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In the Air Tonight: Divorce, a Drum Machine, and the Most Famous Drum Fill in History
In the Air Tonight: Divorce, a Drum Machine, and the Most Famous Drum Fill in History There is a moment, three and a half minutes into “In the Air Tonight,” when the song explodes. For three minutes, it’s been all atmosphere: ominous synthesizer chords, a ticking drum machine, a voice filtered through electronics, singing about…
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Phil Collins: The Father Behind the Fame
Phil Collins has been called the busiest man in pop, the defining voice of the eighties, the drummer who fell into history. But the story he tells on himself — in his memoir, in his songs, in the quiet of his later years — is simpler and sadder: a man who was brilliant at being…
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“No Jacket Required”: How Phil Collins Made the Biggest Album of 1985
In February 1985, Phil Collins released his third solo album. It had a close-up of his face on the cover, a made-up word for a lead single, and no particular concept beyond one man’s determination to make the pop music he loved. It went on to win the Grammy for Album of the Year, sell…
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The Untold Story of Phil Collins: The Drummer Who Fell Into History
In the 1980s, no human being on earth had more hit records than Phil Collins. Not Michael Jackson. Not Madonna. Not Prince. Add up his solo singles, his Genesis singles, and the records he played on or produced for everybody else, and Collins racked up more American Top 40 hits in that decade than any…