Sledgehammer (song)
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Categories: Single articles with infobox field chart position | Peter Gabriel songs | 1986 singles | Aardman Animations | Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles | Billboard Hot Dance Club Play number-one singles | Number-one singles in Canada | MTV Video of the Year Award
"Sledgehammer" is a hit song by Peter Gabriel from his 1986 album So. It peaked at number one in Canada for four weeks on July 21, 1986, number one in the U.S. on July 26, 1986, and number four in the UK singles chart, thanks in part to a popular and influential music video.
HistoryThe song was influenced by 1960s soul music, as evident by the use of horns and a general Stax sound. The distinctive Horn section was provided by the Memphis Horns - who were house musicians for Stax records. The song was also known for its use of a synthesized shakuhachi flute, as well as Tony Levin's use of Funk Fingers to give the Bass Guitar its unusual sound. It contains somewhat subtle sexual innuendo, which was common in soul music from the time. The lyrics include phallic references such as a steam train, bumper cars, and, Big Dipper (roller coaster) and a fruit cake. It also includes references to the sexual reproduction of plants, mentioning pollination, fruit and bees. "Sledgehammer" was Peter Gabriel's first and, to this date, only number-one hit in the U.S. It replaced "Invisible Touch" by his former band Genesis, which had its only number-one U.S. hit the previous week. The single release also included a previously unreleased track called "Don't Break This Rhythm" and an "'85 Remix" of his 1982 single "I Have the Touch." U.S. versions of the single contained an extended dance remix of "Sledgehammer." It was among the first singles released on compact disc. The TV series Sledge Hammer! was also popular when the song was released, although the two are not related. In 1991, rappers 3rd Bass borrowed the Tony Levin bass line from the song for their hit "Pop Goes the Weasel". The 1993 Naughty By Nature song "Hip Hop Hooray" also samples the shakuhachi intro. In 2000, the song was sampled for "I Got to Have It" by Jermaine Dupri, Monica and Nas, which appeared on the soundtrack for the motion picture Big Momma's House. The instrumental of such song is used by independent wrestler Claudio Castagnoli as an entrance theme. In 1993, the song appeared on a British television commercial for the Vauxhall Cavalier, followed by the guitar riff from Eric Clapton's Layla. [1] In 2007, Finnish Symphonic Epic Metal Northern Kings featuring Jarkko Ahola from Teräsbetoni, Marco Hietala from Nightwish and Tarot, Tony Kakko from Sonata Arctica and Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto from Charon covered the song on their album Reborn. Music video"Sledgehammer" spawned a widely popular and influential music video directed by Stephen R. Johnson. Aardman Animations provided claymation, pixilation, and stop motion animation that gave life to images in the song. The video ended with a large group of extras jerkily rotating around Gabriel, among them: Peter's twin daughters Ana Maria and Melanie (both aged nine at the time), the animators themselves, and director Stephen Johnson's girlfriend. Also included were six women who posed as the back-up singers of the song. Gabriel lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours while filming the stills for the video. [1] In 1987, it won nine MTV Video Music Awards, a record which still stands as of 2007. It ranked at number four on MTV's 100 Greatest Music Videos Ever Made (1999). MTV later announced that "Sledgehammer" is the most played music video in the history of the station. "Sledgehammer" has also been declared to be MTV's number one animated video of all time.[2] The video was also voted number seven on TMF's Ultimate 50 Videos You Must See - first aired 24th June 2006. It ranked at number 2 on VH1's top twenty videos of the 80's as well as being named the #1 amazing moment in music on the Australian TV show 20 to 1 in 2007. The portion of the song featuring the synthesized flute solo was realized in the video by first one and then two oven-ready chickens, headless and featherless, animated using stop-motion. These were animated by Nick Park (of Wallace and Gromit fame) who, at that time was refining his work in plasticine animation. See also
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