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Shaking the Tree: Sixteen Golden Greats

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. The vinyl version of the album is called Shaking the Tree: Twelve Golden Greats.

"Shaking the Tree" redirects here. For other uses, see Shaking the Tree (disambiguation).

Shaking the Tree: Sixteen Golden Greats

19 November 1990[1]

1976–1990

77:05

Track selection[edit]

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. "Shakin' the Tree"—a track from Youssou N'Dour's 1989 album The Lion—is a 1990 version featuring new vocals from Gabriel (and slightly revised title). "I Have the Touch" is listed as a 1983 remix, although it is actually the 1985 remix which appeared on the "Sledgehammer" single. (The 1985 remix is similar to the 1983 remix, which appeared as the B-side of the "Walk Through the Fire" single, but is edited down to 3m 45s long, as here.)


"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 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" in the U.S., it was not released as a single in Peter Gabriel's UK homeland, so did not chart there. It was therefore omitted from the album in favour of five of the other eight tracks from So — four other hits and the album track "Mercy Street".

 – production

Bob Ezrin

 – synthesizer

Larry Fast

 – guitar

Robert Fripp

 – vocals

Peter Gabriel

 – guitar

Steve Hunter

 – bass guitar

Tony Levin

Alan Schwartzberg – drums

at MusicBrainz

Shaking the Tree: Sixteen Golden Greats