music
Phil Collins
The career of Phil Collins is one that, by any measure, stands among the most creative, prolific, and impressive in the history of modern music. It is a career that really has been many careers – musician, singer, composer, producer, actor – from art rock beginnings to pop stardom, from big band leader to film soundtracks and Broadway. It has been an exceptional musical life spanning four decades, some 100 million solo albums sold (250 million if you count his work with Genesis), an extraordinary string of hits, eight Grammy Awards, an Oscar, a Golden Globe, numerous industry accolades, and, above all, an inestimable influence on countless fellow artists and passionate fans around the globe.
During the 1980s he was ubiquitous and inescapable - one of the dominant musical presences across the entire planet. Such validation was wonderful, in many ways. And while top-charting songs like 'In The Air Tonight', 'Against All Odds', and 'Another Day In Paradise' ably represented the more serious side of Phil's work, such smashes as 'Sussudio', 'You Can't Hurry Love', and 'Two Hearts' helped establish a sunny, upbeat, and light-hearted public persona - one that proved hard to dilute.
As a result, he came to feel that some of his listeners only wanted a certain kind of Phil ("the cheeky chappie one," as he puts it), which was ultimately frustrating. Not even titling his 1989 album '...But Seriously' quite did the trick. "The thing is that I don't like pretending to be something I'm not," he says. An ever-cheeky, perma-grinning Phil? "It's just not me, I'm afraid, and not all the time anyway."
During the 1990s, Phil began effecting change. For a start, he gradually scaled down the parallel acting career that had begun in 1964 when, aged 14, he played the Artful Dodger in a West End production of 'Oliver!', and which peaked in 1988 with his lead performance in the hit British film 'Buster', followed by the underrated Australian film 'Frauds'.
Instead, he concentrated on developing and extending his musical range. His 1993 album, 'Both Sides', was perhaps the ultimate one-man effort, with Collins not only writing, singing, and producing all the tracks, but also playing all the instruments. It remains one of his personal favorites. Three years later, not so surprisingly, he announced his decision to leave the rock band Genesis after a 26-year association, and to concentrate fully on solo work - including film soundtracks.
Collins could hardly have made a more auspicious debut than with 'Tarzan': it resulted not only in that clutch of statuettes, but also a huge hit single with 'You'll Be In My Heart' and, even a Broadway stage show.
He eventually rejoined Genesis for a 2007 reunion tour.
Having taken a break from the recording studio since 2003's 'Brother Bear' soundtrack, Collins returned with an album of Motown covers 'Going Back' in 2010.