Games Without Frontiers (song)

"Games Without Frontiers"
Single by Peter Gabriel
from the album Peter Gabriel (Melt)
B-side"Start/I Don't Remember" (UK), "Lead a Normal Life" (US)
Released25 January 1980 (UK)[1]
Recorded1979
Genre
Length4:05 (album version)
3:47 (single edit version)
LabelCharisma
Songwriter(s)Peter Gabriel
Producer(s)Steve Lillywhite
Peter Gabriel singles chronology
"D.I.Y."
(1978) 		"Games Without Frontiers"
(1980) 		"No Self Control"
(1980)
Music video
"Games Without Frontiers" on YouTube

"Games Without Frontiers" is a song written and recorded by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel. It was released on his 1980 self-titled third studio album, where it included backing vocals by Kate Bush.[5] The song's lyrics are interpreted as a commentary on war and international diplomacy being like children's games.[6] The music video includes film clips of Olympic Games events and scenes from the educational film Duck and Cover (1951), which used a cartoon turtle to instruct US schoolchildren on what to do in case of nuclear attack. This forlorn imagery tends to reinforce the song's anti-war theme. Two versions of the music video were initially created for the song, followed by a third one made in 2004.

The single became Gabriel's first top-10 hit in the United Kingdom, peaking at No. 4, and — tied with 1986's "Sledgehammer"⁠ — his highest-charting song in the United Kingdom. It peaked at No. 7 in Canada, but only at No. 48 in the United States. The B-side of the single consisted of two tracks combined into one: "Start" and "I Don't Remember".[7] A remix of "Games Without Frontiers" by Massive Attack and Dave Bottrill was included on Gabriel's 1993 single "Steam"; this version later appeared on the Flotsam and Jetsam album in 2019.[8]

  1. ^ "BPI".
  2. ^ "How Peter Gabriel Found His Art-Rock Voice on His Third Album". 23 May 2015.
  3. ^ Popoff, Martin (5 January 2024). "The Top 20 unlikely Progressive Rock hits, ranked". Goldmine. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
  4. ^ "Top 100 Albums of the Eighties". PocketMags.com. December 2015.
  5. ^ "Peter Gabriel: Released 22nd May, 1980". PeterGabriel.com. 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  6. ^ Huey, Steve. "Games Without Frontiers". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  7. ^ "Peter Gabriel – Games Without Frontiers". UltraTop.be. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  8. ^ Scarfe, Graeme (2021). Peter Gabriel: Every Album, Every Song. United Kingdom: SonicBond. p. 135. ISBN 978-1-78952-138-2.