"Sledgehammer" is a hit song by Peter Gabriel from his 1986 album So. It peaked at number one in Canada for four weeks on 21 July 1986, number one on the 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 was influenced by 1960s soul music, in particular the music made by the Memphis label Stax. The distinctive horn track was provided by the Memphis Horns, house musicians at Stax. The opening horn riff is similar to the beginning of John Coltrane's "Chronic Blues" from the Coltranealbum. The song also features a synthesized shakuhachi flute.

The lyrics are a mosaic of sexual innuendos, with references to steam train, bumper cars, Big Dipper (roller coaster) and fruit cage as metaphors for male and female sexual organs and references to pollination, fruit and bees as metaphors of sexual act.

"Sledgehammer" was Peter Gabriel's first and, to this date, only number-one hit in the United States. It replaced "Invisible Touch" by his former band Genesis, which had its only number-one U.S. hit the previous week. "Sledgehammer" also achieved chart success on other Billboardcharts in 1986, spanning the range between Album Rock Tracks (two weeks at the summit in May and June) and Hot Dance Club Play (one week atop this chart in July). (Original Length: 5:09) The single release also included a previously unreleased track called "Don't Break This Rhythm" and an "'85 Remix" of his 1982 single "I Have the Touch." U.S. versions of the single contained an extended dance remix of "Sledgehammer." It was among the first singles released on compact disc.

The TV series Sledge Hammer!was also popular when the song was released, although the two are not related.

In 1991, rappers 3rd Bass borrowed the Tony Levin bass line from the song for their hit "Pop Goes the Weasel." The 1993 Naughty By Nature song "Hip Hop Hooray" also samples the shakuhachi intro. In 2000, the song was sampled for "I've Got to Have It" by Jermaine Dupri, Monica and Nas, which appeared on the soundtrack for the motion picture Big Momma's House.The instrumental of such song is used by independent wrestler Claudio Castagnoli as an entrance theme.

In 1993, the song appeared on a British television commercial for the Vauxhall Cavalier, followed by the guitar riff from Eric Clapton's "Layla."[1]

In 2007, Finnish Symphonic Epic Metal Northern Kings featuring Jarkko Ahola from Teräsbetoni, Marco Hietala from Nightwish and Tarot, Tony Kakko from Sonata Arctica and Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto from Charon covered the song on their album Reborn.

In 2008, R&B singer Maiysha did a sensual rendition of "Sledgehammer" for her album "This Much Is True"

In 2009, composer Gavin Castleton released a video of a solo looping rendition of "Sledgehammer" on his youtube channel.

Dave Matthews Band began covering this song during the 2008 tour.

In 2009, the song was played during Sam Newman's entrance on an episode of The Footy Show, seeing as Sam was dressed in a Sledgehammer costume to somewhat represent Matthew Lloyd.

In 2009, the song was assigned to be covered by a capella group Nota on NBC's The Sing-off.

"Sledgehammer" spawned a widely popular and influential music video directed by Stephen R. Johnson. Aardman Animations and the Brothers Quay provided claymation, pixilation, and stop motion animation that gave life to images in the song. The video ended with a large group of extras jerkily rotating around Gabriel, among them: Gabriel's daughters Anna and Melanie, the animators themselves, and director Stephen Johnson's girlfriend. Also included were six women who posed as the back-up singers of the song. Gabriel lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours while filming the video one frame at a time.

In 1987, it won nine MTV Video Music Awards, a record which still stands as of 2008. It ranked at number four on MTV's 100 Greatest Music Videos Ever Made(1999). MTV later announced that "Sledgehammer" is the most played music video in the history of the station. "Sledgehammer" has also been declared to be MTV's number one animated video of all time.

The video was also voted number seven on TMF's Ultimate 50 Videos You Must See- first aired 24 June 2006. It ranked at number 2 on VH1's "Top 20 Videos of the 80's" as well as being named the #1 "Amazing Moment in Music" on the Australian TV show 20 to 1in 2007.

The portion of the song featuring the synthesized flute solo was realized in the video by first one and then two oven-ready turkeys, headless and featherless, animated using stop-motion. These were animated by Nick Park (of Wallace and Gromitfame) who, at that time was refining his work in plasticine animation.

The video won Best British Video at the 1987 Brit Awards. Also, the video was nominated for the Best Music Video category for the first annual Soul Train Music Awards in that same year.