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- [00:00]
Chris Melanfy
You're listening ad free on Amazon Music. Before we get started, I want to let you know about Slate Day, which is a full day of live shows and fun experiences in New York City on Saturday, June 8th. We're closing the day with a Hit Parade Dance party where I'll be picking all the music. There will be great company and food and drink will also be provided. Fans of Hit Parade might want to come for the live edition of the Culture Gabfest and stay for the dance party. For more information and Tickets, go to slate.com live welcome to hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One? Series on today's show. In the high stakes world of popular music, bands break up all the time. You might call it an occupational hazard. And what's more, solo careers and spin off projects are far from a guaranteed prospect. Front people as famous as Mick Jagger, Freddie Mercury and Debbie Harry found it difficult to gain traction as standalone recording artists. But most unusual is when one group not only spawns soloists, spin offs and supergroups, all of which score hits, but the original stays intact. Rarer still is when that original group is actually strengthened by this side activity and scores bigger hits of its own. Rarest of all is when former members and current members of the group are competing head to head on the Billboard charts. Friends Meet Genesis.
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Mike Rutherford
All I Need is a TV Show.
- [02:04]
Chris Melanfy
While they are now largely remembered as a quintessential synth rock band of the 1980s, the recording career of Genesis spans at least four decades. Even that wouldn't be remarkable in a world where the Rolling Stones and the Temptations are still recorded. But for chart followers, what makes Genesis unique practically singular is the sheer volume of hit making careers the band generated. And that came after nearly a full decade of recording that was largely devoid of hit singles. Maybe that was because Genesis started out with songs that were hard to confine on one side of a 45. Fronted by art rocker Peter Gabriel. The first version of Genesis, sprawling, quirky, highly conceptual, was a leading group in the progressive or prog rock movement and a major early 70s concert draw. And then, after they had gone further than virtually any prog rock band had to that time, their frontman, in his own words, walked right out of the machinery. This should have killed Genesis, but a self effacing drummer named Phil Collins improbably moved from behind the kit to the front of the stage and in a series of near accidents not only made them more popular than they'd ever been, He stumbled into a solo career that would change the sound of pop in the 80s and beyond. Again, this would be unremarkable if not for the fact that Phil's solo career made Genesis stronger, and so did competition from former member Peter Gabriel and seemingly almost everyone who'd ever touched an instrument in Genesis. Today on Hit Parade, we trace the roots of the knotty family tree of Genesis and their impression probable chart feats, including the moment when their most cerebral former member decided he was a soul man. And that's where your Hit Parade marches today, the week ending July 26, 1986, when Billboard's Hot 100 was topped by Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer, just one week after his former bandmates found themselves on top with Invisible Touch. Before we talk about this unassuming supergroup, let's let's walk through some Billboard chart trivia. Throughout pop history, it's generally understood that solo and side projects peak on the charts after the original group has had its day. Picture the solo Beatles scoring their chart topping hits only after the Fab Four had broken up. Or the solo Lionel Richie breaking with the Commodores and topping the charts on his own. Or Justin Timberlake moving on after the dissolution of boy band NSync. The fact is, it's exceedingly rare for a successful side project to not only coexist with the original group, but but to bring that stalwart act to new pop chart heights. In fact, in Billboard chart history, if we limit our discussion to the top of the Hot 100, it's only happened three times. Let's take them in reverse chronological order going back a decade from now to 2009. The Black Eyed Peas. I'll bet you didn't expect to hear about them in this episode, topped the charts with their electro hip hop jam Boom Boom Pow. What made that success for the P's unusual was it was their first ever Hot 100 number one. And it came a couple of years after one of their members, singer and rapper Fergie, scored three solo number one hits. Moving back about another decade in the summer of 2000, the alt pop group Matchbox 20 scored their only Hot 100 number one hit with Bent. The band had never topped the charts before, but about a year earlier, frontman Rob Thomas co wrote and sang lead on Santana's number one mega smash Smooth. But the granddaddy of this quirky chart feat, the man who codified how big a solo career could get without destroying his Home base was Phil Collins in the mid-1980s. By the time Genesis scored their aforementioned chart topper, Invisible Touch, Collins had already been to number one multiple times. And these were not small hits. How did this genial dude become one of the defining pop stars of his era? To trace that story, we need to go back one more decade. Really a decade and a half to a time when rock was more ambitious, or at least more long winded. That's the Return of the Giant Hogweed. Let me repeat that Return of the Giant hogweed from the 1971 album Nursery Crime. It wasn't the first Genesis album. The band had been together since the mid-1960s when teenage schoolmates Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Peter Gabriel formed a band with two other attendees of England's Charterhouse School called Garden Wall. Renamed Genesis in 1967 by their manager Jonathan King, the band recorded two albums of quirky late 60s art rock. Then in 1970, before recording their third album, the band hired two accomplished young players. An up and coming guitarist named Steve Hackett and an already busy former child actor turned drummer from Greater London named Philip Collins. Hackett and Collins made the band a fivesome and began to build Genesis following as an ornate, uncompromising live act.
- [10:14]
Mike Rutherford
Raising his eyes he won't.
- [10:25]
Chris Melanfy
While Steve Hackett was a gifted guitarist, Tony Banks a virtuosic keyboardist, Mike Rutherford a strong bassist who doubled on rhythm guitar, and Phil Collins an adept drummer who sang harmonies and even took an occasional lead vocal, without question, the star of Genesis in its early 70s incarnation was lead singer and flamboyant frontman Peter Gabriel. Even fans of Peter Gabriel's whimsical 80s or 90s music videos might still be shocked to see how he performed as a member of Genesis in the 70s. Gabriel's movie most conservative onstage outfit was a mask of white makeup, his hippie length hair severely parted like a mad scientist. That was a blank slate upon which Gabriel, while on stage, would put on ever more outrageous outfits. A Jesus like Crown of Thorns, a rooster's coxcomb, a bulbous costume that made him look like a grotesque amoeba like Alien, and on the 23 minute Genesis Magnum opus, Supper's Ready, the head of a giant flower. Genesis were not the only progressive rock band performing songs with elaborate titles and absurdly verbose lyrics in an era of such prog bands as King, Crimson, yes, Gentle Giant and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. But thanks largely to Peter Gabriel's onstage antics, Genesis developed an even more devoted fandom of their live performances. Attendees knew they were in for a show.
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Radio Announcer
My name is Britannia, this is my.
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Mike Rutherford
Song it's called Dancing with the moonlit night.
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Chris Melanfy
None of this live fame meant much on the radio, but Genesis scored their first unlikely hit on the British charts in 1974, the psychedelic I know what I like in your wardrobe. That same year, Genesis issued their most ambitious work, the double LP concept album the Lamb Lies down on Broadway, a song cycle about a Latin American New York York City character named Rael. Its narrative, lyrics and concept were largely driven by Peter Gabriel. The Lamb Lies down on Broadway was Genesis first album to approach the top 40 in America, and it became their most acclaimed with critics. It had all the makings of a cultural breakthrough. And that was when, in a move that stunned the rock press, Peter Gabriel announced he was leaving Genesis. As far as the media of 1975 was concerned, this spelled the end of Genesis, just as they were hitting their straight stride. To this point, Gabriel was the focal point and, it was believed, the driving force of the group. The rest of the band seemed to believe this as well. Although drummer Phil Collins had sung lead on the odd track here and there, such as the 1973 deep cut more.
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Mike Rutherford
Fool.
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Chris Melanfy
No one seriously believed Phil Collins was capable of fronting Genesis, least of all Collins himself. Self effacing and a devoted drummer, Collins enjoyed his sideman status, and by 1975 he had already played behind such luminaries as Brian Eno and John Cale. At one point, Collins even tried to convince Genesis to to continue as an instrumental combo, an idea they rejected. So the band started recording their next album, A trick of the Tale. With no permanent singer, the group placed an open ad in the British music weekly Melody maker. Reportedly, some 400 singers responded, and while they auditioned vocalists, Collins sang on the new album's tracks, assuming his vocals would eventually be replaced. But these temporary Phil Collins vocals became permanent. Unsatisfied with any of the singers auditioning for the group, Genesis wound up giving Collins the frontman position, essentially by default. Collins all but looked down upon the gig. In interviews years later, he would call the singer's role in the band as he perceived it, quote, cheap about looking good and wiggling your bum. But not only did Collins have a similar vocal range to Peter Gabriel, making him a good fit for the band's older material on stage. Collins also soon found as a singer and songwriter that he could shape the Genesis sound in subtle, more melodically direct new ways. Your own special way. The lead single of late 1976's album Wind and Wuthering bridged the ornate prog sound of the Peter Gabriel era. With the pop friendlier hooks of Phil Collins, it also helped break the band on the radio in the U.S. it was the band's first Hot 100 hit, peaking at number 62 in April of 1977. That same month, Wind and Wuthering reached the top 30 on the Billboard album chart, the first Genesis album to reach such lofty heights. But it was also the last Genesis album to feature ace guitarist Steve Hackett. Having already issued solo albums as early as 1975, and frustrated at the limitations of getting his material on Genesis albums, Hackett left the band in the spring of 77 and embarked on a full time solo career by 1978, issuing singles fronted by such famed vocalists as Richie Haven, the Lady Isn't Here. In short, before the 70s were even over, Genesis had already spun off two solo careers, Steve Hackett's and Peter Gabriel's. Obviously, the one that the press and rock fans were keeping the closest eye upon was Gabriel's, but It took until 1977, two years after he left Genesis, before Peter issued material under his own name. Quite literally under his own name. Peter Gabriel's debut album was called simply Peter Gabriel. Eponymous debuts are common in rock, but Gabriel, ever the iconoclast, wound up naming his his first four LPs Peter Gabriel. And by the first track on the album, a 70s prog rock fan could be forgiven for thinking Gabriel hadn't changed a bit since his Genesis days. After all, that first track had the portentous title moribund the Burgermeister. But by track two, it was clear Gabriel had every intention of leaving Genesis far behind. Salisbury Hill was like a press release turned into poetry. It could easily have been titled why I Left Genesis. With lyrics like My friends would think I was a nut and I was feeling part of the scene. I walked right out of the machinery. The song at times even sounded a little vindictive. Rappers of a later generation might call it a beef record, given shady lyrics like I will show another me today, I don't need a replacement. But the gentle song ultimately sounded more wistful and self actualizing than spiteful. It was also the purest pop song Gabriel had ever written. Because this catchy song was a bit of a head fake in Gabriel's career, it did modest business on the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. In England, Salisbury Hill peaked just shy of the top 10 at number 13. In America, where Gabriel had no singles chart history, it peaked far outside the top 40, reaching number 68 in May 1977. Ironically, just weeks after Genesis, your Own Special Way had peaked at number 62. But more than four decades later, it is Salisbury Hill that has emerged as a radio staple on U.S. terrestrial radio. Salisbury Hill is the second most played song of Peter Gabriel's career, spun more than 400,000 times since the 1990s. Over the course of his first two albums, again both titled Peter Gabriel, the former Genesis frontman tried on a range of new musical modes. Gabriel the solo artist was more excited, accessible than Gabriel in Genesis, but he was no less restless, whether attempting strutting rock on Modern Love, Power balladry on Here Comes the Flood, Or nodding his head to the sound of punk and Post Punk on 1990, 1978's DIY, aka Do It Yourself, Gabriel's homage to the famous punk rock credo. At a time when terms like New wave were only starting to come into being. Gabriel was alternative before that musical movement had a name, but his former bandmates in Genesis, now reduced to a trio of Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks and Phil Collins, were following their version 2.0 frontman in an ever poppier direction. Follow you Follow Me was the lead single from Genesis first album as a trio, 1978's appropriately titled and Then There Were Three. It was even more romantic than youn Own Special Way and even catchier, so catchy that it was the band's first top 10 hit in their homeland and their first top 40 hit in America. Casey Kasem counted it down.
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Radio Announcer
American Top 40 this week on At 40, there are 15 foreign acts in the countdown. 10 of them are English, and here's one of those English acts at number 35, second week on the chart, Genesis. Their first top 40 hit is Follow you Follow Me.
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Chris Melanfy
The deeply romantic lyrics and melody of Follow you Follow Me would come to seem bitterly ironic to Phil Collins by the end of 1978. It would be a pivotal year, but not just because his voice could finally be heard on the charts. His personal upheaval that year would unwittingly change the course of both his career and that of his band. After Genesis returned from its 1978 tour, Collins was informed by his wife, Andrea Bertarelli, that she was going to file for divorce. Collins, workaholism and long months on the road to had left her bereft, caring alone for their children, and she even admitted to an affair. After she and the children moved out, Collins found himself by 1979 living alone and brooding. Around the same time, by coincidence, Collins was given a prototype of the Roland CR78, one of the earliest programmable drum machines, and he began experimenting with it in his mostly Empty House. Collins was not even trying to write formal music. Mostly he was playing with the Roland to see what it could do. As it was, he was a bit skeptical of this device that purported to replace traditional drummers like him. But he quickly grew to like its spooky digital rhythms and the fact that the machine allowed him to try out musical ideas on his own. Gradually, what started out as sonic experiments began to sound like songs and Hang on, We're not ready to play that song song yet. It would not be heard by the public for more than two years, but it was one of several dark, brooding songs Collins wrote on his own while Genesis was on a break and he was home alone. During this period, Collins would wind up writing a string of heartbreak songs, and they would lay bare his feelings very publicly. Ask Me How I Feel, I Feel Fine, for example. Please Don't Ask was the first of these songs to see release on the following year's Genesis album. And it was heart rending with lyrics like I cry a bit, I don't sleep too good, but I'm fine, and I miss my boy. Similarly wounded was the track if Leaving Me Is Easy, a future Collins album cut. But in 1979, Collins filed away most of these home experiments, thinking they were destined to be nothing more than cathartic musical journal entries. As the 1980s began, he poured himself into other projects, both a new Genesis album and and an album for an old friend that would prove sonically even more pivotal. The Genesis album came first.
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Mike Rutherford
Turn it on, Turn it on, Turn.
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Chris Melanfy
It On Again the album Duke continued to ratchet up the chart profile and radio success of Genesis. The LP was the band's first number one in the UK and in the US. It peaked just outside the Billboard top 10 in July of 1980. The album split the difference between the longer Prague rock tracks for which Genesis was first known and more concise pop songs like the leadoff single Turn It On Again. In the UK, Turn It On Again was a top 10 hit, but the band's US label, Atlantic Records, chose an even radio friendlier track for the American market. Misunderstanding was a Phil Collins composition written during his 1979 songwriting burst that presented his still fresh heart heartbreak with Beach Boys style harmonies and a doo wop inspired arrangement on the Hot 100. In a year when rock stars like Queen, John Lennon and Billy Joel were reaching back to old rock and roll styles and scoring hits, Misunderstanding became Genesis biggest US hit to date, peaking at number 14 in August of 1980. But Duke was not the only 1980 album on which Phil Collins played a key role. In the spring of 1980, Peter Gabriel issued his third straight Peter Gabriel Gabriel album and his most acclaimed to date. The COVID featured a black and white Polaroid of Gabriel's face with its chemicals smeared. Fans came to call the self titled album Melt on the Radio. Gabriel led off the album release with the cutting edge single Games Without Frontiers, a top five UK hit that featured backing vocals by Gabriel's father friend Kate Bush, singing the song's French refrain, je sans frontiere. But among the album's other guests was Gabriel's former bandmate Phil Collins, who during his dark 1979 period had volunteered to help with Gabriel's album, mostly to get out of the house. Collins wound up playing drums on two pivotal tracks on the third Peter Gabriel lp. One track was Biko, Gabriel's eulogy for South African anti apartheid activist Stephen Biko. Phil Collins Collins played the heavy Brazilian drum known as the surdo on Biko. It was the closing track on the album and remains a standard in both Gabriel's live shows and in protest music worldwide. But the album's opening track was for Collins as a drummer. Arguably even more important. I know something about opening windows and doors. I know Intruder, the sinister song that opens 1980s Peter Gabriel album, changed the sound of rock and pop drumming. The heavy sound Collins and his producer Hugh Padjam achieved on the track was a total serendipitous accident. Padjam had placed a talkback microphone in the room with Collins's drum kit. The mic was meant only to allow Collins to communicate with Padjam back in the booth. But when Collins and Padjam heard what the drums sounded like feeding back on that heavily compressed microphone, they realized the they had stumbled onto something new. It came to be called the gated drum or gated reverb. It was a loud, reverberant drum sound that was then clipped, making it sound both sharply contained and yet massive. In his memoir Not Dead Yet, Collins wrote, with hindsight, I now know that that day or two I'd spent working on Peter's third album was life changing. Already an accomplished and in demand Drummer by the 1980s, Collins, with the creation of Gated Reverb, had found his ultimate signature drum sound. He also found the finishing touch for that spooky track he'd been working on in his empty house back in 1979. A word or two about in the Air Tonight and the myths that have sprung up around this song. No, in real life, Phil Collins never saw someone drowning. The lyrics are not a true story about him witnessing a murder. And no, he did not call out the supposed perpetrator later at a concert. Contrary to urban legend, in his memoir, Collins claims that the spiteful lyrics reflected, and then only indirectly, his wounded feelings in the wake of his divorce. Again, Collins had no intention to ever release in the Air Tonight or any of the tracks he had been tinkering with in his house. It was only after he played the demos for legendary record impresario Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Collins US Label Atlantic Records, that Ertegun implored Collins virtually insisted that the music must come out as a solo album. Erdogan even agreed to supply Collins with resources to finish the album. With backing musicians and guests taking full advantage, Collins asked his label boss if he could invite one of the top R and B brass combos of their day. Supergroup Earth, Wind and Fire had a horn section so renowned it had its own name, the Phoenix Horns. They played some of the best hooks on EWF classics like September. Collins brought them into the studio and had them add irresistible brass to half the songs on the album he was now calling Face Value. They powered the R and B flavored song that would wind up as the album's first single, I Missed Again. It would not be the last time Phil Collins teamed on a hit song with a member of Earth, Wind and Fire. Released in the winter of 1981, I missed again, which despite its jaunty beat, was again about Collins's rueful feelings about the dissolution of his marriage, reached the top 20 in both the US and the UK. And what about that strange, sinister song about watching a man drown?
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Mike Rutherford
Told me you were drowning.
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Chris Melanfy
In the Air Tonight was a transatlantic smash. It reached number two in the UK and in America it hit number 19 on the Hot 102 on Billboard's Top Rock Tracks chart. As for the album Collins never realized he was was making? Face value, topped the UK album chart in February of 1981 and by May broke into the top 10 in America, peaking at number seven. It was the first US top 10 album by any current or former member of Genesis. What would Phil Collins do in the wake of this monstrous and fully unexpected success? Recall that back in 1975, right after Peter Gabriel led Genesis to its most acclaimed album, the Lamb Lies down on Broadway. He promptly left the band to explore his own muse. Arguably, Phil Collins was now an even bigger solo star than Peter Gabriel and on his way to eclipsing Genesis. It would have surprised virtually no one if Collins followed in Gabriel's footsteps. But that's not what the workaholic Collins chose to do. Before 1981 was over, he and Genesis were already back with a new album, abacab. Rather than taking away from Genesis, Collins solo success seemed to provide rocket fuel. ABACAB became the band's second straight youth UK number one album and their first to break into the top 10 in America, matching Face Value's peak of number seven in November 1981. In other words, both on his own and with his old mates, Collins had scored two top 10 albums in a single year. The album's title track, Abacus, was named for the common verse, chorus and bridge lettering technique of pop songwriting. A B, A C, A B By the way, hold that thought because this would also not be the last time Collins would score a hit with an onomatopoeic musical nonsense word. ABACAB found Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford turning their synth lated prog rox sound ever more poppy. The sonic line between Genesis and Phil Collins was starting to blur and it would only get blurrier on the album's other big single. Collins invited back the Phoenix horns from Earth, Wind and Fire to join Genesis on no Reply at all, which gave Genesis a number two hit on Billboard's Rock Tracks chart and a no. 29 hit on the Hot 100. By May of 82, the Abacab LP became Genesis first US platinum album and it was still lodged in the US top 40, their longest running LP hit to date. Again, the question must be asked, what would Phil Collins do now with back to back platinum solo and Genesis albums? Take a break. Enjoy the perks of stardom. Think again. ABACAB had barely slipped down the charts when Collins began recording hello, I Must Be Going, his second solo album, deepening his connection to classic art R B. The album's lead single was a cover of the 1966 Motown classic by the Supremes, You Can't Hurry Love. Reinforcing that everyone loves Motown even when its classics are played by a 30something white British man, you Can't Hurry Love became Phil Collins biggest hit to date in the UK it reached number one in January 1983. One month later on the Hot 100, it reached number 10, giving Collins the first ever US top 10 hit by any member of Genesis. To be sure, Collins was still capable of brooding. The second single from hello, I Must Be Going, I Don't Care Anymore reinvented the spoon spooky sound of the prior albums in the air tonight, But the sound of gated reverb added punch and tempo to virtually all of Collins material, and it began to infect other pop stars material as well. Collins was suddenly in demand as not only a sideman but a producer for others songs, from current pop stars to longtime rock legends. In the legends category, former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant called in Collins to play on his 1982 solo debut album, Pictures at Eleven. In a completely different vein, flamboyant new romantic pop star Adam Ant brought in Collins to produce and drum on two of his 1983 hits, Strip and Puss in Boots. And perhaps most memorably, former ABBA singer Anna Frank Fried Linkstad, aka Frida, hired Collins to produce the entirety of her 1982 album Something's Going on, the best selling solo album ever by any former member of the Swedish mega group. The Frida album's lead single, I Know There's Something Going on, was a top 10 or top 20 hit in countries around the world. And the thundering gated drums on the single were unmistakably the work of Phil Collins, his most potent drumming on a pop hit since in the Air Tonight. Phil Collins had developed a magic touch and become a reliable hitmaker. His former bandmate Peter Gabriel, with his more challenging material, was always less of a commercial prospect. But even without Collins drumming on his tracks, Gabriel's material was getting more commercial too. In 1982, Peter Gabriel attempted to release his fourth solo album with the same eponymous magazine like title as his last three, Peter Gabriel. But his US label, Geffen Records, finally pushed back and insisted the album have its own title. They called it Security. The American label's insistence on this more promotable title may have had something to do with the fact that Gabriel was emerging as a music video star with an actual top 40 hit. Shock the Monkey was one of the earliest hits on the then new music video channel, mtv. The visually striking music video was played around the clock, and it memorably featured two versions of Peter Gabriel. One, a businessman in a suit gradually turning mad, the other a ghost like figure dressed in white white with white face paint. A throwback to the genesis Peter Gabriel of old, Shock the Monkey also sported the most danceable beat of any Peter Gabriel single to date. And by early 1983 it wound up crossing over on a range of Billboard charts from rock tracks, where it hit number one, to the Hot 100 where it made the top 30, and even even Billboard's dance and disco chart where it also broke into the top 30. Shock the Monkey peaked on the Hot 100 the same week in early 1983. That Phil Collins broke into the top 10 with his remake of youf Can't Hurry Love. But Collins still had no intention of slowing down.
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Mike Rutherford
You help me Mama, cause it's getting so hard.
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Chris Melanfy
Phil Collins second solo album, hello, I Must Be Going, had barely slipped out of the top 40 when he regrouped with Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks to record the next Genesis album. As if reflecting the band's ever more uncluttered pop, French friendly direction, gone were the days when their albums had titles like Selling England by the Pound or A Trick of the Tale. The new album would simply be called Genesis. Released in the fall of 1983, the self titled LP was in the US top 10 within a month. Genesis fastest breaking album to date in the uk the album's lead single shot into the the top five Mama, a sinister blend of synthesized rock and as we told you in Hit Parade's Def Jams edition, a spooky laugh. Which was inspired by hip hop's Grandmaster Flash and Melly Mel. In the us, Mama was a top five rock hit, the first of seven tracks to make Billboard's Rock Tracks chart. But Mama was a bit strange for American Top 40 radio. To date, Genesis had yet to score a US Top 10 single on the pop charts. The album's next track, however, would change that.
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Mike Rutherford
But why does it always seem to be me looking at you and you looking at me? It's always the same it's just a shame that same.
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Chris Melanfy
That'S all was built for radio ubiquity, a wistful mid tempo love song with multiple layers of Beatlesque hooks. It was Genesis most straightforward love song since misunderstanding in 1980. Both Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford made key contributions, the former a classic keyboard solo on the bridge, the latter a closing guitar solo that put a button on the song. But with its open hearted, therapeutic lyrics, that's all was a showcase for Phil Collins. When it peaked at number six in February 1984, it became not only Genesis first ever top 10American hit, it was also the first such hit written by Collins. His prior solo top 10 hit, you can't Hurry Love, having been a Motown cover. Again, this was a fairly unusual hit, making strategy a solo career that was not only thriving alongside a band career, but making the original band stronger. Collins bandmates had mixed feelings. Tony Banks would later joke in interviews, he was our friend and we wanted him to be successful, just not that successful. But Banks also admitted, Phil became so big, but I think the two careers helped each other. That's all was just slipping out of the top 10 in late February 1984, when a new solo Phil Collins single debuted on the Hot 100. And this one would redefine just how big Tony Banks bandmate could could get. More than a year earlier, when Phil Collins was on his first solo tour, he was approached by filmmaker Taylor Hackford, director of the 1982 hit An Officer and a Gentleman. Hackford asked Collins if he would be interested in writing a song for his next movie, a thriller called Against All Odds. Collins was loath to try to write a new song while on the road, but he did tell Hackford he had another demo from his prolific 1979 home recording period, yet another heartbreak song inspired by his divorce that had the working title how can you sit there. Hackford loved the rueful, impassioned demo, and he only asked Collins if he could somehow work the phrase against all odds into the lyric. Collins, who already had the main chorus hook take a look at me now. Threw one allusion to the film title into the refrain, the phrase you coming back to me is against the odds. And as per Taylor Hackford's request, the final single was given the title against all Odds. Parentheses Take a look at me now. It would be one of three songs on the Against All Odds soundtrack by current or former members of Genesis, alongside tracks by Peter Gabriel and Mike Rutherford. Release Released as a single just a couple of weeks before the film hit movie screens, Phil Collins Against All Odds was a monster hit. In fact, it went higher on the charts than the film did at the box office, all the way to number one.
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Radio Announcer
The number one song is by an Englishman who first started hitting on the album chart not as a singer, but as a drummer with the group Genesis. But now as a drummer who sings, he has a solo hit that's gone to number one for a second week in a row. The most popular song in the land is the title song from the movie Against All Odds. Here's Phil Collins.
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Chris Melanfy
This was a whole new level of fame for Phil Collins. Against All Odds not only topped the Hot 100 and was certified gold the following winter, it would be nominated for an Oscar for best Earth Original Song from a Motion Picture. As Genesis continued to release singles from its 1983 album, Collins kept working, reflecting his longtime interest with R and B and his admiration for the band Earth, Wind and Fire. Collins produced the 1984 solo album by EWF singer Philip Bailey, Chinese Wall, and Phil even duetted and played his signature third thundering drums on the album's lead single, Easy lover, a number two hit on the Hot 100. That fall, Collins was also given a showcase slot on the UK Famine relief charity mega single Do They Know It's Christmas? The song credited to Bandaids, already had too many singers, from Sting to George Michael to Boy George to Bono. But Band Aid organizer Bob Geldof left open a spot on the record for Collins to record and capture on film a big drum entrance. In early 1985, as both easy Lover and Do they Know It's Christmas were peaking on the charts, Collins learned he would not be invited to perform his Oscar nominated hit Against All Odds on the Academy Awards telecast. Perhaps reflecting Phil's still murky public profile in America, the producers of the awards, in a move now infamous in Oscar lore, instead asked actress choreographer Anne Roger Reinking to record and lip sync Collins's song while she danced on the telecast. The performance was widely panned by critics and Oscar watchers. Collins himself was in the audience as an Oscar nominee, and he felt mortified for both himself and and Reinking. He was almost relieved when Against All Odds lost the Oscar to Stevie Wonder's song from the Woman in Red I just called to say I love you. The greatest irony of all the very week in late March 1985 when Phil Collins sat squirming in the audience at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles watching his song get butchered on live TV TV by Oscar producers who didn't think he was famous enough to appear on their show, he had the number one single and album in America. One More Night was the first single from no Jacket required, Phil Collins third solo album and one of the biggest albums LPs of 1985. The leadoff single took less than two months to reach number one. It even prevented Madonna, then at the apex of her first wave of stardom, from reaching number one with Material Girl. Although Collins led off the album with a lovelorn ballad and mined a similar theme on a few of the album's deep cuts. Taken as a whole, no Jacket Required became famous not so much as another chapter in Collins tales of heartbreak as for its shiny, yuppified mega pop sound. The ultimate album of what came to be called the Big eighties. A decade later, author Bret Easton Ellis would satirize both the decade and Collins in his book American Psycho. Its preening shallow yuppie killer Patrick Bateman, before torturing people, would wax poetic about his love for both Genesis and the solo. Phil Collins, holding up his CD copy of no Jackets Required. Do you like Phil Collins? 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. It's too artsy, too intellectual. And the song he liked best was Collins's summer 1985 number one hit. Sudio was in essence a sequel to Abacab by Genesis, a nonsense word used by Phil Collins to describe the rhythm of the song that became the title of the song, and in this case, the name of the girl Collins was lusting after. The track was also the furthest Collins had gone in the direction of single state of the art 80s R&B. Indeed, many at the time accused it of borrowing its Synthesizer hook from Prinz's 1982 top 20 hit 1999. In interviews, Collins owned up to the homage, and he wound up with an even bigger hit than Prince. Susudio went to number one on the Hot 100 in July of 1985, and in the wake of his recent smash duet with Philip Bailey, it even made the top 10 of Billboard's R&B chart. One week after Susudio reached its chart peak, Phil Collins affirmed his status at Live Aid. The blockbuster transatlantic famine relief concert organized by Bob Geldof as a follow up to the Band Aid single from the prior Christmas, took place on July 13, 1985, in two venues, Wembley Stadium in London and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. Overextending himself in even more than usual, Collins not only agreed to perform his own material, he also pledged to back up several of his rock star acquaintances in their performances, and those gigs were scheduled in both the UK and the US Rather than bow out of any of these performances, Collins chose to play both shows, performing first at Wembley in London, then getting on the Concorde supersonic jet, flying to Philadelphia and performing at JFK Stadium by nightfall. It was a crazy stunt that was covered by the media that day almost as much as the concert itself in London. Early in the Wembley Live Aid show, Collins backed up his friend Sting, every.
- [57:23]
Mike Rutherford
Move you make, every vow you break, every smile you.
- [57:36]
Chris Melanfy
And performed a pair of songs of his own. Later that day in Philadelphia, Collins played drums behind his friend Eric Clapton, performed the same two songs he had played in London, And closed the day drumming on a heavily hyped, ultimately lackluster reunion by the surviving members of Led Zeppelin. Collins had promised his friend Robert Plant he would play, even though the band had been rehearsing for Live Aid with drummer Tony Thompson, formerly of Chic. So that night in Philly, Collins and Thompson both droned so simultaneously behind Led Zeppelin. Collins later called it one of the most harrowing performances of his career. While the Zeppelin reunion was ultimately panned by both critics and the band itself, and some pundits grumbled that Collins's dual city was performances made a day about famine relief, more about his career, all of the exposure didn't seem to slow his momentum. No Jacket Required spent the rest of 1985 lodged in the top 20 and spinning off hits in the middle of the run. Collins even found time to record a standalone single, Another ballad from another Taylor Hackford film, White Nights, the Marilyn Martin duet Separate Lives. It went to number one in November, Collins third chart topper of that year alone in February 1986 as Take Me Home was issued as the last single from his nearly quintuple platinum album no Jacket Required. Phil Collins attended the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, where Jacket was up for Album of the Year. Collins was gobsmacked when his album actually won the night's top prize over blockbuster LPs by Dire Straits, with Whitney Houston, Sting and even USA for Africa. No jacket required would eventually be certified 12 times platinum by the Recording Industry association of America. Phil's upset Grammy win for Album of the year in early 86 kicked off the most action packed year in Genesis history. While Phil had been rampaging around the world and dominating the charts with his solo work, his current and former bandmates were finding ways to keep busy. Genesis had never gone so long between albums before. It had been more than two years since their self titled 1983 LP, but guitarist Mike Rutherford had his own surprise success. Rutherford had issued two solo albums in the early 80s. He even sang on them, but he found the process unsatisfying, missing the camaraderie of a band. So in 1985, during the long Genesis hiatus, Mike Rutherford formed Mike and the Mechanics as a kind of loose collective with instrumentalists and even vocalists shifting from song to song four. For its first single, Rutherford recruited journeyman singer Paul Carrick, who had sung lead on hits by Ace and Squeeze. To Rutherford's happy surprise, that first single, Silent Running, reached the top 10 in America in the fall of 1985. And the next Mike and the Mechanic single sounded completely different, sung by a different vocalist, former Sad Cafe singer Paul Young. And it did even better on the charts. All I Need Is a miracle reached the Hot 100's top five in June of 1986.
- [62:07]
Mike Rutherford
All I need is a miracle All I need is you.
- [62:14]
Chris Melanfy
Meanwhile, former bandmate Peter Gabriel was also in the process of ending his own long hiatus from recording. From 1983 through 85, Gabriel toured, promoted his World Music Festival Womad and did soundtrack work while collecting material for his fifth LP. The album would be influenced by his increasing interest in non western music, but he also built on the commercial success of of 1982's Security LP and shock the Monkey. More than on any prior album, Gabriel reached out to a who's who of current musicians, From singers like Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson and Yusu Endure to instrumentalists like Nile Rogers, Bill Lasw and the Police's Stuart Copeland. The resulting album would be called simply so, the first Peter Gabriel album he chose to title with something other than his own name. And it would be a happy paradox, more globally minded than any pro prior Gabriel album and yet more commercially potent with a slew of catchy songs. Perhaps the catchiest song of all not only benefited from Gabriel's love of American R and B, similar to his former bandmate Phil Collins, it would be an even bigger hit on mtv. We talked about Peter Gabriel's now legendary video for Sledgehammer in our prior episode of Hit Parade about the rise of the music video. Suffice it to say the Steven Johnson directed clip, the most acclaimed of MTV's first decade, featuring everything from claymation to pulsating sperm to a dancing chicken, rebooted Gabriel's career and and it would go on to win a record number of MTV Video Music Awards. But even before the clip debuted on mtv, the song was already catching on with us radio programmers. Given its irresistible homage to the sound of 60s R&B and Gabriel's cheeky, frisky, thinly metaphorical lyrics about the joys of sex.
- [64:50]
Mike Rutherford
Why don't you call my name.
- [64:55]
Chris Melanfy
So Sledgehammer 2 began climbing the charts in the spring of 86 alongside current singles by Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford's band, Mike and the Mechanics. And that wasn't all. Even the quietest former member of Genesis was now scoring a hit. The short lived supergroup GTR came off as a fantasy league for readers of Guitar World magazine. It teamed up guitarist Steve Howe, formerly of the bands yes and Asia, and guitarist Steve Hackett. Remember him, the one time Genesis guitarist who'd gone solo back in 1977 for a band that generated only one studio album, GTR didn't do badly on the charts. Their self titled album went gold and it spawned a sizable hit single, the Prague Gone Pop Guitar Noodley when the Heart Rules the Mind. It too debuted on the Hot 100 in the late spring of 1986 when within weeks of the hits by Collins, Gabriel and Mike Rutherford's band. And finally that Same month, there was a new single from what you might call the Mothership. Somehow, amid all of this recording activity, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford had rejoined keyboardist Tony Banks to write and record a new Genesis album, Invisible Touch. As its first single, the band issued the album's title track, the most shamelessly poppy pop song of its career. As the summer of 86 kicked off, current and former members of Genesis were on a Billboard chart collision Course. By June, the week that Invisible Touch entered the top 40 at number 36, it was two positions behind GTR's when the Heart Rules the Mind and five positions behind Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer. All were on the rise. Phil Collins own Take Me Home, the last hit from no Jacket Required, was still in the top 30, on its way down from a peak of number seven. And Mike in the mechanic's all I need Is A Miracle was at its peak of number five. As if all this wasn't enough, a sixth single rising in the middle of the chart was also a Phil Collins showcase. Even though his name wasn't on it, Collins had produced, sang backup and played drums on Howard Jones ballad no One Is to Blame. By early July, no One Is To Blame would peak at number four. GTR's only hit would reach a respectable number 14. And the singles by the solo Collins and Mike and the Mechanics had fallen off. Mike Rutherford's group was already moving on to a new single. The ultimate race for the top of the charts was between the two flagship Alphabets acts, Genesis and their former singer, Peter Gabriel. Invisible Touch and Sledgehammer were racing each other up the Hot 100. Through mid June, Gabriel was higher on the chart than his former bandmates. When Sledgehammer entered the top 20, it already became Gabriel's first ever hit hit to reach that height on the American charts. But Gabriel was clearly the underdog, given Phil Collins higher profile over the last five years. As the two songs entered the top 10, Invisible Touch overtook Sledgehammer, the Genesis song rising to number eight. The same week Gabriel Rose rose to number ten. A fortnight later, as Invisible Touch leapt to number two, Sledgehammer was just outside the top five at number six. One week after that, Invisible Touch made history for Genesis, becoming their first and only number one on the Hot 100, while Gabriel hurtled four places to number two. This gave current and former Genesis members the top two songs in America. Had Peter Gabriel peaked in the runner up slot, he would already have come further than he ever had on the pop charts before. And then one week later, the unprecedented actually happened.
- [69:46]
Radio Announcer
Now we're up to the new number one song in the usa. And this song is part of two chart firsts. You see, last week the popular English band Genesis moved into the number one position. Right on its heels at number two was a song by that English band's former lead singer. And that particular situation at the top of the chart has never happened before, ever. Well, this week those two acts are involved in yet another chart first because Genesis and their song Invisible Touch is knocked out of the top spot and their former lead singer moves into the number one spot. And that's never happened before in the history of the Billboard charts. The new number one song in America is Sledgehammer, by former lead singer of Genesis, now solo singer Peter Gabriel.
- [70:37]
Chris Melanfy
In truth, both acts wound up winners from their 1986 chart duel. Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer wound up the longer lasting hit, spending about a month longer on the Hot 100 than Invisible Touch. Gabriel's album so would also peak higher, reaching number two on the Billboard album chart, while Invisible Touch peaked at number three. Gabriel's album would go on to spawn two more top 40 singles. His most hit packed album ever, including the ballad that is now his most played radio staple, in youn Eyes, in your Eyes. And another uptempo cut powered by an intricate Steven Johnson video, big time. Meanwhile, the Invisible Touch album would make Genesis inescapable. Prior to 86, they had only ever scored one top 10 hit with 1984's that's All. But Invisible Touch at last made Genesis a radio fixture, spawning four more top five hits, including the ballad Throwing It.
- [71:52]
Mike Rutherford
All Away.
- [71:59]
Chris Melanfy
The churning rock track Land of Confusion, which like Gabriel's hits, benefited from an ornate MTV friendly video, A poppy prog rock track that wound up in a Michelob beer commercial, Tonight, Tonight, Tonight. And one more Collins led lovelorn ballad in Too Deep. The Genesis chart, O matic universe of 1986 was an essentially unrepeatable phenomenon. While future decades would see groups from the worlds of pop rock and rap spin off multiple soloists with chart hits from the Spice Girls to the Wu Tang Clan, never again would the hot 100 see one group spawn so many simultaneous parallel hits, this serendipitous Genesis experiment had downsides, not least overexposure. After so Gabriel receded from the spotlight for several years, focusing again on soundtrack work for Martin Scorsese's film the Last Temptation of Christ, And waiting until well into the 90s to even issue a follow up album to so the more brooding and introspective us. Mike Rutherford too waited several years after his first hit packed Mike and the Mechanics album to issue a follow up. And he scored scored one last smash in 1989 with the Hot 100 topping the living Years. But the man who found it most difficult to say no, who loved working and hated being idle, was Phil Collins. In the late 80s, he starred in a movie movie Buster, Recorded with more of his heroes, including legendary Motown writer Lamont Dozier, And kept on topping the charts with his multi platinum 1989 follow up album. But seriously, perhaps appropriately, Collins scored the last number one hit of the 1980s with his lament about homelessness, Another Day in Paradise. By the 90s, however, all of this relates to relentless activity made Collins something of a punchline. In addition to Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, TV shows from Saturday Night Live to South park began taking potshots at the 1980s Most Ubiquitous chart dominator. Genesis would wind up recording only one more album with Phil Collins, 1991's We Can't Dance. And while the album sold well, the hits were somewhat smaller in the era of grunge rock. Collins would finally depart Genesis after the We Can't Dance tour. Banks and Rutherford recorded one last album with a different vocalist before dissolving the group in 1998. The year after that, Collins scored his last pop top 40 hit and his first Oscar with the song you'll Be in My Heart from the Disney animated film Tarzan. The 21st century has been a much quieter and at times darker time for the members of Genesis. Peter Gabriel has issued only one album of new material since 2000, But he has toured extensively. The original five man lineup of Genesis talked in 2004 about reforming for a tour to celebrate the anniversary of Gabriel's 70s swan song with the band the Lamb Lies down on Broadway, but they amicably chose not to pursue it. Instead, Collins, Banks and Rutherford mounted a brief but Blockbuster tour in 2007, When Genesis was inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame in 2010, including early members Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett. Gabriel declined declined to attend, and the band did not perform. Yeah, Pete can't be here, but thank you, Trey. I mean, that was a really convincing argument. As for Phil Collins, his activity this century and his reputation have gone through numerous cycles. Younger generations of musicians, particularly in the worlds of R and B and hip hop, have covered his songs in extensively, And rock drummers from Taylor Hawkins to Jason Bonham have cited his influence. Collins himself has issued albums of big band music, Motown covers and new pop material, all of which have sold modestly but respectably. For a time. In the early 2000 and tens, Collins retired from music, in part to battle alcoholism, and entering his 60s, he was compelled to stop playing the drums, citing a spinal operation, nerve damage, and years of bone degradation. But it seems the man who managed one of the most furious bouts of recording activity in pop history, the first person in chart history to bring his solo success back to his group, couldn't stay idle for long. In 2016, Collins announced the Not Dead Yet Tour, named after his memoir. Since 2017, the tour has visited Europe, south and North America, with dates scheduled in the United states into late 2019. Collins performs the show seated on a stool, leaving the drumming to others, including, on recent dates, his son Nick Collins. The tour mostly focuses on Collins solo material, those songs he recorded alone that he didn't even think were songs. But he always finds time to include hits he wrote in and sang for Genesis, including their breakthrough hit Follow youw Follow Me, which more than four decades later, sounds less like a love song now and more like a prayer. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Hit Parade. My producer for this episode was Cameron Drewes and we had help this episode from Danielle Hewitt. The managing producer of Slate Podcasts is June Thomas, our senior producer is TJ Raphael, and Gabriel Roth is the editorial director of Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture Gabfest feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Melancholy.
- [81:12]
Mike Rutherford
J.