The 1986 song "Sledgehammer" is a song by English rock musician Peter Gabriel. It was released in April 1986 as the lead single from his fifth studio album, "So" (1986).The song was produced by Gabriel and Daniel Lanois. It reached No. 1 in Canada in July 1986, and it spent four weeks at No. 1 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart in the US in July 1986. This song was No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart, thanks in part to its music video. It was Gabriel's biggest hit in North America and it ties with his song "Games Without Frontiers" as his biggest hit in the UK.

The music video for "Sledgehammer" won a record nine MTV Video Music Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards. It also won the Best British Video at the 1987 Brit Awards. The song resulted with Gabriel being nominated for three Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year.

Regarding the "Sledgehammer" music video, it was commissioned by Tessa Watts at Virgin Records, directed by Stephen R. Johnson, and produced by Adam Whittaker. Aardman Animations and the Brothers Quay provided claymation, pixilation, and stop motion animation that gave life to images in the song. Many of the techniques used to make the video had been employed in earlier music videos, such as the 1985 hit "Road to Nowhere" by the Talking Heads, also directed by Johnson. The music video style was later used in the video for "Big Time", another single from the album "So".

More Info: en.wikipedia.org