Placebo - Running Up That Hill

A few minutes ago, I was watching the first episode of the last season of The O.C. when I heard this music. It cacth my atention because I reckoned the lyrics but didn't know which band has a song similar.
I found out the name of the song and then I remembered: Within Temptation - a song I used to hear 1/2 years ago!

But then I found out it was a cover!

So... The originally song is from Kate Bush, a british singer. It was the first single from her 1985 album, Hounds of Love. First, the song was titled A Deal with God but the representatives at EMI were afraid of a bad reception due the use of the word 'God'.

Kate said about it:

• "I was trying to say that, really, a man and a woman, can't understand each other because we are a man and a woman. And if we could actually swap each other's roles, if we could actually be in each other's place for a while, I think we'd both be very surprised! [Laughs] And I think it would lead to a greater understanding. And really the only way I could think it could be done was either... you know, I thought a deal with the devil, you know. And I thought, 'well, no, why not a deal with God!' You know, because in a way it's so much more powerful the whole idea of asking God to make a deal with you. You see, for me it is still called "Deal With God", that was its title. But we were told that if we kept this title that it would not be played in any of the religious countries, Italy wouldn't play it, France wouldn't play it, and Australia wouldn't play it! Ireland wouldn't play it, and that generally we might get it blacked purely because it had God in the title."

The version I heard on The O.C. was a bit darker and it's from Placebo, released on the bonus disc of their 2003 album, Sleeping with Ghosts.



And the version I already new is from Within Temptation, a Symphonic metal band, and it was released as a separate single, in 2003. There is an explanation why WT made a cover of a song with a sound so different of what they are used to work with:

• "Well, we tried another song of Kate Bush because we had two songs that we were just playing around with because people were comparing me always with her as a similar kind of voice, and we were just fooling around in the studio and “Running up that Hill” came by. And it was like, “We really sound like this,” you know, and it turned out so well that we made a single out of it because we were between albums."

Although, I don't usually like Placebo's sound I prefer their version instead of one from one of my favorite bands, WT. The original one doesn't atract me at all.



And if I only could,
Make a deal with God,
And get him to swap our places,
Be running up that road,
Be running up that hill,
Be running up that building.
If I only could, oh...

A.