BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1986
“Sledgehammer” is a song by British musician Peter Gabriel from his 1986 album So. It hit number one in Canada on 21 July 1986 where it spent four weeks; number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States on 26 July 1986; and number four in 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 has won a number of awards, including a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, and Best British Video at the 1987 Brit Awards. Gabriel was also nominated for three Grammy Awards: Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year. As of 2011, “Sledgehammer” is the most played music video in the history of MTV.
SIDE A:
Sledgehammer (Extended Dance Remix) 7:20
Engineer – Nick Tokes
Remix – Tokes*
Sledgehammer (Extended Mix) 5:40
SIDE B:
Don’t Break This Rhythm 3:50
I Have The Touch (85 Remix) 3:44
Recorded By [Original] – David Lord, Peter Gabriell
Remix – Peter Gabriel, Peter Walsh
VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
CHARTS:
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Sledgehammer | U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | #1 |
| 1986 | Sledgehammer | U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks | #1 |
| 1986 | Sledgehammer | U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs | #61 |
| 1986 | Sledgehammer | U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play | #1 |
RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Geffen Records – 0-20456
Format: Vinyl, 12″, Maxi-Single, 45 RPM
Country: US
Released: 1986
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Pop Rock, Synth-pop
Credits: Design – Brett Wickens, Peter Saville (2)
Engineer – Kevin Killen
Photography By – Trevor Key
Producer – Daniel Lanois, Peter Gabriel
Written-By – Peter Gabriel
NOTES:
Designed at Peter Saville Associates, London
Find The 12″ On DISCOGS
EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut III
Cartridge: Ortofon Super
Stylus: Ortofon OM Stylus 30
Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner
SOFTWARE USED:
Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Adobe Photoshop CS5
ClickRepair
dBpoweramp
Playlist Creator
RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
Downsampled to 24bit/96kHz and16bit /44kHz using iZotope RX Advanced 2
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi
Any chance of a re-up? I have been looking for a lossless version of this re-mix for ages! I’m a little late to the game as you upped this eight years ago…..
Update: I was able to snag this by using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Thanks for your awesome work!
ty
TONS of thank yous….
You made my day.
GREAT stuff.
A masterful piece of 80’s pop. Great video to this single too.
Thanks Paul!
Thanks Paul. I only ever had the shorter mix on a compilation cassette. The 7 minute mix is a bonus.
This is one my favorite singles, but not for the Sledgehammer remix. The 2 non-album b-sides are some of Gabriel’s best work. The ethnic percussion of Don’t break this Rhythm foreshadows Shaking the Tree and much of his Passion soundtrack but in a different, more poppy way.
I Have the Touch is brilliant if for nothing other than eliminating that horrid LINN drum machine from the track (it can be heard on the original mix of this song on the PG album Security) and replacing with an organic, analog drum track.
Thanks for posting in such high quality!
Hi, I am still having trouble downloading from the site. I was wondering if it was just me. The download won’t start. I can’t wait to catch up on all these great posts 🙂
Great! I’ve been looking forward to it and finally it’s arrived! Can’t await to hear the sound quality. Being aware of your rips quality, though, I certainly won’t be disappointed. Thanks for your touch
The song itself is very addictive and definitely one of the best 80s pop songs existing.
You’re welcome HiJack enjoy!
One of my all-time-favs!!! 🙂 Thank you for sharing this!!
You’re welcome MJK!
Thank you so very much for this and the other Gabriel posts! I suppose you don´t have the european version of Big time as well? If I remember it correctly, that one had another b-side, “Curtains” which I am not sure if it was released in the US or not.
“Curtains” is on the US 12″ of “Don’t Give Up” i’ll try to get that posted as soon as I can.
Wonderful! Thanks in advance Paul!
thanks for the post!
i have the UK 12” with the remixed version and the “biko” extended version… any chance to have the biko extended ripped? my vinyl copy is ruined with scratches and jumps… (a friend with crap turntable… 🙁 )
thanks however!!!
hugs… Giorgio
Sorry Giorgio I don’t have the UK 12″ at this time.
🙁
thanks anyway 🙂
Espectacular DJPAULT thank….
You’re welcome Silvio 🙂
Hi Paul, another great post! Please explain why you suffer some difficulty with this rip. What was the problem precisely?
And I am really, really looking forward to the upcoming Disco Friday! And you know why…. 🙂
Hi Stefano the problems were kind of minor but I am pretty picky and I usually will not release anything unless I am happy with it lol. One of the issues was amplitude on this sing it was mastered at a very low volume so I had to boost it about 3db without clipping ofcorse 🙂 I think in the end the transfer turned out pretty good.
Yed Friday should be fun!
Aha, the amplitude! Well, I can image the volume is rather low on this one: 13 minutes on side A at 45 rpm. There’s simply not enough vinyl space to cut the record with a high level and maintain a decent sound quality. So in order to get a high sound quality, the engineer had to lower the volume. No rocket science here…
Friday, oohhh, I simply cannot wait. I’m already on my feet: ‘She sits alone waiting for suggestions. He’s so nervous, avoiding all the questions…’
That’s why copy of the 12″ sounds so rough? I had never thought about it, because of the lower volume it makes all the existing surface noise that much louder and that much more annoying
Yes, unfortunately. But you can do a lot to prevent this (apart from bad quality vinyl used by the record plant). One should keep the vinyl clean by all means, no fingerprints, no dust, nothing. Use a special record cloth, brush or even better: a record vacuum cleaner (but that’s a pricy affair). If you treat your records this way, you won’t need a record vacuum cleaner. But if you are buying/playing second hand records too, you probably need one 🙂 After playing the record, put it in its inner sleeve RIGHT away. If a 12 inch has no inner… Read more »
I love my VPI record cleaning vacuum it works very well. After I clean each record I put it in a brand new inner sleeve 🙂
Great post, Paul! Such a funky and sexy track! And the video fits perfectly! Love the sexual innuendos/imagery mixed with a great dose of humour. There was no short of wit, imagination and poetry in music then. Now the best the current crop of pop stars can only do is use the “F” word in their songs/titles. How crass and mundane! BTW, Peter also won Best British Male at that ’87 Brit Awards. Before this, all his previous albums are simply titled as “Peter Gabriel”. Peter was “forced” by his US record company to give this album a proper title,… Read more »
Thanks Ric for all of the info!
This is one of my all time favorite 12″ mixes…
Hope you like the rip Sailer 🙂
Very much SO! (A little pun there) My 12″ is pretty beat up
Yay!
Enjoy Christian!
Thanks Paul…geat job..
You’re welcome Robert 🙂
KEVIN GODLEY AND LOL CREME (EX. 10CC)MADE THE VIDEO FOR PETER GABRIEL !
Thanks Paul for sharing, it was rare that they were not included in the 25th anniversary.
You’re welcome Guss!
thanx a lot dj!!!!!
i’m looking forward every day to check ‘our home’ = ‘burningtheground.net’
tahnx a lot for the wonderful and the best quality music of my youth!!!!!
love u!!!!!!!!
You are very welcome my friend 🙂
Thanks Paul !!!
You’re welcome Omar 🙂
Oh DjPaulT you are a legend. Thank you for all these 24-bit Gabriel rips that really should have been in the So box set. You’re the best!
Ah thank you Dan. You are very welcome 🙂
Thank you Paul! So glad to see this new Gabriel’s rip on your site!
Have a great day there. 🙂
You’re welcome Spring 🙂
Thanks for this! I was certain you were going to put it off longer based on your comments from the other PeteGabe posts… but this is one of my favorite 12″ singles ever, so it’s great to hear it with your remastering magic! 🙂
Thank you Derek i hope that you enjoy it!
Love this song, thank you for a great job, keep up the good work
Again thank you
Patrick
You’re welcome Patrick. Enjoy!