History Music / PhilCollins

[[caption-width-right:350:[[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Oim Phil Collins]]!]]

* {{Bishonen}}: Even in his later years he could be considered this, but very much so in his [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/e3/73/b1/e373b198c5afe99f46bee9fc75ac9e48.jpg younger days]].

Collins has also had a tremendously successful solo career, selling 33 million records in the US alone with one diamond album (''No Jacket Required'') there. His biggest hits include "In the Air Tonight," "Sussudio," "One More Night," and "Another Day in Paradise." He [[HeAlsoDid also]] [[PopStarComposer composed]] the songs for the [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney]] animated films ''WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/BrotherBear'', as well as three for ''Buster'', in which he also starred. In addition to his production work for Eric Clapton, he also produced hits for Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad of {{Music/ABBA}} ("I Know There's Something Going On") and former Music/EarthWindAndFire singer Philip Bailey ("Easy Lover").

** A common theme of most of his albums in the 1980s and all of his studio albums is having his face be the most prominent feature on the cover along with his handwritten name and the album title. (''Dance into the Light'' being the exception even though it still shows only him, with him moving around writing his signature with a light pen.) This also made it easy for him to replicate his old albums' covers at his older age years later for their 2016 reissues, ''Dance into the Light'' included.

---->In 2016, ''Dance into the Light'' was reissued as a Deluxe Edition as part of Collins's remastered album campaign. Each album features updated artwork with Collins adopting the same poses and expressions that he did on the originals. He maintained that the new artwork for ''Dance into the Light'' was in fact real, "so spot on that people will think it's Photoshopped." The booklet and artwork includes a strip film of Collins attempting the various positions to prove it was genuine.

* PerfectlyCromulentWord: "Sussudio." See WordSaladLyrics below for more info.

** His 1996 album ''Dance Into the Light'' contains a song called "Lorenzo." As the title and lyrics imply, the song is about the boy from the real life-inspired film ''Lorenzo's Oil''. Its lyrics were a poem written by Lorenzo's mother, and Phil asked if he could set her verses to music.

** "Colours" takes digs at powerful people who would not stand up to [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra apartheid]]. "Tell me, what can you say/Tell me, who do you blame/Like a mirror, you see yourself/These people each have a name."

* UrbanLegends: People misinterpreted the lyrics ''Well, if you told me you were drowning/I would not lend a hand'' from "In the Air Tonight" and [[http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/intheair.asp somehow created a story about how Phil saw a guy refusing to help a friend of his who drowned as a kid, then at a concert saw that guy again and exposed him to the audience]], [[DrivenToSuicide driving him to commit suicide]]. {{Music/Eminem}}, of all people, mentions it in the song "Stan."[[note]]Since that song is about a musician's works being misunderstood by an obsessive fan, the reference may be deliberate.[[/note]] Wow, BewareTheNiceOnes indeed.

* EightiesHair: His overly permed mullet was the source of much snark.

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: As Music/{{Genesis|Band}}' drummer, he would occasionally provide lead vocals or co-lead vocals on the occasional song, such as "For Absent Friends" on ''Music/NurseryCryme'' and "More Fool Me" on ''Music/SellingEnglandByThePound''. After Music/PeterGabriel left, Collins was promoted to the band's lead vocalist (if only because none of the other people who auditioned turned in satisfactory performances).

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Initially a drummer for Genesis, he was promoted to lead vocalist after Peter Gabriel left.

* GenreRoulette: ''Face Value'' includes: the famous "In the Air Tonight", a love ballad with Brazilian percussion ("This Must Be Love"), a swinging, disco-influenced rearrangement of "Behind the Lines", an acoustic {{Blues}} song ("The Roof Is Leaking"), two energetic {{Instrumentals}} ("Droned", "Hand in Hand"), an R&B-influenced pop song ("I Missed Again"), a stripped-down piano and strings ballad ("You Know What I Mean"), a {{Funk}}-influenced song ("Thunder and Lightning"), an upbeat, [[Music/PaulMcCartney McCartney-esque]] pop song ("I'm Not Moving"), a full-band, orchestrated BreakupSong ("If Leaving Me Is Easy") and a cover of [[Music/TheBeatles "Tomorrow Never Knows"]].

* DreamTeam: That's [[Music/ThePolice Sting]], Music/PeterGabriel and Music/CultureClub background singer Helen Terry singing backing vocals on "Take Me Home".
** Sting also appears on the same album, singing on "Long Long Way To Go".
** The "Phenix Horns," which played on numerous Collins songs (and a few Genesis songs), is the horn section from legendary R&B group Music/EarthWindAndFire.

* MurderByInaction: A popular UrbanLegend surrounds the song "In The Air Tonight". The legend usually involves someone watching someone else drown to death and being unwilling to help along with several other variations. In actuality, the song was about a divorce.

* UrbanLegends: People misinterpreted the lyrics ''Well, if you told me you were drowning/I would not lend a hand'' from "In the Air Tonight" and [[http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/intheair.asp somehow created a story about how Phil saw a guy refusing to help a friend of his who drowned as a kid, then at a concert saw that guy again and exposed him to the audience]], [[DrivenToSuicide driving him to commit suicide]]. {{Music/Eminem}}, of all people, mentions it in the song "Stan." Wow, BewareTheNiceOnes indeed.

*** ''Dance into the Light'': Collins in full bodied view wearing a blue light jacket over an orange T-shirt and khakis. The photo, which has an orange background, takes him in motion as he dances making his signature with a light pen. As Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} writes on its article of the album in a section dedicated to the 2016 reissue:

* RefrainFromAssuming: "Something Happened on the Way to Heaven" is ''not'' called "Please Believe in Me".
** "Against All Odds" is not titled "Take a Look at Me Now", but the mistake was so common that the latter was included in the title in parentheses.

* AuthorCatchphrase: "All my life" (sometimes "all of my life") shows up a fair amount in his lyrics, even with Genesis.

Philip David Charles Collins, [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever LVO]] (born 30 January 1951) is an English drummer, singer-songwriter, and occasional actor, best known as the drummer for Music/{{Genesis}} and as a successful solo artist. Collins has won seven Grammys, two Golden Globes, and an Oscar over his long career.

* LeadDrummer: In Music/{{Genesis}}, though the band employed a live drummer so Phil could concentrate on his vocals in concert.

* LoudnessWar: The most recent remasters surprisingly avert (or, at worst, massively {{downplay|edTrope}}) the trope, for the most part: for instance, the 2016 ''Face Value'' remaster is [[http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/104713 DR11]] and doesn't clip to any noticeable extent. To be clear, it's mildly louder than the original 1984 CD, which comes out to [[http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/91473 DR14]], but it's still very quiet by today's standards.[[note]]For comparison, the 2007-2008 Music/{{Genesis}} remasters mostly came out to [=DR8-9=] range on CD, which was a noticeable downgrade in sound quality from any previous versions; to be fair, though, the surround sound mixes from the same collections were significantly better, mostly being in [=DR11-13=] territory.[[/note]]

* ObsessionSong: The singer in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mCeEGNbM-U Misunderstanding]]" (written by Collins) from the Music/{{Genesis}} album ''Duke'' could be either a LoveMartyr or a StalkerWithACrush.

* RearrangeTheSong: ''Face Value'' inclues a much faster, disco-influenced cover of "Behind the Lines", which was originally recorded as the opener for Music/{{Genesis}}' album ''Duke''. Phil has stated that the idea for the cover came about after the original version was recorded, when the tape was played back at double speed and "suddenly this other song appeared".

** This technique very often applied to Phil's work in Music/{{Genesis}} in the 1981-91 period as well, as Phil would make up the lyrics and melody on the spot in the studio as a placeholder and to create a mood, until proper lyrics were written; often what Phil would randomly vocalise would set the tone for the finished lyrics ("Mama", "Abacab" and "No Son Of Mine" as strong examples), and much would be left in if they fit the mood, regardless of whether they made literal sense or not.

* OlderThanTheyLook: He is 69 but looks a decade younger. Additionally, unlike most singers who undergo VocalDecay as they age, his singing voice sounds '''''exactly''''' the same now as it did in his prime.

Collins joined Genesis before the sessions for their third album, ''Music/NurseryCryme''. At first, he was only the drummer, but became lead vocalist for the band after Music/PeterGabriel's departure. In the late 1970s he continued a busy career as a session drummer as well, working with former bandmate Gabriel and Music/BrianEno - among others - in rock as well as jazz-fusion (''Brand X''). Generally recognized as a pioneer of the drum machine, whose eerie tones propelled "In the Air Tonight" and "Mama", he was also instrumental in rebuilding Music/EricClapton in the 1980's through his albums ''Behind The Sun'' and ''August'' (He would repay him later on "I Wish It Would Rain Down"). Although the changes started a while after he took over, Collins is credited with transforming Genesis from a prog band to a pop band, and his time as lead singer was the most commercially successful era for the band.

* ''...Hits'' (1998)
* ''Love Songs: A Compilation... Old and New'' (2004)

* AirGuitar: ...and air drums, and air piano, and air saxophone, and [[LongList air microphone]] in "I Missed Again."

** He did a cover of "True Colors", originally by Cyndi Lauper, for ''[[GreatestHitsAlbum ...Hits]]''.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Both Sides'', and to a lesser degree, ''...But Seriously'', are notably darker than ''No Jacket Required''.

Philip David Charles Collins, [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever LVO]] (born January 30, 1951) is an English drummer, singer-songwriter, and occasional actor, best known as the drummer for Music/{{Genesis}} and as a successful solo artist. Collins has won seven Grammys, two Golden Globes, and an Oscar over his long career.