Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel song)

Background

"Sledgehammer" was among the last songs recorded for the album and was presented to the band as they were packing up their equipment. The original intention was to include the song on Gabriel's next album after So. Manu Katché was preparing to board a taxi and return home to Paris when Gabriel coaxed him into recording "Sledgehammer". Katché achieved his drum part in one take and was asked by Gabriel to record a few more passes, although Katché insisted that any subsequent attempt at recording another drum track would be inferior. Tony Levin opted to record his part on a fretless bass with a pick and through an octave pedal.

Gabriel noted that he was influenced by soul music when writing "Sledgehammer" and also considered recording a soul-oriented album with a mixture of covers and original compositions.

Gabriel contacted Jackson to assemble a horn section that included Jackson on trumpet, Mark Rivera on saxophone, and Don Mikkelsen on trombone. Gabriel explained that he wanted a real horn section on "Sledgehammer" to capture some of the intricacies of brass playing that could not be achieved with a synthesiser. He cited the slow brass swells in the second verse as an example of the expressiveness that he desired. The song also features a synthesised shakuhachi flute generated with an E-mu Emulator II sampler. Gabriel said that the "cheap organ sound" came from an expensive Prophet-5 synth, which he regarded as "an old warhorse" sound tool. The backing vocals were sung by P. P. Arnold, Coral "Chyna Whyne" Gordon, and Dee Lewis, who also did the backing for "Big Time". Overdubs for the horn section and backing vocals took place in September 1985 at Power Station Studios in New York City.

Release

Gabriel pushed for "Sledgehammer" to be the first single from So as he considered it to be different from the rest of the album. He believed that the decision surprised certain fans who held a preexisting perception of his work. The single release included the previously unreleased "Don't Break This Rhythm" and an "'85 Remix" of 1982's "I Have the Touch". US versions of the single contained an extended dance remix of "Sledgehammer".

"Sledgehammer" is Gabriel's only No. 1 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100. It replaced "Invisible Touch" by his former band Genesis; coincidentally, that group's only US No. 1. Genesis lead singer Phil Collins later jested about the occurrence in a 2014 interview, stating, "I read recently that Peter Gabriel knocked us off the No. 1 spot with 'Sledgehammer'. We weren't aware of that at the time. If we had been, we'd probably have sent him a telegram saying: 'Congratulations – bastard.

"Sledgehammer" also achieved success on other Billboard charts in 1986, spanning the Album Rock Tracks (two weeks at the summit in May and June) and Hot Dance Club Play (one week atop this chart in July). In the UK, the single peaked at number four, tying it with 1980's "Games Without Frontiers"⁠ as his highest-charting song in that country.

Critical reception and legacy

"Sledgehammer" has been described as dance-rock, funk rock, soul, and new wave, Ryan Reed of Paste called the song a danceable "blue-eyed soul-strut". Trouser Press gave it as an example of Gabriel's "characteristically sophisticated music" which in this case "touches on funk". Stewart Mason of AllMusic thought that "Sledgehammer" "earthier foundation keeps the song from getting distracted from the pounding, swaggering groove at its core", adding that "it's not his masterpiece, but it's probably his best pop song. Later attempts at rewriting it, like 1992's dismal 'Steam', didn't work half as well."

"Sledgehammer" was used as the now defunct 3rd Brigade 3rd Infantry Division song. The Sledgehammer Brigade was located on Kelley Hill, Fort Moore (Benning), Georgia. The song was used to increase esprit de corps of the brigade at the end of physical training and special events.

Music video

The "Sledgehammer" music video was commissioned by Tessa Watts at Virgin Records, directed by Stephen R. Johnson and produced by Adam Whittaker. Aardman Animations and the Brothers Quay provided claymation, pixilation, and stop motion animation that gave life to images in the song. Johnson and Gabriel wanted the music video to be satisfying on repeat viewings and set out to accomplish this by incorporating multiple ideas that were both "inventive and funny". They spent a couple of weeks generating ideas and later invited Brothers Quay and Aardman Animations to develop the music video.

Gabriel said that the music video was shot frame by frame. For one scene, Gabriel lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours with raw fish. "It took a lot of hard work," Gabriel recalled. "I was thinking at the time, 'If anyone wants to try and copy this video, good luck to them. For each frame of a ten-second sequence, clouds were painted across Gabriel's face to create the illusion of moving clouds.

Two dead, headless, featherless chickens were animated using stop motion and shown dancing along to the synthesised shakuhachi solo. This section was animated by Nick Park, of Aardman Animations, who was refining his work in plasticine animation at the time and later created Wallace & Gromit. The video ended with a large group of extras jerkily rotating around Gabriel, among them his daughters Anna-Marie and Melanie, the animators themselves and director Stephen Johnson's girlfriend. A total of 100 hours were spent shooting the music video, with each second of video consisting of 25 unique poses from Gabriel.

A major hit on music television, "Sledgehammer" won nine MTV Video Music Awards in 1987, the most awards a single video has won. It ranked at number four on MTV's 100 Greatest Music Videos Ever Made (1999). "Sledgehammer" has also been declared MTV's number one animated video of all time. The video was voted number seven on TMF's Ultimate 50 Videos You Must See, which first aired 24 June 2006. It ranked at number 2 on VH1's "Top 20 Videos of the '80s" and number one on "Amazing Moment in Music" on the Australian TV show 20 to 1 in 2007. It won Best British Video at the 1987 Brit Awards and was nominated for the Best Music Video category for the first annual Soul Train Music Awards in that same year.

According to Time magazine, "Sledgehammer" music video is the all-time most played music video on MTV. Gabriel recalled that the video was broadcast in the Soviet Union, India, and China, which had otherwise refrained from playing his other material.

The music video was remastered into 4K resolution, and was released in 2018 through Apple Music.

Accolades

|- | British Single of the Year | |- | British Video of the Year | |- | Record of the Year | |- | Song of the Year | |- | Best Male Rock Vocal Performance | |- | Video of the Year | |- | Best Male Video | |- | Best Concept Video | |- | Most Experimental Video | |- | Best Overall Performance | |- | Best Direction | |- | Best Visual Effects | |- | Best Art Direction | |- | Best Editing | |- | Viewer's Choice Award | |- | Soul Train Music Awards | Best Video of the Year | |}

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of So.

• Peter Gabriel – vocals, E-mu Emulator II, Fairlight CMI, piano, Prophet-5
• Manu Katché – drums
• Tony Levin – bass
• David Rhodes – guitar
• Daniel Lanois – guitar, tambourine
• Wayne Jackson – trumpet
• Mark Rivera – saxophone
• Don Mikkelsen – trombone
• P. P. Arnold, Coral Gordon, Dee Lewis – backing vocals

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Covers and parodies

In 1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied this song as the first song from his polka medley "Polka Party!" from the 1986 studio album of the same name.

References

Bibliography

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