Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer

‘Sledgehammer’ by Peter Gabriel is a fantastic, catchy song that fuses together rock, funk and soul to describe all manner of sexual acts. Much like ‘Pull Up to the Bumper’ by Grace Jones, it’s not immediately noticeable given the way the ideas are put forward with the music, though it manages to be wonderfully direct if you just listen to what he’s saying.

However, many people probably overlooked the sassy undertones of the tune because of the brilliant music video that went with it. Despite the stop-motion concept being used before – most notably in ‘Road to Nowhere’ by Talking Heads – the ‘Sledgehammer’ video won nine MTV Video Music Awards the year after it was released (a record yet to be broken). MTV later revealed that it is still the most-played music video in station’s history.

Commissioned by Tessa Watts of Virgin Records – who worked with Michael Jackson, INXS and George Michael to name a few – the video was directed by the same Stephen R Johnson behind the aforementioned Talking Heads accompaniment.

Perhaps the most important thing about the ‘Sledgehammer’ video, however, was the fact it was realised by Aardman Animations. Prior to his ground-breaking claymation work with Wallace and Gromit, Nick Park played a huge part in this production, particularly with the two oven-ready turkeys that danced to the flute solo in the middle of the song.

Gabriel can certainly be praised for his dedication to the video, too. During production, he laid under a sheet of glass for 16 hours as everything was filmed frame by frame. It was also a family effort, as Peter’s daughters Anna and Melanie also got involved in its final stages.

It’s surprising that this video wasn’t covered even earlier in Music Videodrome, but it’s better late than never. Here it is, one more time:

By Matt Gardner