The album's most successful single, "Sledgehammer", won a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards and, according to a report in 2011, it was MTV's most played music video of all time.

Gabriel composed lyrics about a man whose unemployment causes stress in his domestic relationship. He had seen a TV program about the consequences of unemployment on family life, and said that it "played into my own problems at that time.

Peter Gabriel has been married to Meabh Flynn since 2002. They have two sons together, born in 2001 and 2008, Isaac and Luc. He has two daughters, Anna-Marie (born 1974) and Melanie (born 1976) from his first marriage to Jill Moore.

The second single to be taken from Peter's fifth solo album So, Don't Give Up sees Peter dueting with Kate Bush, and was released on 27 October 1986. Written by Peter Gabriel, the song was produced by Daniel Lanois and Peter and engineered by Kevin Killen and Lanois and features the guest vocals of Kate Bush.