Phil Collins, The #33 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Two

 

(Continued from Part One)

 

Phil collaborated with Philip Bailey, vocalist with Earth, Wind & Fire, on his solo album Chinese Wall.  The pair notched a #2 hit of two weeks on the AC chart that stalled at #15 overall.  Having sold over one million copies in the U.S. alone and hitting the top spot in both the U.K. and Ireland, it is another of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs*.  Collins and Bailey were nominated for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the Grammy Awards and won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Overall Performance in a Video.

 

Later in the year, Phil capped a busy year by performing on the Band Aid charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?".

 Collins released the album No Jacket Required in 1985.  The single "One More Night" (featured in the great movie The Color of Money, starring Paul Newman and Tom Cruise), achieved a double #1 in the United States--#1 for two weeks Popular and #1 for three weeks Adult Contemporary.  It sold over one million copies and reached the Top 10 in nearly every major country, including a stop at #2 in Australia.

You may have wondered what "Sussudio" means.  Nothing.  It is merely an example of Collins improvising lyrics.  He explains:

     This is one of those examples of improvising lyrics. 

     You know, sometimes you can use the lyric, other 

     times you're in big trouble, because what you write

     doesn't mean anything. So I set up this drum-

     machine pad, and I got some chords, and I started to

     sing into the microphone, and this word came out,

     which was 'sus-sussudio.' It just literally came out, 

     at the time... that was back when I could dance, so I 

     kind of knew I had to find something else for that 

    word, then I went back and tried to find another word

     that scanned as well as 'sussudio,' and I couldn't find 

    one, so I went back to 'sussudio.

"Sussudio" gave Phil two #1's in a row and his fourth Gold single in a little over a year.

The album reached #1 in every major country in the world except Austria, where it peaked at #11, and has sold over 18 million copies worldwide.  Collins released the single "Don't Lose My Number", a #4 smash from the album.  Phil played several instruments on the song, including drums and keyboards.

 Collins was in the middle of a hot streak of songwriting, but he didn't pen this one.  Stephen Bishop, who had hits with "On And On" and "Save It For A Rainy Day", wrote it for him.  In 1985, Phil also recorded "Separate Lives", a duet with Marilyn Martin, for the movie White Nights, and it too rose to #1 Popular and #1 for three weeks AC.

Phil won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male, for No Jacket Required.  He was nominated for Best Music Video, Short Form, for the album and for his role in "Do They Know It's Christmas?".

 Collins performed at Live Aid in both London and Philadelphia, the only performer to appear at both locations.  He pulled a fourth Top 10 hit from the album when the great song "Take Me Home" took off, underrated even at #7, as evidenced by its peak of #2 for three weeks on the Adult Contemporary chart. 

 

(photo provided by B. Spremo, Getty Images)

Phil received American Music Award nominations for Favorite Pop/Rock Album, Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist and Favorite Pop/Rock Male Video Artist and was nominated for Best Male Video at the MTV VMA's.

Genesis released their biggest album, Invisible Touch, in 1985 before Phil played drums, sang backing vocals and co-produced Howard Jones's hit "No One Is To Blame" in 1986 and co-produced Eric Clapton's 1987 album August.

Phil received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1987.  In 1988, Collins starred in the movie Buster and recorded songs for the soundtrack album.  "Groovy Kind Of Love", Phil's remake of the Mindbenders hit, raced to #1 in the U.S., the U.K., Ireland and Switzerland and reached the Top 10 throughout the world.  It sold over one million singles, Phil's fifth single to achieve the feat, and scored a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male.

 

"Two Hearts" also climbed to #1 for two weeks overall and #1 for five weeks on the AC chart.  Phil co-wrote the song with Lamont Dozier, one-third of the legendary Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team at Motown Records that wrote 12 #1 songs.  "I grew up with Lamont's music," Phil said.  "He's written some of the best songs, and to have my name next to his at the bottom of the song credit means an awful lot to me".  

Collins won a Grammy Award for Best Original Song and was once again nominated at the Golden Globe Awards in the same category.  

Join us for Part Three of Phil Collins!