“Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel

"Sledgehammer" was the lead single from So, Peter Gabriel's fifth studio album, in 1986, and it's the sound of an art-rock brainiac cutting loose at a sweaty soul revue. Gabriel produced it with Daniel Lanois, and the groove is pure strut: Manu Katché's snapping drums, Tony Levin's rubbery electric bass, guitars from Lanois and David Rhodes, and a horn section of Wayne Jackson on trumpet, Don Mikkelsen on trombone and Mark Rivera on sax blasting like they've been let off the leash. Gabriel adds piano, synthesizer and sampler, and P.P. Arnold, Coral Gordon and Dee Lewis push him along on backing vocals. Kevin Killen and Lanois engineered, and David Bascombe recorded it.

Stephen R. Johnson's video did the rest. The single topped the Billboard Hot 100 on 26 July 1986, held number one in Canada for four weeks and reached No. 4 in Britain, and it became his biggest hit in North America, matching "Games Without Frontiers" as his biggest at home.

That video swept a record nine MTV Video Music Awards in 1987, took Best British Video at the Brit Awards that same year, and in 2005 a Channel 4 poll placed it second among the 100 Greatest Pop Videos. The song brought Gabriel three Grammy nominations, for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.

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