A number of people felt "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" was snubbed in the Best Original Song categories in both the Academy Awards and Golden Globes; it lost both to "I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder. The argument is that it's one of Wonder's weaker songs and essentially served as a lifetime achievement award, while "Against All Odds" is one of Collins' best songs and one of the most memorable parts of its eponymous film (to almost Watch It for the Meme status). Collins also wasn't invited to perform the song — which he wrote — at the Academy Awards, and was not amused by the largely lip-synced vocal performance of the song at the ceremony (he wasn't alone; the Los Angeles Times and People didn't like the performance either). "Against All Odds" did win the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male, so it didn't go completely unrecognised.
"Two Hearts", from his 1988 film Buster, was nominated for Best Original Song in 1989, but lost to "Let the River Run" from Working Girl. It did, however, tie with "Let the River Run" at the Golden Globes.
"In the Air Tonight". Even people who don't normally like Collins' music are willing to make an exception for this song, particularly because of the drum break near the end. Additionally, the composer for Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest admitted to borrowing the music for the swamp level theme, and it works really well for it.
"Against All Odds" is one of the greatest Power Ballads of The '80s, covering most of the best aspects of Collins' mid-eighties sound in roughly three and a half minutes, and also managing to embody the strengths of the power ballad itself. No less a source than RZA said it was his favourite power ballad.
"Easy Lover" (a song he did with Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire) is a banger that became the theme tune for the first Wrestlemania, and had a Suspiciously Similar Song based on it for the intro stage in Double Dragon II. Collins and Bailey's voices blend so well on the track that generations of listeners have found themselves wishing the pair had collaborated more.
He didn't have to go hard for the Tarzan soundtrack, but boy, did he.
Creator Worship: He's divisive as a solo performer, but beloved as the drummer for Genesis.
Critical Dissonance: "Another Day in Paradise" was panned by music critics due to finding it hypocritical that a multi-million-selling musician is singing about homelessness and poverty, while general audiences love it for touching on said message.note Apparently some of these critics believed one needs to donate one's entire fortune to charity and live an ascetic lifestyle in order not to be a hypocrite for caring about homelessness or poverty, which can be a problematic mentality within itself. Tellingly, it's Collins' seventh and final #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, and his most streamed song on YouTube Music.note Yes, more than "In the Air Tonight"; by over 200 million plays.
Epic Riff: The gated reverb drum break on "In the Air Tonight".
Ensemble Dark Horse: Many of the featured artists who sing backup on his songs tend to become this, such as Sting (for "Long Long Way To Go"), David Crosby (for "Another Day in Paradise") and Babyface (for "True Colors").
First Installment Wins: Face Value is easily regarded as his best album, to the point where even Collins' detractors are willing to agree that it's good. Beyond that, its first song, "In the Air Tonight", is his Signature Song and easily the best loved track in his solo discography, again, even among his critics.
In the U.K., Collins is extremely successful, but aside from "In the Air Tonight", his solo work is considered to be fairly naff by most people. Not so in the U.S., where, while still having his share of critics, he is revered as an icon by many R&B and hip-hop artists. They even put out a tribute album to him.
Even more literally to this particular trope, ...But Seriously was an enormous smash in Germany, and is one of the best-selling albums there by a non-German singer.
Phil sang at a Prince's Trust concert not long before Prince Charles and Princess Diana divorced. One of the songs was "Doesn't Anybody Stay Together Anymore", which Phil later on expressed discomfort at. The song itself is even less comfortable when you know that, since releasing it, not only did Phil end up divorcing his then-wife, but his eventual third marriage ended up failing as well (though on much more amicable terms than his first two divorces; they even reunited in 2016).
The song "I Don't Care Anymore", which was released in the early '80s when he was still gaining ground as a music star, was written about his first divorce. However, many of the lyrics in the song seem eerily prophetic regarding the hatedom that he would develop a decade later (and, to this day, still has yet to completely fade away).
Hilarious in Hindsight: One of the lines in "Doesn't Anybody Stay Together Anymore" goes:
By the mid-1980s Collins became an inescapable, omnipresent figure across multiple forms of media. His welcome started wearing off in the early 1990s and by the mid-part of the decade Collins got overtaken by one of the biggest backlashes popular culture has ever seen (as the anger over his Oscar win for "You'll Be In My Heart" showed). It has definitely mellowed out over the years, but back in 2000, admitting that you were a still a fan of Phil Collins was the equivalent of saying you were a convicted murderer.
This was the main driving factor behind the emergence of Britpop in the early 1990s; it effectively was a bunch of young Generation X musicians who were thoroughly sick of Collins monopolizing the radio banding together to make (in their minds) "better" music that would hopefully push him off the airwaves. So hatred of Phil Collins forever altered the music landscape and helped created some of the iconic sounds of the 1990s. It also explains why the old Britpop musicians (such as the Gallagher brothers) continue to be his harshest critics.
The drum break from "In the Air Tonight", and the act of playing air drums to it. Listeners love it so much that, even at concerts where he's playing a solo piano rendition of the song, the audience will (vocally) provide the drum break at the appropriate moment. (Of particular note: Mike Tyson in The Hangover).
The fact that his first solo album was inspired by the break-up of his first marriage became the source of a lot of ribbing in British pop culture, such as in this Spitting Imagesketch.
"Sussudio" in particular seems to be a magnet for these:
From the abovementioned South Park episode, "THAT'S NOT A WORD, BOO BOO BOO-DIO!"
Seanbaby's old (and according to him, personal favorite) joke: "Sussudio" is what a normal word sounds like when you try to say it through a mouthful of dick.
"I Don't Care Anymore" has a similar ominous tone to "In the Air Tonight", and for most of the song, his vocal delivery is pure Tranquil Fury... until the end of the last verse, where he dispenses with the "tranquil" part and sings the last part of the song in one of his angriest vocal deliveries to date. Not long after this, the instrumentation gets louder to match. Even soft-rockers like him have their limits.
The covers for his firstthreealbums are all really unsettling, due to all of them being a combination of having his Face Framed in Shadow while also giving off a Death Glare. This trend thankfully stops starting with …But Seriously by showing off more of his body, while albums starting with Dance into the Light provide more creative visuals, and the remastered versions of the first three albums with his older face on the covers avert this by removing the Death Glare altogether.
Periphery Demographic: Despite being well out of his heyday by the time they were born, there are several Millennial kids who are fond of him and his music, thanks to him having done the soundtrack to Tarzan.
Popularity Polynomial: Collins initially rose to fame as the drummer for Genesis, with his skills making him an in-demand session player for other artists, and succeeding Peter Gabriel as frontman allowed him to reach new heights in the '80s, together with his successful solo career. However, his massive overexposure as a bandleader, solo act, producer, and actor resulted in a tremendous backlash against him in the '90s and 2000s, and the concurrent disdain towards Genesis' '80s material resulted in him being labeled as the man who ruined the band. However, his guest spot in 2006's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories brought renewed positive attention to him thanks to its respectful portrayal, and endorsements from many Hip-Hop and R&B artists in the next few years allowed his hatedom to start fading. His 1998 Greatest Hits Album shot back up to #6 on the Billboard 200 in July 2012 when Amazon.com temporarily discounted its price, and his remastering campaign a few years later brought further positive attention to him from young and old listeners alike. Now liking his work is a lot more acceptable, with many looking back on his former backlash with embarrassment.
Questionable Casting: He was cast as the voice of Muk and Luk, a pair of non-singing comic relief polar bear cubs, in Balto.
"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.
Replacement Scrappy: For a good while in the '80s, '90s, and 2000s, Collins was widely regarded as an inferior replacement for Peter Gabriel as the frontman of Genesis, owed to the band's shift in sound under his watch and Collins' own overexposure in the '80s. After Collins' hatedom dissipated in the late 2000s and early 2010s, his tenure as the leader of Genesis became better regarded, though how the Collins era of Genesis compares to the Gabriel era still splits hairs.
Sampled Up: The melody to "Take Me Home" was used as the melody for rap/R&B group Bone Thugz & Harmony's song "Home", which also included Collins' vocals on the chorus. Notably, Collins himself appears in the video with the band, and he was "inducted" inro the group as an honorary member (given the nickname "Chrome Bone" for his iconic baldness).
Signature Song: Hard to pick one. "In the Air Tonight", "Sussudio", "One More Night", and "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" are definite contenders though.
If you've ever seen American Psycho, you'll likely never be able to listen to "Sussudio" again without thinking of Patrick Bateman plowing two chicks at the same time. "Do you like Phil Collins?"
"In the Air Tonight" is almost always associated with its use in either The Hangover or the two episodes of Miami Vice in which it appeared. In fact, a lot of his early 80s music is associated with Miami Vice, which isn't surprising considering that not only were several other songs of his were used, including "I Don't Care Anymore" and "A Long, Long Way to Go" (which is also associated with Cold Case, albeit to a much lesser degree), but Collins was even a guest star at one point. The 2006 movie even includes a cover of "In The Air Tonight" by nu metal band Nonpoint.
Suspiciously Similar Song: Several noted that "Sussudio" sounds similar to Prince's "1999"; Collins himself even confirmed this as not entirely coincidental, as he reportedly listened to "1999" a lot around the time "Sussudio" was made.
Unintentional Period Piece: No Jacket Required is so overdone in 1980s sounds and production techniques that some have found it unlistenable today. Of course, the same could be said for much of his 1980s output in general, both solo and with Genesis.
" was panned by music critics due to finding it hypocritical that a multi-million-selling musician is singing about homelessness and poverty, while general audiences love it for touching on said message.note Tellingly, it's Collins' seventh and final #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, and his most streamed song on YouTube Music.note 