🏃♀️ About the Song
“Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” is one of the most emotionally charged songs of the 1980s — ethereal, haunting, and utterly human.
Kate Bush wrote it as a plea for understanding between men and women — “If I only could, I’d make a deal with God, and get him to swap our places.”
When it first appeared in 1985, it sounded like nothing else: thunderous drums, icy synths, and Kate’s voice slicing through the mix like something divine and desperate.
Decades later, it found a new audience thanks to Stranger Things, proving that raw emotion never dates.
On ukulele, all that drama turns inward. You don’t need a wall of sound — just four strings and a pulse. The uke becomes a heartbeat beneath that prayer of a lyric.
🎸 Ukulele Playing Tips
We’ll transpose it to A minor, a natural, moody key that sits beautifully on uke.
Chord loop (the song’s engine):
[Am] – [G] – [F] – [G]
That’s it. The whole song breathes inside that four-bar circle.
Keep the rhythm steady, like footsteps on pavement — 80–85 bpm.
Strumming pattern: down–down–mute–up or a slow down–down–up–up–down–up if you prefer flow over pulse.
For a minimalist feel, use muted strums on the first verse and let the strings open gradually as the emotion builds.
If you’re feeling brave, try this fingerpicking pattern:
thumb (4th), index (3rd), middle (2nd), ring (1st) — repeat.
It creates a hypnotic heartbeat, perfect for the verses.
Dynamic tip:
- Start small — barely audible.
- Add more brightness on the chorus lines (“If I only could…”).
- Return to stillness at the end — it’s a song about circular motion, not resolution.
Singing tip:
Don’t belt. Confide. The song works best when it sounds like you’re letting someone overhear your thoughts.
Let your voice tremble; that’s where the truth lives.
💡 Trivia You Can Drop Casually
- Kate Bush wrote and produced the entire track herself at age 26.
- The record label tried to drop the “Deal with God” part of the title to avoid controversy — she agreed, reluctantly.
- She used the Fairlight CMI, one of the earliest digital samplers, to build its revolutionary soundscape.
- The song re-entered the charts worldwide in 2022 thanks to Stranger Things, climbing to #1 in the UK — 37 years after its release.
- It’s the perfect example of how minimalism + emotion > complexity.
🌈 Final Word
“Running Up That Hill” isn’t a song — it’s a spell.
On ukulele, it becomes stripped to its essence: longing, empathy, and the impossible wish to truly understand another person.
You don’t play it for an audience; you play it to feel.
Each strum is a heartbeat, each silence the space between breaths.
