Peek-a-Boo (single)

"Peek-a-Boo" is a song by English alternative rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was released in 1988 as the first single from the band's ninth studio album Peepshow. The music paper Melody Maker described the song as "a brightly unexpected mixture of black steel and pop disturbance" and qualified its genre as "thirties hip hop".

Bloc Party praised "Peek-a-Boo" and their singer Kele Okereke said : "it sounded like nothing else on this planet. This is just a pop song that they put out in the middle of their career that nobody knows about, but to me it sounded like the most current but most futuristic bit of guitar-pop music I've heard."

History
The song's peculiar sound is due to its experimental recording which is based on a sample. The song was built on a loop in reverse of a brass part with drums that the Banshees previously arranged a year before in 1987 for a cover of John Cale'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, 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, where it reached number 53. The song was very popular on alternative rock radio and received heavy play on MTV. "Peek-a-Boo" also became Siouxsie & the Banshees' fifth Top 20 UK hit, peaking at number sixteen in the UK singles chart. In September 1988, Billboard magazine premiered a new Modern Rock Tracks chart which measures radio airplay on U.S. modern rock 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". 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.

"Peek-a-Boo" was later covered in 2010 by Australian artist Bertie Blackman.

The song was made available as downloadable content for the Rock Band platform on 20 April 2010.

The song was used in the 2001 movie "Jeepers Creepers". The song played on the radio in a police car.