“Shock the Monkey” by Peter Gabriel

"Shock the Monkey" was the first single Peter Gabriel pulled from his fourth self-titled album in 1982, the record American buyers knew as Security. He wrote, arranged and co-produced it with David Lord, and it's a strange, prowling thing, all clattering electronics and a hook that circles back on itself until it gets under your skin. AllMusic later said it sounded unlike anything else on the radio then, and that's no stretch.

Gabriel sings lead and backing vocals, with Peter Hammill's voice in the mix too. Larry Fast and Gabriel stack up analog synthesizers, Tony Levin's Chapman stick growls underneath, Jerry Marotta drives the drums and David Rhodes adds guitar.

The title and the video have sent listeners off in the wrong direction for years, reading it as an animal rights protest or a nod to Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments. It is neither. Gabriel calls it a love song, one about how jealousy can wake up a person's most primitive instincts, with the monkey standing in for that jealousy.

It gave him his first Top 40 hit in the US, reaching 29 on the Hot 100 and number one on Billboard's mainstream rock chart, though it stalled at 58 back home in the UK.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.