Peter Gabriel: a special on “So” on TV tonight for the 40th anniversary

It was released on May 19, 1986, proving to be one of the most successful albums not only of that year but also of Peter Gabriel’s career: now “So”, the singer-songwriter’s fifth solo album, comes back to life in a special documentary that will be broadcast this evening at 11.35pm on Rai5. The documentary, part of the “Classic albums” series, is dedicated to the genesis of the album, which definitively established Peter Gabriel among the greats of international music.

In the documentary, Gabriel retraces the birth of an album destined to mark an era, recounting the long creative process behind songs that have become iconic such as “Sledgehammer”, “Don’t give up”, “Big time” and “In your eyes”. Through archive images, studio recordings and testimonies from the musicians involved, the special shows how “So” managed to blend pop, rock, world music and electronics in an innovative and immediately recognizable balance. Released at a crucial moment in the British artist’s career, So represented the turning point: from a cult musician appreciated above all by critics, Gabriel became an international superstar. The commercial success was enormous, also driven by the revolutionary video clips of the MTV era, in particular that of “Sledgehammer”, still considered one of the most famous in the history of music.

The episode of Classic Albums dedicated to Peter Gabriel and his album So was originally released in 2012, as part of the historic British documentary series Classic Albums. The documentary was made on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1986 album and was also released on home video by Eagle Rock Entertainment in the same year.