Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel song)

"Sledgehammer" has been described as dance-rock,[9] funk rock,[10] soul,[11] and pop.[12] Ryan Reed of Paste called the song a danceable "blue-eyed soul-strut".[13] Trouser Press gave it as an example of Gabriel's "characteristically sophisticated music" which in this case "touches on funk".[14]

"It's probably about three years old… I was playing at that time with the idea of doing an album full of soul songs – mainly other people's, but maybe a couple of my own. I'm still tempted, although probably that would be construed as an even greater sell-out. But, as a teenager, soul music was one of the things that made me want to be a musician. It was really passionate and exciting… Wayne Jackson, who plays on that track, was also with Otis Redding and was touring with him when I saw them in London. So that was a thrill for me, just to get a whole lot of fan stories. But I think the song was more influenced by many of those Stax and Atlantic tracks rather than Otis particularly." – Peter Gabriel, July 1986[15]

The song also features a synthesised shakuhachi flute generated with an E-mu Emulator II sampler.[16] Gabriel said the "cheap organ sound" comes from an expensive Prophet-5 synth, which he regards as "an old warhorse" sound tool.[17] The backing vocals were by P. P. Arnold, Coral "Chyna Whyne" Gordon, and Dee Lewis, who also did the backing for "Big Time".

"Sledgehammer" is Gabriel's only US No. 1. 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.'"[18]

"Sledgehammer" also achieved success on other Billboard charts in 1986, spanning the Album Rock Tracks (two weeks at the summit in May and June)[19] and Hot Dance Club Play (one week atop this chart in July).[20]

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" was used as the now defunct 3rd Brigade 3rd Infantry Division song. The Sledgehammer Brigade was located on Kelley Hill, Fort Moore (Benning), GA. The song was used to increase Esprit de Corps of the brigade at the end of physical training and special events.[21][22]

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.[23] Many of these techniques had been employed in earlier music videos, such as Talking Heads's 1985 hit "Road to Nowhere", also directed by Johnson. The style was later used in the video for "Big Time", another single from So.

Gabriel lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours while filming the video one frame at a time.[24] "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.'"[15] 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. 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. Also included were six women who posed as the backing vocalists of the song.

A major hit on music television, "Sledgehammer" won nine MTV Video Music Awards in 1987,[4] the most awards a single video has won.[5] 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.[25] 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"'s music video is the all-time most played music video on MTV.[26]

The music video was remastered into 4K resolution, and was released in 2018 through Apple Music.[27]

Credits adapted from the liner notes of So.[28]

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.[60]

On 2 March 2020, Harry Styles covered this song for the first time publicly on the Howard Stern Show.

• List of Billboard Hot 100 number ones of 1986
• List of Billboard Mainstream Rock number-one songs of the 1980s
• List of Cash Box Top 100 number-one singles of 1986
• List of number-one singles of 1986 (Canada)
• List of number-one dance singles of 1985 (U.S.)

• "Sledgehammer" at Discogs (list of releases)
• "Sledgehammer" at MusicBrainz
• "Episode 8: Music Videos", Aardman.com. Retrieved 19 October 2013.