[9] Manu Katché was preparing to board a taxi and return home to Paris when Gabriel coaxed him into recording "Sledgehammer".

It was really passionate and exciting... Wayne Jackson, who plays on that track, was also with Otis Redding and was touring with him when I saw them in London.

[14][15] Gabriel explained that he wanted a real horn section on "Sledgehammer" to capture some of the intricacies of brass playing that could not be achieved with a synthesiser.

[16] The song also features a synthesised shakuhachi flute generated with an E-mu Emulator II sampler.

[14] Overdubs for the horn section and backing vocals took place in January 1986 at Power Station Studios in New York City.

[16] The single release included the previously unreleased "Don't Break This Rhythm" and an "'85 Remix" of 1982's "I Have the Touch".

Genesis lead singer Phil Collins later jested about the occurrence in a 2014 interview, stating, "I read recently that Peter Gabriel knocked us off the No.

[21] In the UK, the single peaked at number four, tying it with 1980's "Games Without Frontiers"⁠ as his highest-charting song in that country.

[22] "Sledgehammer" has been described as dance-rock,[23] funk rock,[24] soul,[25] and new wave,[26] Ryan Reed of Paste called the song a danceable "blue-eyed soul-strut".

[27] Trouser Press gave it as an example of Gabriel's "characteristically sophisticated music" which in this case "touches on funk".

The song was used to increase Esprit de Corps of the brigade at the end of physical training and special events.

[30][31] The "Sledgehammer" music video was commissioned by Tessa Watts at Virgin Records, directed by Stephen R. Johnson and produced by Adam Whittaker.

[32] Many of these techniques had been employed in earlier music videos, such as Talking Heads's 1985 hit "Road to Nowhere", also directed by Johnson.

[16] Two dead, headless, featherless chickens were animated using stop-motion and shown dancing along to the synthesised shakuhachi solo.

[34] The video ended with a large group of extras jerkily rotating around Gabriel, among them his daughters Anna-Marie and Melanie, the animators themselves and director Stephen Johnson's girlfriend.