Songfacts®:

• Peter Gabriel has described "Big Time" as "a satirical story about a basic human urge... success."
• This song tells the story of a man from a small town who grows to be larger than life. The ending is heavily processed as Gabriel's voice gets deeper and deeper, creating a sense of size until it ends cold.
• Gabriel used a smorgasbord of sounds on this track, some of which were either processed through or generated by his synthesizers (a Fairlight CMI and Prophet 5) or drum machine (a Linn).
  
  The Memphis Horns, who also appeared on "Sledgehammer," played on this one, as did Stewart Copeland of The Police, who contributed drums. The other credits read:
  
  David Rhodes - guitar
  Simon Clark - bass
  Daniel Lanois - surf guitar
  Jerry Marotta, Tony Levin - drumstick bass
  Simon Clark - Hammond organ
  Coral Gordon, Dee Lewis, PP Arnold - backing vocals
• The video is filled with eye-catching special effects and played often on MTV. Gabriel raised the bar earlier that year with his video for "Sledgehammer," which like "Big Time," was directed by Stephen R. Johnson.
• On the So tour, Gabriel didn't bring a horn section, so keyboard player David Sancious loaded the horn notes from the recording into an Akai sampler and played them back live. The sampler took floppy discs that had to be changed out between songs, so there were times when Gabriel stretched his stage patter while Sancious loaded the discs.
• Daniel Lanois, who co-produced the album, isn't a fan of using computers to replace real-life instruments unless it's done with a specific purpose by someone who is passionate about the technology. "They have been especially useful when people have been really thrilled with them," he told Rolling Stone. "If somebody was to say to me, 'I've got an amazing bass sound on this Fairlight, and I want to use it,' I'd say, 'Terrific.'"
  
  He used this track as an example of how to do it right, saying, "'Big Time,' on Peter Gabriel's record, was based around a Fairlight bass riff. And it had a certain kind of drive and robotic feel that you won't get out of a played bass."
• This was used in these TV shows:
  
  Young Sheldon ("A Patch, A Modem, And A Zantac" - 2017)
  Everybody Hates Chris ("Everybody Hates Varsity Jackets" - 2009)
  Cold Case ("The Lost Soul Of Herman Lester" - 2004)
  
  And in these movies:
  
  Postman Pat: The Movie (2014)
  Inside Job (2010)
  Perfect Body (1997)
• This was used as the official theme song for WWE Wrestlemania 22 in 2006. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Matt - NY, NY