Which one is your favorite? - LXXII -

Here is a great song from the 80s with equally great lyrics. It is a song by the English singer-songwriter Kate Bush. It was the first single from her 1985 album Hounds of Love, released in the United Kingdom on 5 August 1985. It was her first 12-inch single. It was the most successful of Bush's 1980s releases, entering the UK chart at number 9 and eventually peaking at number 3, her second-highest single peak.

Here is the song for this week;

"Running Up That Hill"

Thie song is about making a deal with God to swap lives with another person. Bush explained in a 1985 interview: "It's about a relationship between a man and a woman. They love each other very much, and the power of the relationship is something that gets in the way. It creates insecurities. It's saying if the man could be the woman and the woman the man, if they could make a deal with God, to change places, that they'd understand what it's like to be the other person and perhaps it would clear up misunderstandings. You know, all the little problems; there would be no problem."

Bush's record company wanted to release "Cloudbusting" as the first single, but Kate convinced them to release this instead. Since they had already renamed her song, it was considered a compromise.

This was Bush's biggest hit in the US. She is very popular in the UK, but remains mostly unknown in America.

The song was originally written using a Fairlight synthesizer.

The music video featured Bush performing an interpretive dance with dancer Michael Hervieu. The video was directed by David Garfath while the dance routines were choreographed by Diane Grey. Bush and Hervieu are shown wearing grey Japanese hakamas. Bush wanted the dancing in "Running Up That Hill" to be more of a classical performance as she he felt the art was being cheapened by the newer crop of talent on MTV.

Here are the 7 versions I picked for you;

• Theo Bleckmann - "Running Up That Hill"

• First Aid Kit - "Running Up That Hill"

• Placebo - "Running Up That Hill"

• Within Temptation - "Running Up That Hill"

• Ellevator - "Running Up That Hill"

• Georgia - "Running Up That Hill"

• Mozartine - "Running Up That Hill"

Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).

nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers.