DL - what’s your favourite Phil Collins song?

Whichever one is the shortest.

My dad really fancied Kelly LeBrock and bought The Woman In Red LP. I have a sentimental attachment to I Just Called To Say I Love You, but those synths sound like they came from my toy Casio.

Against All Odds is genius.

Trick of the Tail

Why does he have to be called a "dork," OP?

Because he is a dork, r4, and I think his appearance and his earnest personality is much of the reason why his music is (unfairly, I believe) mocked.

Can't Turn Back the Years

Duchess

Oh, and we really shouldn't have a Phil Collins discussion without mention of his Eleganza ex-wife Orianne. She's more compelling that all Phil's songs put together.

I Missed Again.

(Although Hall & Oates would have done it better)

He'a a Texas history fanatic and has a huge collection of memorabilia. Much of it turned out to have its authenticity contested. I think it is on display in the terrible Texas history museum in Austin. The whole saga is fascinating.

His music is slightly less terrible than Billy Joel's, but not by much..

This one

Take Me Home.

I Don't Care Anymore

r12 my mom once said that as she was following the hearse to the cemetery after her father's funeral, that song came on the radio.

Never have I ever…liked a Phil Collins song. I found him so abusive of the’80s airwaves, I sometimes thought of him as Madonna Collins.

*none of them

Well, if we count him as a drummer, the best work he’s involved in IS the Peter Gabriel era Genesis. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and Selling England by the Pound are masterpiece albums. His best drum performance is on “The Cinema Show” and their overall best achievement as a group was “Supper’s Ready”. His best drum performance overall is on “Nuclear Burn” with Band X. His best song as the singer of Genesis is “Dancing on a Volcano”, when they were still prog and he was impersonating Peter Gabriel in an uncanny way. His best solo track IMO is “I Don’t Care Anymore”.

Here’s Phil murdering the drums with Brand X, his 70’s prog/fusion instrumental group. Doing a Billy Cobham impression.

Drummers who sing are always impressive.

Separate Lives

That's true, R19.

Had to go with "In the Air" because it's so iconic, but "Follow You" was a close second. That song is like a warm, synthy hug.

Beyond those two, I could take or leave Mr. Collins.

Actually, I have a vague memory of a PC or Genesis song with a weird little passage I dug that sounded like a cat coughing up a fur ball: uh-HAHA ha... uh-HAHA ha [yowl]. The rhythm/atmospherics are like "I Don't Care Any More" but turns out that's not it.

Does that ring a bell for anyone?

Anyone?

Bueller?

“Orianne you smell”

r23 The Brazilian?

R23 that’s Mama. A darker and more twisted Genesis tune.

uh-HAHA! HA!…. (oww…)

Duh, r27. How could I forget?

Throwing It All Away

ps fun fact, R28.. Mama was the band’s highest charting hit in their native England/UK. #4.

Over here it was big on album-rock stations and got some MTV airplay but that’s it.

Against All Odds really is a terrific ballad. Such a beautiful melody.

I also like Man on the Corner

I'm not ashamed to admit to being a Phil Collins fan. Both with Genesis and solo, he had a lot of good songs.

I named my Wifi “LAN of confusion”.

Nice choice R32. Another one I liked was Taking It All Too Hard. It never made Top 40 but I heard it a lot that year (‘84-85 or so)

I love the opening of I Can't Dance. Such an interesting sound.

[quote] Why does he have to be called a "dork," OP?

Because he radiates quintessential dorkiness with every atom of his being?

Just a guess.

"Son Of Man"

I remember "No Son of Mine" used to scare me when I was younger. Like "Mama," it's rather sinister.

Does this answer your question, OP?

I'm afraid the actual title is "Against All THE Odds."

Please make a note of it.

I always liked Throwing it All Away.

He was/is dorky, but he could bring a lot of 80s-style emotion to a song.

Sussudio.

Thank you r27!!!

Home By The Sea (Genesis).

Something Happened On The Way To Heaven

I’ve found myself defending Phil’s music. It’s not all great—Another Day in Paradise was awful—but he had some legitimately terrific songs, including In the Air Tonight, That’s All, Easy Lover, and Against All Odds.

Misunderstanding is another favorite

My favorite Phil Collins solo song, "Hand in Hand," is mostly instrumental.

Of the hits written by him, "That's All" from Genesis' self-titled is my favorite. It was funny to see it in the poll's Viv choice.

I Wish It Would Rain Down

The Brazilian (an instrumental)

That's all

In Too Deep

R40 - I had to look up what you meant by that. It did not disappoint! lol

Ugh...R45, I absolutely hated that song at the time. His voice sounds so pinched and the song itself just makes me cringe in its almost television-commercial like earworm.

I feel like it was a "successful" song because it was so relentlessly annoying--and played endlessly on all the soft rock stations and in-house dental office tapes--that it just FORCED you to accept it.

This song is so underrated.

"Turn It On Again" or "I Missed Again"

R9, I missed your post (again).

Special mention... Phil's drumming is one of the few positive features of the otherwise "cringe" Do They Know It's Christmas? UK charity single. He absolutely kicks ass toward the end, and it keeps the song acoustically interesting.

I've been listening to this one a lot lately

Take me home is my favorite

If you ever watch reaction videos on YouTube, watch the ones for "In the Air Tonight". Younger people who have never heard the song before practically fall out of their chairs when that drum fill comes in during the middle half.

The video reactions of the live performance are fun too, as while they're watching him come up to the drums, they don't expect THAT.

(I know, many of them are exaggerated.)

Domino because it’s like an hour long.

He disgusts me.

[quote] Another Day in Paradise was awful

Lots of [black] churchy people love it. What I do like about it is the production and David Crosby’s perfectly pitched backup vocals.

Jesus He Knows Me with Genesis. Best skewering of evangelical grifters ever and perfect video.

I also love Ripples from A Trick of the Tail which has my favorite album cover.

Wasn’t he squatting in his ex wife’s house?

His drum work on Tina turners typical male was great.

Phil produced Frida’s I know there’s something going on. The drumming is brilliant.

He's also good on this track (Frida's "I Know There's Something Going On")

r66 great minds

I liked Ripples and then began to hate it when my mother started listening to it.

I Cannot Believe It's True is quite underrated.

I also love That's All, I Missed Again, Follow You Follow Me, Home By The Sea, In The Air, Easy Lover...Phil is one of my guiltiest pleasures. I just don't care for most of the schmaltzy ballads from his later career,

Is that Collins on the drums r65? I didn't know that. That's one of my favorite Tina tunes, mostly because of the bouncy R&B beat.

Illegal ALIEN

In Too Deep Was used to excellent effect in The Bear.

Mama

heh heh heh

I’ve always liked this one, although I do have a painful memory of it. I was with a guy in high school and thought we were out, but one night we went driving around with friends of his from another school I didn’t know. This song came on and I just instinctively grabbed his hand but he jerked away, embarrassed. He never called me again. I later found out he died of a drug overdose (years later, I didn’t know him at all by that point). I went away for college and he’d stayed in our home town.

^ Sorry link fail.

Hugs to teenage you, r75. We have all had a moment like that.

I like Hold On My Heart

I forgot how good Turn It On Again is. Also Paperlate, No Reply At All, Land of Confusion (loved the fun video with Spitting Image puppets)

I remember back to 1984, when Diana Ross released her album 'Swept Away' there was a rumor that she had turned down a number of songs (better than which actually ended up on the album), and one was written by then-hot Phil Collins. Somehow, Darryl Hall (who co-produced the album) asked his friend Collins to contribute something to Ross' album. The song in question was 'In Too Deep', Ross rejected the demo Collins sent her, so he kept it for himself and had a Top 3 hit with it in 1986. With her delicate vocals, this could've been a beautiful song recorded by Ross back then.

Sussudio!

I loathe most of his solo music.

Against All Odds really is a decent song musically but his overwrought vocals kill it about halfway through.

Easy Lover is probably my favorite (though my local 80s station really needs to stop playing it 10 times a day).

I really loved a few of the post-Gabriel Genesis tunes, though. Follow You Follow Me was my favorite.

Decent music, but he always looked like a grown-up Charlie Brown.

r83 that's being kind and generous!

r64 she was squatting in HIS house

Do you like Phil Collins? I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn't understand any of their work. Too artsy, too intellectual. It was on Duke where Phil Collins' presence became more apparent. I think Invisible Touch was the group's undisputed masterpiece. It's an epic meditation on intangibility. At the same time, it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums.