"Shock the Monkey" | ||||
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Single by Peter Gabriel | ||||
from the album Peter Gabriel (Security) | ||||
B-side | "Soft Dog" | |||
Released | September 1982[1] | |||
Recorded | 23 June 1981 – 10 July 1982 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length |
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Label | Geffen | |||
Songwriter(s) | Peter Gabriel | |||
Producer(s) |
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Peter Gabriel singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Shock the Monkey" on YouTube |
"Shock the Monkey" is a song by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel. It was released in September 1982 as the first single[3] from his fourth self-titled studio album, issued in the US under the title Security.
The song peaked at number 29 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number one on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.[4] The song was Gabriel's first Top 40 hit in the US. In the UK, the song charted at number 58. According to AllMusic, the song has a "relentlessly repeated hook" that "sounded nothing like anything else on the radio at the time".[5]
Billboard called it a "mysterious but infectious track...which melds synthesizers, distinctive vocal and dance rhythms to fresh effect."[6]