Peter Gabriel is back on a Billboard airplay chart for the first time since 2008 — and for the first time as a lead artist since 2002 — with “Road to Joy,” which debuts at No. 37 on the Adult Alternative Airplay tally dated Aug. 5.
The song marks Gabriel’s first entry on an airplay ranking since he was featured on Big Blue Ball’s “Burn You Up, Burn You Down,” which peaked at No. 18 on Adult Alternative Airplay in 2008. (Big Blue Ball is also the name of the 2008 album recorded by Gabriel and a variety of artists, including Joseph Arthur and Sinead O’Connor, with Gabriel supplying vocals on multiple songs.)
Between 2002 and 2008, Gabriel also hit Adult Alternative Airplay as a featured vocalist on Angelique Kidjo’s “Salala,” which reached No. 27 in 2007.
His last time as a lead artist on Adult Alternative Airplay (which began in 1996) prior to “Road to Joy” had been in 2002, when “More Than This” peaked at No. 20.
Gabriel boasts four No. 1s as a solo artist on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, earned in the 1980s and ‘90s (“Shock the Monkey,” “Sledgehammer,” “In Your Eyes” and “Digging in the Dirt”); two on Alternative Airplay in the ‘90s (“Digging in the Dirt” and “Steam”); and one on Adult Alternative Airplay in the 2000s (as featured on Afro Celt Sound System’s “When You’re Falling”).
The former lead singer of Genesis first hit Billboard’s charts on his own in 1977. Among his five solo top 40 hits on the multimetric, all-genre Billboard Hot 100, “Sledgehammer” ruled for a week in 1986. He has tallied three top 10s on the Billboard 200 albums chart, one each in the ’80s (So, No. 2), ’90s (Us, No. 2) and ’00s (Up, No. 9).
“Road to Joy” is one of multiple tastes of I/O, Gabriel’s upcoming 10th studio album. A specific release date has not been announced, but Gabriel has released a new song from the LP during every full moon each month, with the 12th set for December. It’s his first album of original material since Up in 2002.
