Shock the Monkey

"Shock the Monkey"
Single by Peter Gabriel
from the album Peter Gabriel (Security)
B-side"Soft Dog"
ReleasedSeptember 1982 (1982-09)[1]
Recorded23 June 1981 – 10 July 1982
Genre
Length
LabelGeffen
Songwriter(s)Peter Gabriel
Producer(s)
Peter Gabriel singles chronology
"I Don't Remember"
(1980)
"Shock the Monkey"
(1982)
"I Have the Touch"
(1982)
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]

  1. ^ "Shock The Monkey". PeterGabriel.com.
  2. ^ Reed, Ryan. "Peter Gabriel Albums From Worst To Best". StereoGum. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  3. ^ "Shock The Monkey". PeterGabriel.com. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  4. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 8th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 246.
  5. ^ Allmusic song review. Retrieved 7 June 2008.
  6. ^ "Top Single Picks". Billboard. 9 October 1982. p. 63. Retrieved 7 February 2023.