Released 19 November 1990 Length 77:05 Artist Peter Gabriel Label Geffen Records | Recorded 1976–1990 Shaking the Tree
(1990) Us
(1992) Release date 19 November 1990 | |
 | ||
Genres Rock music, Progressive rock, Pop music, Art rock, Worldbeat, Experimental rock Producers Bob Ezrin, Steve Lillywhite, Peter Gabriel, Daniel Lanois Similar Peter Gabriel albums, Progressive rock albums | ||
Shaking the Tree: Sixteen Golden Greats is a compilation album by the English rock musician Peter Gabriel. It was released in 1990 as Gabriel's first career retrospective, including songs from his first solo album Peter Gabriel (I or Car) (1977), through Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ (1989). It was remastered with most of Gabriel's catalogue in 2002.
Contents
Track selection
The tracks are creatively re-ordered, ignoring chronology. Some of the tracks were different from the album versions. New parts were recorded for several tracks in Gabriel's Real World Studios. Most songs are edited for time, either as radio, single, or video edit versions. "Shaking the Tree"—a track from Youssou N'Dour's 1989 album The Lion—is a 1990 version featuring new vocals from Gabriel. "I Have the Touch" is listed as a 1983 remix, although it sounds enough like the remix from 1985 that many reviewers have declared the remixes to be the same.
"Here Comes the Flood" is a new recording from 1990. This version is a piano and voice arrangement, that is far simpler than the highly produced version on Peter Gabriel (1977). Its sparseness is closer to the version that Gabriel recorded with Robert Fripp on Fripp's Exposure (1979). In interviews, Gabriel has said that he preferred the 1979 version, and it was that version with Fripp that he chose to overdub in German as the flipside of the single "Biko" released before Ein deutsches album (1980).
Although this album highlights songs from Peter Gabriel's earlier albums, tracks from Peter Gabriel (II, or Scratch) and the soundtrack to the film Birdy are not included. "In Your Eyes" is notably missing from the compilation. Say Anything, in which it was played in a prominent scene, had been released the year before. Although this made "In Your Eyes" perhaps the most well known Peter Gabriel song aside from "Sledgehammer", it failed to crack the top 20 and was thus omitted from the album in favour of five of the other eight tracks from So—four other hits and album track "Mercy Street".
Track listing
NOTE: All tracks marked with * are not on the vinyl release of the album.
All tracks written by Peter Gabriel, except "Shaking the Tree", co-written with Youssou N'Dour.
Personnel
Songs
1Solsbury Hill4:22
2I Don’t Remember3:48
3Sledgehammer4:56