you could have a steam train
if you'd just lay down your tracks
you could have an aeroplane flying
if you bring your blue sky back
all you do is call me
I'll be anything you need
you could have a big dipper
going up and down, all around the bends
you could have a bumper car, bumping
this amusement never ends
I want to be your sledgehammer
why don't you call my name
oh let me be your sledgehammer
this will be my testimony
show me round your fruitcage
'cos I will be your honey bee
open up your fruitcage
where the fruit is as sweet as can be
I want to be your sledgehammer
why don't you call my name
you'd better call the sledgehammer
put your mind at rest
I'm going to be-the sledgehammer
this can be my testimony
I'm your sledgehammer
let there be no doubt about it
sledge sledge sledgehammer
I've kicked the habit
shed my skin
this is the new stuff
I go dancing in, we go dancing in
oh won't you show for me
and I will show for you
show for me, I will show for you
yea, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I do mean you
only you
you've been coming through
going to build that powerr
build, build up that power, hey
I've been feeding the rhythm
I've been feeding the rhythm
going to feel that power, build in you
come on, come on, help me do
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you
I've been feeding the rhythm
I've been feeding the rhythm
it's what we're doing, doing
all day and night
"Sledgehammer" is a song by English rock musician Peter Gabriel, which appeared on his 1986 album So, and was produced by Gabriel and Daniel Lanois. It hit No. 1 in Canada on 21 July 1986, where it spent four weeks; No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States on 26 July 1986;[4] and No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart, thanks in part to a popular and influential music video. It was his biggest hit in North America and ties with "Games Without Frontiers" as his biggest hit in the United Kingdom.
The song's music video won a record nine MTV Video Music Award at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards[5] and Best British Video at the 1987 Brit Awards.[6][7] Gabriel was also nominated for three Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.[8] As of 2011, "Sledgehammer" was the most played music video in the history of MTV.[6]
Gabriel credits the song's success solely on the music video, telling Rolling Stone, "I think it had a sense of both humor and fun, neither of which were particularly associated with me. I mean—wrongly in my way of looking at it—I think I was seen as a fairly intense, eccentric Englishman."
It remains, to this day, MTV's most-played music video OF ALL TIME!
The video was directed by Stephen R. Johnson, famous for helming the Talking Heads' music video "Road to Nowhere", and partially animated by Nick Park, who later went on to create the award-winning children's series Wallace & Gromit.
During the week-long shoot, Gabriel lay under a sheet of glass while filming the video one frame at a time.
The singer's young daughters, Anna and Melanie, appear at the very end surrounded by a large group of extras.
On February 9, 1987, the video swept all major categories at the MTV Video Music Awards, taking home a total of nine statues—the most awards a single video has won.
Gabriel ultimately knocked his former Genesis bandmates off from the No. 1 slot on the US Billboard Top 100 when "Sledgehammer" topped "Invisible Touch."