Peek-a-Boo (Siouxsie and the Banshees song)

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This article is about the Siouxsie and the Banshees song. For other songs of this or a similar title, see Peekaboo (disambiguation).

"Peek-a-Boo"
Single by Siouxsie and the Banshees
from the album Peepshow
B-side
  • "False Face"
  • "Catwalk"
Released18 July 1988 (1988-07-18)[1]
Genre
Length3:10
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Siouxsie and the Banshees singles chronology
"Song from the Edge of the World"
(1987) 		"Peek-a-Boo"
(1988) 		"The Killing Jar"
(1988)
Music video
"Peek-a-Boo" on Dailymotion

"Peek-a-Boo" is a song by English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was released in 1988 as the first single from the band's ninth studio album, Peepshow. Melody Maker described the song as "a brightly unexpected mixture of black steel and pop disturbance" and qualified its genre as "thirties hip hop".[2] "Peek-a-Boo" was rated "Single of the Week" in both Sounds and NME. Sounds wrote that it was a "brave move", "playful and mysterious".[3] NME described it as "Oriental marching band hip hop" with "catchy accordion." They then said : "If this nation was served by anything approaching a decent pop radio station, "Peek A Boo" would be a huge hit."[4]

PopMatters retrospectively placed it at No. 18 on their list "The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s", saying that its instrumentation was "inventive" with "ingenious vocal phasing".[5]

Bloc Party praised "Peek-a-Boo" and their singer Kele Okereke said: "It sounded like nothing else on this planet. [...] to me it sounded like the most current but most futuristic bit of guitar-pop music I've heard."[6]

History

The song's peculiar sound is due to its

B-side
status and deserved better exposure.

"Peek-a-Boo" was one of Siouxsie and the Banshees' most recognisable and popular singles; it was also the group's first to chart in the U.S.

UK Singles Chart.[11] In Canada, the song reached No. 29 on the RPM Retail Sales chart.[12]

A minor controversy ensued after the single's release, as the lines to the chorus ("...Golly jeepers/Where'd you get those weepers?/Peepshow, creepshow/Where did you get those eyes?...") were found to be too similar to the lyrics in the 1938 song "Jeepers Creepers". To remedy the situation and to avoid legal action, the band gave co-songwriting credit on "Peek-a-Boo" to Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer.

Rap artist Sir Mix-a-Lot used elements of the song's themes about sex work for the track "The (Peek-A-Boo) Game" on his 1989 Seminar;[13] while initial pressings featured actual samples from the song, repressings removed the samples.

Charts

Chart (1988) Peak
position
Canada Retail Singles (RPM)[14] 29
Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)[15] 54
Ireland (IRMA)[16] 18
UK Singles (OCC)[11]
 16
US Billboard Hot 100[17] 53
US 12-inch Singles Sales (Billboard)[18] 26
US Dance Club Play (Billboard)[19] 14
US
Modern Rock Tracks (Billboard)[20]
 1

In the media

"Peek-a-Boo" was covered in 2010 by Australian artist

Beavis and Butthead
.

See also

  • List of Billboard number-one alternative singles of the 1980s

References

  1. ^ "New Singles". Music Week. 16 July 1988. p. 47.
  2. ^ Mathur, Paul. "Born Again Savages". Melody Maker. 9 July 1988.
  3. ^ Kane, Peter (23 July 1988). "Single of the week". Sounds.
  4. ^ Quantick, David. "Single of the week". NME. 23 July 1988
  5. ^ Gerard, Chris. "The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s". Pop Matters. 2 October 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2015
  6. ^ O'Kane, Josh (18 September 2008). "Talking Bloc during Harvest Jazz - Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke talks life, love, music and Ultimate Fighting". [Here] New Brunswick. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2012. With the new record, he said he was inspired by a song written years ago by Siouxsie and the Banshees called Peek-a-boo. "I heard it for the first time, and it sounded like nothing else on this planet. This is just a pop song [...] it sounded like the most current but most futuristic bit of guitar-pop music I've heard. I thought, that'd be cool, to make music that people might not get at the time, but in ten years' time, people would revisit it."
  7. ^ a b "The Music Producers, Part Two : Mike Hedges on Peek-a-boo by Siouxsie & the Banshees". The Word. 14 June 2008. Archived from the original on 22 June 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  8. ^ "Siouxsie & the banshees Billboard singles". allmusic.com. Retrieved 18 March 2012.
  9. ^ Billboard Hot 100 - week 12 December 1988. Billboard. Retrieved 15 August 2015
  10. ^ "A Billboard Anniversary Salute". Billboard. 27 November 2004. p. 17. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
  11. ^ a b "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  12. ^ "RPM Top 30 Retail Sales (page 14) - October 29, 1988" (PDF).
  13. Allmusic
    . Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  14. ^ "RPM 30 Retail Sales" (PDF). RPM. Vol. 49, no. 2. 29 October 1988. p. 14.
  15. ^ "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles". Music & Media. Vol. 5, no. 33. 13 August 1988. p. 15.
  16. ^ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Peek-a-Boo". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  17. ^ "Billboard Hot 100". Billboard. 3 December 1988. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  18. ^ "Dance Singles Sales". Billboard. 8 October 1988. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  19. ^ "Dance Club Songs". Billboard. 24 September 1988. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  20. ^ "Alternative Airplay". Billboard. 10 September 1988. Retrieved 3 July 2023.

External links

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