Sledgehammer was the first single to be taken from Peter Gabriel’s fifth solo studio album So, and was originally released on 21 April,1986.
A top five single in the UK and a Hot 100 #1 single in the USA, Sledgehammer – with its multi-award winning video, directed by Stephen R Johnson – heralded Gabriel’s shift into the mainstream consciousness and provided a first indication of So’s irresistible marriage of the artistic and the commercial. “I’d been revisiting my childhood obsession with 1960s soul music and was even considering doing a full album of covers, but instead I wrote Sledgehammer as more of a tribute to singers like Otis Redding. This was the end of the idea of me being a sort of cult artist at the fringes of the mainstream. There wasn’t an option to go and hide in the shadows anymore.”
Exclusive for Record Store Day 2026, Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer single is being re-issued to celebrate its 40th anniversary. The music replicates the original Sledgehammer 12” release but comes as a zoetrope picture disc, using images taken from the ground-breaking video.