THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

254-Peter Gabriel-Games Without Frontiers.

1980-Number 4 single.

Best Bit-At 0.17. Where you will hear one of Pop Music’s most misheard song lyrics (see also best songs 502.) Some people hear ‘she’s so popular,’ I always thought she was singing ‘she’s so funky yeah.’ The actual lyrics are ‘Jeux Sans Frontieres,’ and were sung by Kate Bush, (see also best songs 866) who would later record the 1986 UK Number 9 hit single duet with Peter Gabriel called ‘Don’t Give Up.’

Peter Gabriel was born Peter Brian Gabriel on February 13th, 1950, in Chobham, England, before embarking on a solo career in 1975 he had been a founding member, and the lead singer of the Progressive Rock band Genesis (see also best songs 741.) Peter Gabriel is one of the leading exponents in the making and promoting of the genre ‘World Music,’ which is basically music not associated with Western Countries. In 2010 Gabriel was inducted into the ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’ as a member of Genesis, and in 2014 he was inducted as a solo artist. Peter Gabriel was a member of Genesis from their formation in 1967 until leaving in 1975, with Genesis he was the lead vocalist, and also played the flute, oboe, and provided percussion on their first six studio Albums released between 1969-1974.

The solo discography of Peter Gabriel includes 10 studio Albums released between 1977-2023, and 46 singles released within the same time period, there are also five official compilation Albums, five live Albums, and four soundtrack Albums available. In the UK three of his Albums have reached the Number 1 position, while 10 of his singles have made the UK top 40, with ‘Games Without Frontiers,’ (1980) and ‘Sledgehammer,’ (1986) both peaking the highest at Number 4. In America on the Billboard 200 chart, eight of his studio Albums have reached the top 40, with ‘So’ (1986) and ‘Us’ (1992) both peaking the highest at Number 2, while five of his singles have reached the Billboard Hot 100 top 40, with ‘Sledgehammer’ (1986) peaking the highest at Number 1, while ‘Games Without Frontiers,’ stalled at Number 48.

‘Games Without Frontiers’ was the first of four singles released from Peter Gabriel’s third solo studio Album called ‘Peter Gabriel,’ from May 1980, the song was written by Peter Gabriel, with the production being by Steve Lillywhite (see also best songs 1004-962-603 and 32.) The performers on the track were Peter Gabriel, vocals, synthesizer, and synth bass, David Rhodes, guitar, Jerry Marotta, drums, Larry Fast, synthesizer, and synth bass, and Kate Bush, backing vocals. Steve Lillywhite, and Hugh Padgham (see also best songs 741-727 and 603) both provided the whistles. All of the first four Peter Gabriel solo studio Albums were called ‘Peter Gabriel,’ and in order to define them, they were also known by different names, with this third studio Album being called ‘Peter Gabriel 3 (Melt’) owing to it’s cover photograph of Gabriel’s face looking like it was melting.

The female vocals on ‘Games Without Frontiers’ were provided by a 21 year old Kate Bush. Originally, a different female vocalist had attempted the ‘jeux sans frontières’ lyric, but her parts were not used. When pressed, Steve Lillywhite would not reveal the name of the first female vocalist. Peter Gabriel subsequently invited Kate Bush to record the part at his studio instead. Steve Lillywhite has said that Gabriel and Bush had a mutual level of respect and admiration for each other. ‘I think everybody fancied her really, particularly Peter, she was as much star-struck by him as he was with her.’ Larry Fast who played the synthesizer on the track, said that the recording engineers had a ‘huge race getting out to the control room to see who would get there first to adjust her microphones or fix her headphones.’ Kate Bush finalised her part in about 30 minutes, and Steve Lillywhite described the recording session as ‘great fun.’

‘Games Without Frontiers’ is an anti-war song, comparing world leaders squabbling with each other like children in the school playground. The lyrics ‘jeux sans frontieres’ is French for ‘games without frontiers, ‘Jeux sans Frontieres’ was the name of a long running television programme broadcast in several European countries between 1962-1999, the British version of the show was called ‘It’s a Knockout.’ The show featured teams from different countries competing against each other in absurd games, and generally dressed in ridiculous outfits, such as large foam rubber suits.

Peter Gabriel and Larry Fast had read a book by the author Michael Herr (1940-2016) titled Dispatches, (1977) which recounted Herr’s experiences and observations from the Vietnam War, including one story of an American urinating on a dead Vietnamese soldier. This scene, which Fast believed was a reflection of the actions that American soldiers found permissible and excusable, inspired the line ‘pissing on goons in the jungle.’ Gabriel has explained the songs meaning, ‘I just began playing in a somewhat light-hearted fashion, ‘Hans and Lottie …’ – so it looked, on the surface, as just kids. The names themselves are meaningless, but they do have certain associations with them. So it’s almost like a little kids’ activity room. Underneath that, you have the TV programme and the sort of nationalism, territorialism, competitiveness that underlies all that assembly of jolly people.’

‘Andre has a red flag, Chiang Ching’s is blue, they all have hills to fly them on, except for Lin Tai Yu. Dressing up in costumes, playing silly games, hiding out in treetops, shouting out rude names.’