Despite being a kid, I was aware that music had gotten "slick" in the mid 80s. Real soul and grit largely had been traded for cheesy synths, sequencers, and cold, lifeless compression. With only a few exceptions (see below), I hated mainstream pop music from about 1984-1989. Which is why I gravitated to stuff like Stax and Atlantic soul in my parents' record collection. I loved that real, heartfelt sound I heard on records by Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, etc.
So when Peter Gabriel released "Sledgehammer" from the album So in 1986 with its smoking brass section and deep, in-the-pocket groove that was heavily indebted to the Memphis soul sound, I about lost my mind. Never mind the fact that the song was just one, big euphemism for sex (my 8-year-old brain couldn't—or didn't really want to—comprehend what a "fruit cage" was); I just liked the groove.
In fact, I didn't even see the song's iconic video until maybe 2 months after hearing the track on the radio. By that point, I was already a fan. The stop-motion/claymation masterpiece (produced by Aardman Animations, which went on to create Wallace and Gromit) was just double-fudge icing on the already delicious cake to me.
Being that "Sledgehammer" was/is Gabriel's biggest hit, it's often assumed that he consciously set out to write something that would appeal to the masses instead of continuing in his left-of-center, prog-rock vein of the 70s/early 80s. As he recounted to Rolling Stone interviewer Andy Greene in 2012, although he had grown bored with writing esoteric art rock and quirky instrumentals, the song actually came about quite organically. In short, he had an idea for something that had an Otis Redding feel, and he simply showed his bassist, Tony Levin, the groove he'd been noodling on just as Levin was getting ready to go home for the day.
"It was late in the day, and we just fell into the groove, landed a beautiful drum track on it, a great bassline, and it all came together."
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