MIAMI BEACH, FL - MARCH 11: Phil Collins performs at The Little Dreams Foundation Benefit Gala: Dreaming on the Beach at Fillmore Miami Beach on March 11, 2016 in Miami Beach, Florida.

Phil Collins is one of the most successful artists, in any genre, of all time. The singer/songwriter/producer/drummer has had a pretty incredible career, and his influence is now being felt, somewhat surprisingly, in country music.

We say “surprisingly” because he started out playing drums in a progressive rock band in the early 1970s. And if you told the guy playing drums in this 1974 performance that, in fifty years, country artists would be singing his songs, he’d probably be surprised, too.

Genesis, with Phil Collins on drums, performs “The Musical Box” on The Midnight Special in 1974

But it’s true: last year, country superstar Chris Stapleton covered Phil’s massive 1981 hit “In The Air Tonight” — with the help of Snoop Dogg — for ESPN’s Monday Night Football. More recently, Kane Brown sampled the song in his hit, “I Can Feel It.”

Of course, “In The Air Tonight” is an iconic song, and one that never seems to go away. But Collins is hardly a one-hit wonder. One of his other classics, “Take Me Home,” was recently covered by Little Big Town with Sugarland.

Collins has sold 100 million albums as a solo artist, and 150 million more as a member of the band Genesis. Collins has had a very long career in the arts. He was a child actor who was an extra in the Beatles’ 1964 feature film A Hard Day’s Night. In 1969, he formed a band called Flaming Youth, which broke up a year later. He joined Genesis in 1970; he’s not a founding member. They’d released two albums and gone through three drummers by then.

Collins was the band’s drummer and backing singer for five albums from 1970-1975, until their singer Peter Gabriel left the band. They auditioned a number of singers, with Collins helping the applicants through the auditions; the other band members soon realized that the drummer would be a great frontman. With Phil as the drummer and singer, they evolved from a progressive band to a more mainstream rock band to a pop behemoth (but it’s worth mentioning that every album had lengthy songs that harkened back to their progressive roots).

In 1981, Colllins released his solo debut, Face Value, which contained “In The Air Tonight.” For the next decade, he switched back and forth between massive success as a solo artist and with Genesis. If that wasn’t enough, he also collaborated with other artists; sometimes as a producer, sometimes as a duet partner, sometimes as a session drummer. He worked with former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant, former ABBA singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Earth Wind and Fire singer Phillip Bailey, Howard Jones, Adam Ant, and Eric Clapton, to name a few.

In 1996, Collins announced that he was leaving Genesis. After that, he dedicated himself to his solo career, and a new project: leader of a big band (as a drummer). He also hit a new commercial peak when Disney hired him to provide music for the 1999 animated film Tarzan; “You’ll Be In My Heart,” from the film, won an Oscar.

Collins struggled with various health issues in the 2010s and can no longer play drums or piano. But in 2017, he staged a massively successful comeback tour, with his son Nic Collins on drums. In 2021, Genesis kicked off their own massively successful comeback tour as well, again with Nic on drums. The tour ended in March of 2022, with what might be Phil Collins’ final performance.

Whether or not he ever records or performs another note, Collins’ legacy is set in stone. Even if critics and hipsters didn’t love him, millions of fans do (including R&B and hip-hop artists, who paid tribute to the man on the 2001 Phil tribute album, Urban Renewal). At his peak, he was one of the best drummers in the world. And as a singer/songwriter, his work has certainly passed the test of time. Here are some other ones that we’d love to see other country singers — or any other singers, really — cover.

  • Phil Colllins - "This Must Be Love" from 'Face Value' (1981)

    “In The Air Tonight” gets all the attention when people talk about Phil’s solo debut, Face Value. It leads the album off. But hey, let the LP (or tape or CD) play: track two is really moving. Phil specializes in breakup songs. And, indeed, much of Face Value was inspired by his first divorce. But “This Must Be Love” is a love song of a specific type. While the lyrics don’t go into too much detail, it’s clearly about someone falling in love after a bad breakup. Sure, maybe a broken hearted teen could sing “Happiness is something/I never thought I’d feel again,” but Phil sings it with a weariness that is specifically adult. Divorce isn’t just heartbreaking, it’s exhausting and disheartening. But here, he’s seeing the light at the end of the tunnel thanks to someone new.

    Fun fact: a guy named Stephen Bishop sings backing vocals on this track. He wrote the song “Separate Lives,” which Collins would later have a huge hit with.

  • Genesis - 'Throwing It All Away" from 'Invisible Touch' (1986)

    Now this is a breakup song, and it was a pretty popular one. It hit #4 on the pop charts, but topped both the adult contempory singles and the album rock singles charts. The upbeat reggae-tinged music contradicts the kind of devastating lyrics, as Phil admits that this relationship was never going to work out, and it’s time is ending: “We cannot live together/We cannot live apart/And that’s the situation/I’ve known it from the start.” But he’s sorry that things turned out the way that they did: “Someday you’ll be sorry/Someday when you’re free/Memories will remind you that our love was meant to be.” It’s sad but Phil sings it with a regret that kind of says, “But, hey: it was fun while it lasted.”

  • Phil Collins - "I Don't Care Anymore" from 'Hello, I Must Be Going!' (1982)

    Phil’s most famous drum pattern is undoubtedly the break from “In The Air Tonight.” But his drumming on “I Don’t Care Anymore” is hypnotic and propels the song. (Note: in the video above, his touring drummer Chester Thompson is on drums, but Phil played drums on the album.) This is one of Collins’ more angry, and even bitter, post-breakup jams. It feels a lot less amicable than, say, “Throwing It All Away.” He sings, “Well, I don’t care now what you say/’Cause every day I’m feeling fine with myself/And I don’t care now what you say/Hey, I’ll do alright by myself.” He’s clearly done with that relationship.

  • Genesis - "In Too Deep" from 'Invisible Touch' (1986)

    One of Genesis’ biggest hits, it was a #3 pop hit and topped the adult contemporary charts. This one might make a great duet. He seems to be singing from two perspectives in a relationship that isn’t working. They love each other, but want different things out of the relationship. One person is leaving because they’re not getting what they needed from their partner: “Crying at the top of my voice/And no one listening/All this time, I still remember everything you said/There’s so much you promised, how could I ever forget.”

    The other person realizes that they’re in the wrong: “It’s the way that you’re leaving/It’s like we never knew each other at all.” And the kicker: “It may be my fault/I gave you too many reasons.”

  • Phil Collins - "We Said Hello Goodbye" from 'No Jacket Required' (1985)

    This song barely made it to No Jacket Required; it was included as a bonus track on the cassette and CD (a hot new format at the time); it wasn’t included on the LP. This is a post-breakup song. It’s not so much about the ex- as it is about the road ahead, and about being OK with yourself, whether you’re single or in a relationship. “Well it really don’t matter much where you are/’Cause home is in your heart/It’s a feeling that you wake with one day/Some people keep running all of their life/And still find they haven’t gone too far/They don’t see it’s the feeling inside.” At some point you realize that if you’re not OK with yourself, a relatiionship won’t change that. This song is about the alone time between relationships.

  • Genesis - "Never A Time" from 'We Can't Dance' (1991)

    What’s the difference between an adult breakup song and a younger breakup song? Phil Collilns mastered the art of the latter. “Never a Time” is a breakup that doesn’t have a screaming, dramatic end. “Well you know it’s the time to say/’Cause we’re all played out, we’ve lost our way.” In this song, it sounds like a conversation, but at the end, we learn that Phil has been working this out in his own mind, and he’d decided that he’s going to end it. Here’s the last lines: “So sad, so sad, that’s the way that it goes/I know…I’m gonna tell you right now.”

  • Phil Collins - "Everyday" from 'Both Sides' (1993)

    Phil Collins got a lot of criticism for having a very “adult contemporary” — or “soft rock” — sound. As we’ve pointed out, his songs have indeed done very well on the adult contemporary charts. The thing is: songs about divorce are very much “adult” songs. And this song is a good example of that. The ‘Both Sides’ album was a true solo effort: Phil played or programmed all of the instruments by himself and produced the album on his own. It was an intensely personal project, made while he was working through his second divorce. It’s understandable that he wouldn’t want to be around anyone else (and he’s one of the few artists of his era who could actually make an album without any other musicians). There’s a tenderness and regret in Phil’s voice here, which recalls some of James Taylor’s most heartbreaking moments. And this line is a killer: “The book closes and we try to forget/But I know that things won’t change/How we feel, how life goes on/And that seems so strange.”

  • Philip Bailey and Phil Collins - "Easy Lover" from 'Chinese Wall' (1984)

    Hey, we didn’t want to just include sad songs! “Easy Lover” is a karaoke classic for duets. As we mentioned above, Collins was busy balancing his solo career and Genesis through the ’80s, but still found time to collaborate with a lot of other artists. He produced Earth Wind & Fire singer Philip Bailey’s solo album, Chinese Wall, and played drums on most of it. Collins, Bailey and the great bass player Nathan East co-wrote this one. Yes it’s also about a song about a relationship that doesn’t seem healthy – “She will play around and leave you/Leave you and deceive you/Better forget it/Oh, you’ll regret it.” But hey, it’s a fun jam!

Have The KICKS 99's Neon Notes Newsletter Delivered To Your Inbox

Enjoy latest Country music, entertainment, and local stories, exclusive contests, games and more.

*
*
By clicking "Subscribe" I agree to the website's terms of Service and Privacy Policy. I understand I can unsubscribe at any time.