Shock The Monkey

"Shock The Monkey" is sometimes mistaken as a song about shock therapy, but Gabriel has said it is a song about jealousy.

Gabriel used a number of cutting-edge electronic devices to create the backing track on this song and the rest of the Security album, including Fairlight CMI and Prophet 5 synthesizers and a LM-1 drum machine. He and his co-producer David Lord collected samples and generated sounds with the equipment, which they processed to make the rhythms. In the studio, drummer Jerry Marotta played in a manner dictated by how his drums could be processed, which meant avoiding cymbals and using a surdo drum instead of a kick. This song-making process - building from the rhythm up and using any means necessary to generate beats - was an innovative approach that resulted in a sound that could never be replicated.

This was the first Peter Gabriel single to chart higher in America than in his native UK. His American breakthrough came in 1986 with the album So and single "Sledgehammer."