Talk:Shock the Monkey

Latest comment: 15 years ago by Abrazame in topic Chart peaks

I'm sorry, where does who get the idea that this song has anything to do with Milgram? Source, please? rjrjr 00:49, 17 June 2006 (UTC)Reply

Fair point, I've not seen any source that states unequivocally that Gabriel was referencing Milgram with the song or even its title, so as part of expanding/infoboxing this article I've modified the wording to say only that some people cite a connection (rightly or wrongly), and that fact can be sourced. Cheers, Ian Rose 16:05, 1 July 2006 (UTC)Reply


TOny Levan , from King Crimson on the base....

Chart peaks edit

The Peter Gabriel discography page at Wiki had numerous erroneous chart peaks and was uncited. I have extensively edited the discography and started a section for discussion of potential factual disagreements on that talk page. Answers.com is a site that simply mirrors Wiki articles and doesn't independently verify their accuracy. I happen to know that the free portion of billboard.com is often incomplete and it is possible that it is also occasionally wrong. RIAA.com is also incomplete. They list "In Your Eyes" as Gabriel's only Gold or Platinum single, when surely "Sledgehammer" was certified as well, to cite one example. However, neither our suspicion nor our educated guess, that "Sledgehammer" went Gold, or that a given single charted higher or lower than a previous editor has stated, is enough to add it as fact to the article. We have to find a source for it first.

One way to find such a source is to discuss any disagreement with cited article content here on the talk page. If another editor agrees or has their interest piqued, they may help you do your research to prove or disprove your claim. Chances are that among those reading the talk page for a given subject are people who not only have personal knowledge of the subject but access to legitimate, accurate sources such as (in this case) a trade publication collection or a paid website subscription, and they could not only confirm but cite as fact such suspicions. (I personally have an extensive collection of '80s and '90s Billboard magazines, but as they are currently inaccessible in storage, I depend upon the free portion of billboard.com for now. I do not have the 1982 issue(s) that would confirm or deny your suspicions about this particular peak. I venture to guess you won't be happy to learn that my sources state the UK peak given here was even farther off than the U.S. peak you're debating; instead of #8, it was #58. The upside of that is, it did better in the larger market of the U.S. than in his native UK.

"Shock The Monkey" is one of my favorite tracks of Gabriel's, of that entire year, and I'd venture to say the whole decade, and it's a shock to learn it wasn't the international pop hit it should have been, or likely would have been a few years later. I hope my addition of other U.S. chart appearances ameliorates any sense of disappointment or injustice! Abrazame (talk) 03:17, 22 June 2008 (UTC)Reply