Siouxsie and the Banshees “Peek-A-Boo” 1988. “Peek-A-Boo” was the lead single from Peepshow, the Banshees ninth studio album, which was released 30 years ago today, September 5th, 1988. Peepshow is one of my favorite Siouxsie records and it received widespread critical and commercial success, hitting #20 on the UK charts and #68 in the US. “Peek-A-Boo,” released prior to the album in July of ‘88 and charting at #16 in the UK and #53 in the US (hitting #1 on the US Alternative Songs chart), is an utterly unique pop/dance track which features accordion, carnival fun house meets Eastern melodies in minor and a stomping bass and beat line that Melody Maker called “1930′s hip hop” (NME added to the description calling it “Oriental marching band hip hop”). The overall bizarreness of the  sound can be attributed to the fact that “nearly the entirety of the musical track of “Peekaboo” is being played backwards. In Twin Peaks style, the band learned how to play the song backwards and then that tape was reversed, resulting in the almost natural but still quite skewed sound.” (Allmusic)

Side A of this 12″ single is an extended cut of “Peek-A-Boo,” the “Silver Dollar Mix” which doubles the track’s length with synthpop elements and extra industrial stomp and swagger. Side B has the single version of “Peek-A-Boo” plus “False Face,” an all-out rocker, and Catwalk,” which is almost as crazed as its A-side: a weirdly slinky instrumental with purrs, howls and whispers.

“Peek-A-Boo” was not without controversy. From Allmusic: “The lyrics, spat by Siouxsie Sioux in one of her most cutting performances, are considerably less light-hearted, being a biting condemnation of the use of sexual imagery in advertising and marketing, comparing shopping to a visit to a sleazy sexual arcade. The group were later sued by the estates of Harold Warren and Johnny Mercer for including the mangled couplet “Golly jeepers, where’d you get those weepers/Peepshow, creepshow, where did you get those eyes,” which was ruled too close to the chorus of the old pre-rock standard “Jeepers Creepers” for comfort; the songwriters were later added to the credits.”