Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 16

On July 26, 1986 “Sledgehammer” (video up top) by English rock musician Peter Gabriel became the month’s final one-week Number One on the Billboard “Hot 100”. Released on April 16, 1986 it was the lead single from Gabriel’s fifth studio album, So. I first heard of Gabriel when he was a founding member of Genesis, where he would remain until 1975 when he began his solo career. I think it’s kind of, sort of, ironic that the subject of last week’s “Weekend Diversion” post was a Genesis song.

I was aware of Gabriel’s solo work, and it was impossible to miss “Sledgehammer”—especially its music video (above). That video! It was ground-breaking at the time, and went on to become the all-rime most-played music video on MTV. In fact, the story of the video is so expansive that I can’t do it justice with a brief discussion here, so instead I’d recommend Wikipedia’s section discussion of it in its article about “Sledgehammer” (the entire article is linked above). I was fascinated by the video. It reminded me of a lot of stop-motion animation I’d seen over the years—and yet is was nothing like any of those. As I remember it, it was the video that made me like the song though, as was so often the case, I never bought the song or the album—or any others by Gabriel, for that matter. I liked the video and song, though.

“Sledgehammer” reached Number 3 in Australia, Number One in Canada, 3 in New Zealand (Platinum), 4 in the UK (Gold), and Number One on the USA’s “Billboard Hot 100”, “US Album Rock Tracks”, and on their “US Dance/Disco Club Play” charts, as well as reaching Number One on the Cash Box “Top 100” chart. I didn’t receive a certification in the USA.

The album So reached Number 5 in Australia (3x Platinum), Number One in Canada, New Zealand (5x Platinum), and the UK (3x Platinum), and Number 2 on the USA’s ”Billboard 200”. The album was certified 5x Platinum in the USA.

This series will return in next week, on August 2, and it’s not a last one-week Number One song!. As I said last week, August will be less work for me.

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1986” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 1 – January 18, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 2 – February 15, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 3 – March 1, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 4 – March 15, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 5 – March 22, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 6 – March 29, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 7 – April 19, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 8 – May 3, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 9 – May 10, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 10 – May 17, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 11 – June 7, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 12 – June 14, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 13 – July 5, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 14 – July 12, 2026
Weekend Diversion: 1986, Part 15 – July 19, 2026