Peek-a-Boo (song)
Encyclopedia
"Peek-a-Boo" is a song by English alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was released in 1988 as the first single from the band's ninth studio album Peepshow
Peepshow (album)
Peepshow is the ninth studio album by the English band Siouxsie and the Banshees and their first as a quintet. With the arrival of multi-instrumentalist Martin McCarrick, Peepshow was one of their most musically complex albums, including the singles "Peek-a-Boo" and "The Last Beat of My...

. The music paper Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...

described the song as "a brightly unexpected mixture of black steel and pop disturbance" and qualified its genre as "thirties hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...

".

The song's peculiar sound is due to its experimental
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...

 recording which is based on a sample
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...

. The song was built on a loop in reverse of a brass
Brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...

 part with drums that the Banshees previously arranged a year before in 1987 for a cover of John Cale
John Cale
John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....

's "Gun". The band selected different parts of that tape when played backwards, editing them and re-recorded upon it, adding a different melody plus accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....

, a one-note bass and a discordant guitar. Budgie also added another beat. Once the instrumental parts were finished, Sioux sang her lyrics over it. The lyric track was further manipulated by Siouxsie's using a different microphone for each line of the song.

It took the band one year to arrive to this result. When initially composed to be an extra-track to 1987's "The Passenger" single, the band realized that the song was too good to be relegated to a b-side status and deserved a better exposure.

"Peek-a-Boo" is one of Siouxsie & the Banshees' most recognisable and popular singles; it was the group's also first to chart in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

, where it reached number 53. The song was very popular on alternative rock radio and received heavy play on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

. "Peek-a-Boo" also became Siouxsie & the Banshees' fifth Top 20 UK hit, peaking at number sixteen in the UK singles chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

. In September 1988, Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

magazine premiered a new Modern Rock Tracks
Modern Rock Tracks
Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs...

 chart which measures radio airplay on U.S. modern rock
Modern rock
Modern rock is a rock format commonly found on commercial radio; the format consists primarily of the alternative rock genre...

 stations: "Peek-a-Boo" was the chart's first number-one song.

A minor controversy ensued after the single's release as the lines to the chorus ("...Golly jeepers / Where'd you get those peepers? / Peepshow, creepshow / Where did you get those eyes?...") were found to be too similar to the lyrics in the 1938 song "Jeepers Creepers
Jeepers Creepers (song)
Jeepers Creepers is a popular 1938 song and jazz standard. The music was written by Harry Warren and the lyrics by Johnny Mercer, for the movie Going Places. It was premiered by Louis Armstrong and has since been covered by many other artists.-Overview:...

". To remedy the situation and to avoid legal action, the band gave co-songwriting credit on "Peek-a-Boo" to Harry Warren
Harry Warren
Harry Warren was an American composer and lyricist. Warren was the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing "Lullaby of Broadway", "You'll Never Know" and "On the Atchison,...

 and Johnny Mercer
Johnny Mercer
John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...

.

"Peek-a-Boo" was later covered in 2010 by Australian artist Bertie Blackman
Bertie Blackman
Bertie Blackman is an Independent Australian singer, songwriter and guitarist. She rose to fame with her debut album in 2004, entitled 'Headway' which came after years of prolific performances around Sydney's Inner city venues, where she developed a dedicated following.-Early life and...

.

The song was made available as downloadable content for the Rock Band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...

platform on 20 April 2010.

Charts

Chart (1988) Peak
position
Irish Singles Chart 18
UK Singles Chart 16
U.S. Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

53
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks 1
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play
Hot Dance Club Play
The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs...

14
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