and was the longest ever wait between Number Ones — it had been 44 years since "Wuthering Heights" spent the last of its four weeks at the summit.
within two days, and made a dynamic re-entry into the top radio charts over three and a half decades after it was first released. Because of this, Kate Bush is now the only person over the age of 60 to have a Billboard Hot 100 top hit — it would peak at No.3. More spectacularly still, the revived song actually topped the singles chart in the UK for three weeks, finally giving Bush a second Number One to go with her 1978 debut "Wuthering Heights". In doing so, it broke three all-time chart records: it was the longest ever wait from initial release for a song to go to No.1 (36 years 310 days), made Bush the oldest female chart-topper ever at nearly 64, and was the longest ever wait between Number Ones — it had been 44 years since "Wuthering Heights" spent the last of its four weeks at the summit.