This Weeks #1 Song 25 years Ago- Peter Gabriel, ‘Sledgehammer’ [VIDEO]

"Sledgehammer" was Peter Gabriel's first and, to this date, only number-one hit in the United States. The song really hit big when one of the most popular and influential videos of the era hit the tube. The song went on to spend 4 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. "Sledgehammer" replaced "Invisible Touch" by his former band Genesis, which had been that group's only U.S. number-one hit the previous week. "Sledgehammer" also achieved chart success on other Billboard charts in 1986, spanning the range between Album Rock Tracks and Hot Dance Club Play.

The video was the real hit though, Although many of these techniques had already been employed in earlier music videos (such as Talking Heads' 1985 hit Road To Nowhere), the "Sledgehammer" video won nine MTV Video Music Awards in 1987, a record which still stands as of 2011. 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...