Peter Gabriel did his fair share of damaging his former band Genesis, but in 1986 he hit them with his Sledgehammer!
The success of Peter Gabriel's landmark single was fully realized in July of 86, as "Sledgehammer", knocked his old band Genesis, out of the top spot as "Invisible Touch" fell to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
With Gabriel, Genesis was a pioneering band in the Prog Rock community, but once the two went their seperate ways, they both achived mainstream pop success. Gabriel would see the height of his success with the song and the album "So", while Genesis themselves would practically own the 80's with massive pop hits and even solo success for the remaining members. Phil Collins may have benefitted the most from Gabriel's departure, as he climbed from behind his drumset and into the spotlight, becoming the new lead singer of the band. Of everyone invloved his career was the biggest, with a string of hit albums and singles to his name. Phil himself found it funny that Genesis got taken down by their old bandmate,
"I read recently that Peter Gabriel knocked us off the No 1 spot with Sledgehammer. We weren’t aware of that at the time. If we had been, we’d probably have sent him a telegram saying: “Congratulations – bastard.”