Running Up That Hill - Canada 7" Single

The Canadian 7" single for Running Up That Hill has the same artwork front to back as the UK release. However, unlike the UK release, the Canadian one uses a very cheap paper material, which causes these kind of sleeves to wear out fast with use. I bought this single new back in 1985, so it's surprising it's in decent shape.

There's not a whole lot to say about the record labels, other than the fact that they're the cheap paper ones found on most Canadian releases. These are actually much lighter in real life, especially around the perimeter of the labels where the distribution information is found. With most of these Canadian singles I have to fiddle with the resolution so that the information can be seen better.

Running Up That Hill - UK 7" Single (Gatefold Version)

The UK 7" for Running Up That Hill had two releases. The first was a standard single issue picture sleeve, and the second was a gatefold picture sleeve. The gatefold release does differ from the standard release in a few ways. Although both have the same artwork on the front of the sleeve, the artwork on the back of each is completely different from one another.

When you open the gatefold, two additional photos are found inside. The second photo is actually the one that's used on the back of the standard release.

The record slides out from a pocket on the right-hand side of the sleeve, and the single is exactly the same as the standard release, so it doesn't differ in any way. The other interesting thing is that both releases have the exact same catalogue number.

Running Up That Hill - UK 7" Single: Standard Release

Running Up That Hill was released in the UK as two separate 7" single releases. One was a gatefold version which opened up, and the second was a standard single sleeve release. This is the standard single sleeve release.

The front artwork on both releases is exactly the same, but they do differ on the back. The back photo is nice and I like how it's done in a sepia colour. The lyrics are also printed on the back.

The record labels are black paper ones with silver lettering. There are no vinyl inscriptions on either release in case anyone is wondering.

The standard single sleeve and the gatefold are both first issue pressings in case anyone had any confusion over that.

Running Up That Hill - Hollland 7" Single

The Holland 7" release for Running Up That Hill has two huge disappointing factors for me.

The first one is the quality of the sleeve itself. The paper is so thin that it's probably as thin as writing paper. I have never seen the paper quality so thin on a picture sleeve before in my life. This could also explain why it's suffered so badly with ring wear through the years.

The other disappointing factor is that this sleeve is nothing more than a photocopy of another sleeve. This release is very reminiscent of the Single File release for The Man With The Child In His Eyes. As everyone knows, in that situation, EMI decided to make cheap colour photocopies of a first issue sleeve and used this to cut costs for the box set reissue, and the exact same idea was implemented for this sleeve. I'm not sure if it comes across in my scans or not, but if you already own a copy of this release you'll easily be able to tell. On the back of the sleeve where the flap is along the bottom - it's not real. It's just a photocopy of another sleeve that left an impression on this one, so there aren't any real joins/folded flaps here. Very disappointing!

Running Up That Hill - Japan 7" Single

This was one of the last Japanese 7" singles I ever collected. What made the early ones so interesting and unique was totally lost on the later releases when they began to mimic the UK counterparts.

By this point the picture insert and green Toshiba EMI company sleeve was totally gone and replaced with a full picture sleeve instead. The eye-catching Japanese writing that had always been bold as brass on the front of these sleeves, had become noticeably minimal by this point, even disappearing into the background. I thought that was a real shame because they somehow lost their appeal in the end - at least for me they did.

The later releases still came with a picture insert of sorts. These were now double-sided, but the quality of them had deteriorated into a newsprint type of paper. They're very cheap and easily damaged if you aren't careful.

The record labels are quite plain, and apart from a tiny bit of Japanese text and the distribution information in red, you wouldn't even now this was a Japanese pressing.