Tag Archive for: Phil Collins

Between 1980 and 1986, the British trio Genesis released a series of four consecutive hit albums, each more successful than its predecessor by as many as five times. Because drummer/singer/songwriter Phil Collins had a parallel solo career take off during that time, reading the critical reviews from many respected music writers in this period imply that Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford and keyboardist Tony Banks unwittingly, if not unwillingly, were somehow led by Collins in a more mainstream pop direction. However, the simple facts just don't bear out that assumption.

It happened to Elton John, Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams, Sting, and most recently U2: US radio and music video outlets overplaying the hits by these most popular musicians, in the programmers' misguided attempts at gaining a bigger audience. But the unfortunate by-product is that these listeners/viewers burn out on the saturation repetition to the peril of the musicians, and the predictable backlash unfortunately is misdirected at the musicians, who had no control over how their songs were appropriated. No one on the planet knows this better now than my guest Phil Collins while sharing his second solo album,"Hello I Must Be Going.".

Concerts came back just in time for the anniversary of Genesis' biggest album in their long fifty year+ career, Invisible Touch  (worldwide sales estimated at 15,000,000), so we convene Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks, and Phil Collins here In the Studio  to discuss the blockbuster sales behind "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight", "Land of Confusion", "In Too Deep", "Throwing It All Away", and "Invisible Touch".