Genesis 'Invisible Touch (live)'

Chart Peak: 7
YouTube

'Invisible Touch' originally made No. 15 in 1986... This "live" version was a No. 7 hit in November '92 and haved the way for two successful "live" albums for Messrs. Banks, Collins and Rutherford.

Two consecutive live tracks here, which must be unusual in the Now series, although the effect is lessened somewhat on vinyl and cassette editions where they're on opposite sides. Though little-remembered now, this single is notable as the last Top 20 hit by Genesis, and their last Top 30 with Phil Collins - they did oddly go back to their previous album for the pointless Number 40 hit 'Tell Me Why' in 1993, and they scored a final hit with Ray Wilson on vocals in 1997 - as well as because it outcharted the original studio track in the UK. That probably tells you something about the state of pop in 1992, a year of historically low sales and a time (like now) of hefty pre-release promotion which favoured established acts with loyal fans willing to rush out in release week for the limited-edition numbered 7" and CD single. This version peaked higher but lasted only half as long on the chart.

A slightly shorter version of a performance from Hanover in Germany, this rendition is notable for being transposed to a lower key than the original to fit Collins' changing vocal range. He also replaces the lyric "mess up your life" with "fuck up your life", which is of course bleeped on my copy of Now 24, though I've heard rumours of some copies leaking out uncut; he compromised with "screw up your life" on TotP. As I mentioned when I wrote about the studio version a few years ago, 'Invisible Touch' is not a song I'm especially fond of, but at least this version seems to have a bit more energy than the original. Still a bit of a curio really, but an interesting enough way for Genesis to make their last (collective) appearance in the series.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 7, 8, 9, 21, 23
Available on: Live - The Way We Walk Volume One: 'The Shorts'

Genesis 'In Too Deep'

Chart Peak: 19
YouTube

Charted at No. 33 on 26th August, moved steadily to reach No. 19 by 30th September. 'In Too Deep' is featured in the film Mona Lisa.

I've never actually seen Mona Lisa, as I don't think it's especially child-friendly viewing and indeed I was barely aware of it until it got mentioned in tributes to the late Bob Hoskins. I do still vaguely remember the song, which was also released as the second single from the Invisible Touch album, though if you'd asked me even a few years ago I'd have struggled to remember whether it was actually a Genesis track or a solo Phil Collins recording. The song certainly sounds like it was written entirely by Collins and just became part of a Genesis album because that's what he was working on at the time he was offered the soundtrack job.

I was quite surprised a while back when I was listening to this and found myself enjoying it. Although I'm unashamed that I like some Collins-era Genesis like 'Mama', 'Land Of Confusion' etc, this is a rather syrupy song that sounds worse the more I listen to it. I guess there's just something in the melody that appeals to me even behind the dated production, the weak lyrics and some less than brilliant singing.

Although this is the end of Side One on the LP and cassette it somehow gets to be the last track of all on the Now 8 CD.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 7, 9, 21, 23, 24
Available on: The Platinum Collection

Phil Collins 'Two Hearts'

Chart Peak: 6
YouTube

The Buster soundtrack album features this No. 6 hit, the No.1 'A Groovy Kind Of Love', one other previously unreleased Phil Collins track, the Four Tops 'Loco In Acapulco', a selection of Sixties classics and incidental music by Anne Dudley.

To follow on from yesterday's post, Buster was, like all multi-artist soundtracks, also banished from the main album chart after its sixteenth week (chart dated 7th January 1989), though it went on to enjoy a handy 36 weeks in the compilations Top 20. In retrospect it seems an interesting cultural artifact that only ten years after the Sex Pistols were trading on the shock value of the Great Train Robbery, Phil Collins - not a man known for his rebellious image - should star in a film where he effectively portrays one of the robbers as a hero. There was enough controversy to keep the Royals away from the film's premiere, but it didn't harm the profits from its recorded spin-offs: both the Collins singles topped the US chart thanks to airplay, and did very well over here too. He even left the infamous 1989 Brit Awards with two trophies, and the imminent "next generation of Collins" he mentions in his acceptance speech grew up to become successful actress Lily Collins.

In keeping with the film's Sixties setting - and also following on from 'Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart', 'Two Hearts' was co-written with Lamont Dozier (of Holland-Dozier-Holland of course) and is another example of Collins' peculiar delusion that he's somehow a soul singer. Doubtless his love of the music is genuine, and 'Loco In Acapulco', written by the same duo, is an enjoyable if not wholly convincing pastiche; but he lacks the swing to really convince with this sort of material, as he'd already proved with the very first track on the entire Now series. The song is longer and less intensely energetic than authentic Motown, though it isn't actually bad in its own right. At the time I remember thinking it a great improvement over 'Groovy Kind Of Love'. The best thing about the track is probably Anne Dudley's string arrangement. The label on my copy of Now 14 also lists her as producer, which would make her one of three members of Art Of Noise with production credits on this album - however other sources attribute it to Collins and Dozier, which does seem more likely.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 3, 5, 6, 12, 13, 17, 18, 27, 41, 44, 68
Available on: Hits

Genesis 'Land Of Confusion'

Chart Peak: 14

YouTube

Charted at No. 28 on 18th November 1986, sold steadily for a number of weeks before peaking at No. 14 in January 1987. It was the group's third British Top 20 hit in a row since June last year.

The third and highest-charting of the five singles from the Invisible Touch LP, although it probably did gain somewhat from continued sales in the post-Christmas lull. It's still interesting to note that all five of the singles went Top 5 in the US, but 14 was the best any could do back home; I suspect this shows the importance of airplay to the Billboard listing.

One of the more angular tracks from this era of Genesis (and indeed Phil Collins) work, 'Land Of Confusion' aims at some sort of political comment, although it's never made entirely clear whether the setting is in the real world or some sort of dystopia. Apparently, "men of steel, men of power are losing control by the hour" and that's presumed to be a bad thing, so the real danger might be anarchy - and yet later in the song the protagonist promises "my generation's gonna put it right", which sounds a little like a kind of anarchy or vigilantism itself (and is slightly hard to take seriously from the mouth of Phil Collins anyway). Musically it seems slightly torn between the jaggedness of the irregular rhythms and the radio-friendly production which stops the dark stormy atmosphere they're aiming at from entirely coming through; that also means that the nostalgic middle-eight section doesn't contrast as much as it should. I suspect this may also have suffered from the fact that the track would mostly have been constructed from overdubs so they'd have been using click-tracks or programmed beats.

So the track doesn't totally live up to its intentions, but it does have something going for it at least in that it's much less bland than most of what Phil Collins was up to in the mid-80s (faint praise I know) and in the field of apocalyptic songs by bands featuring Mike Rutherford it beats 'Silent Running' by Mike + The Mechanics in my opinion. The immense if slightly naive-sounding chorus is another highlight, and at least we have the comparison of Alcazar's 'This Is The World We Live In' (which samples it) to show how much blander it could have been. The 12" single and its accompanying remix were worth my 99p anyway. Of course the song is also remembered for its video with the Spitting Image puppets of the band (as used on the cover's pastiche of Beatles For Sale) and Chris Barrie reprising the Ronald Reagan impersonation he also did on the 12" of 'Two Tribes'. Oddly, it doesn't appear on the VHS format of Now 9, though it is of course available on DVD these days.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 7, 8, 21, 23, 24
Available on: Invisible Touch

Phil Collins 'Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

The song that brought Phil Collins his first Oscar nomination was the title song of a film I've never seen, and his first solo Top 40 appearance since the the chart-topping cover of 'You Can't Hurry Love' that began the whole Now story. On a soundtrack that also included songs by Peter Gabriel and Mike Rutherford (I guess Tony Banks was on holiday), Collins was approached during a Genesis tour and asked for a title song. He obliged with a reworked outtake from his first album, part of his large stock of songs about being left by his wife. Fortunately, it seemed to fit the film storyline and he was able to get the the title into the chorus, even though it's not the hookline.

Nowadays this sounds the epitome of eighties blandness, suffering from Collins' inexplicable conviction that he's a soul singer. That said, the song is well-structured and it's one I can see the skill in even without especially liking it. Unusually, this song has twice been a UK chart-topper, but this original is by far the biggest-selling version as well as the only one to show up on a Now album.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 5, 6, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 27, 41, 44, 68
Available on: True Love Songs

Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin 'Separate Lives'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

Phil made Number 1 early in 1985 when he duetted with Philip Bailey on 'Easy Lover'. This single was released in early November.

Again the sleeve note seems almost keener to talk up a track that isn't on the album than the ones that are. It's another song from a film - in this case The White Night, which I'd never even heard of, but apparently it was where Helen Mirren met her husband. It also produced two major hits in this and Lionel Richie's 'Say You, Say Me': both were Oscar-nominated but Richie won. 

Though Collins would seem well-qualified to write a song about separation, this song was in fact penned by MOR songwriter Steven Bishop (of 'On & On') fame - it was presumably a commercial decision of the filmmakers to call in a higher-profile singer to front the song. Martin, meanwhile, was an experienced backing singer for whom this was presumably supposed to be the big break. Obviously, the song was a success at the time, but now it sounds like an extreme example of mid-80s blandness. I suppose maybe that was part of the appeal; maybe it appealed to people in these sort of situations because it spoke to them without really hitting home emotionally. Either way, what it certainly didn't do was establish Marilyn Martin as anything beyond a half-hit wonder, as her subsequent solo recordings make little impression and she was soon dropped. Like Phil Collins, she's no longer a professional musician, but unlike him she's had to get another job. Apparently she's now an estate agent. 

Phil Collins also appears on: Now 1, 3, 5, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 27, 41, 44, 68
Available on: Hits

Genesis 'Invisible Touch'

Chart Peak: 15

YouTube

Their 8th Top 20 single, 'Invisible Touch' made No. 15 in June 1986.

Not the most fascinating sleeve note ever, but again notable for what it doesn't mention: though far from their biggest UK hit, this was their only Number One in the US, spending one week at the top in July 1986 before it was deposed by, of all things, 'Sledgehammer'. It kicked off a run of five US Top Five singles from the album of the same name, none of which made the Top Ten here, surprisingly. A pedant will note that this song finally went Top 10 in a live version in 1992, but that's another story which we'll tell if I ever do Now 24.

The song also went Top 5 in Canada, which I mention because it's the one song I associate most closely with our summer holiday over there that year. I'm not entirely sure why that is, as I must have heard the song back hom as well and it can't have been the only one I heard over there, but such is a child's memory. I also recall trying to work out what an "invisible toucher" was - only years later did I realise Phil Collins was actually singing "invisible touch-yeah". I think I did make the connection with his hit 'Easy Lover' of the previous year which covers similar lyrical ground; with hindsight I have to wonder whether Collins had a particular person in mind or whether he was just a lazy writer, didn't realise both songs were going to be singles or whatever.

Anyway, this is one track that tests even my preference for pop-oriented Genesis. The lyrics are OK, but the music and production are just too far into the direction of 80s American radio even for my taste. There's an especially cringeworthy moment from about 1:43 where Tony Banks - who'd been a professional keyboard player for a good twenty years by this point - suddenly turns into a twelve-year old who's been allowed to touch a synthesiser for the first time. Invisible Touch is the only Genesis album I've ever tried to listen to in full, but I started at track 2.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 8, 9, 21, 23, 24
Available on: Turn It On Again - The Hits

Phil Collins 'Everyday'

Chart Peak: 15

YouTube

'Everyday' was Phil Collins' 20th UK Top 20 single making No. 15 in January 1994... He wrote, produced and performed all the songs on his latest album and has now sold in excess of 35 million albums worldwide

It would, of course, be unfair and mean-spirited to suggest that the reason he had to do all the work on the album himself was because nobody else in the studio could stay awake. Still, it's fair to say that this doesn't raise the pace of the album much. Now, Phil Collins crops up quite often on here and I try to be even-handed with him and not just follow the typical consensus that everything he does is inevtiably boring. But unfortunately, this is really boring.

Borne as it might be from the pain of his split with the second Mrs Collins, 'Everyday' finds him reshuffling the same cards he used on 'One More Night', 'I Wish It Would Rain', 'Hold On My Heart' (I know that's techinically a Genesis song) and 'Against All Odds' but in a remarkably passionless way. To be charitable, it may be that the emotional reality of the song made it harder for him to deliver the vocal, but his mumble just makes the listener even less likely to be drawn into a song that's already forbidding by its overslick, hermetic production, its staid synthesised rhythm (if only he'd known somebody who could play the drums, eh?) and its glacial pace. The radio edit featured here cuts almost a minute off the album track but it still adds up to five minutes and feels longer still.

I have to admit that there's a melody in the chorus that I was able to remember for 17 years, but I'd struggle to remember the verses after 17 minutes. This is Phil Collins at his most frustratingly slight.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 3, 5, 6, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 41, 44, 68
Available on: Both Sides

Phil Collins 'One More Night'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

After what feels like a very long time we finally - finally - get to the end of the first disc with another US chart-topping single. Over there this was the first single from his most successful album, No Jacket Required, whilst it was held back for the second single in this country, presumably because it was so slow.

I admit that the subject matter of this song makes the slowness seem logical. Like a lot of his work from this era it's about romantic abandonment, although I'm not entirely sure whether the lyric "Give me one more night, cause I can't wait forever" actually makes sense. It's painfully obvious that he wrote this song to a drum machine, as he often did, because it gives a rather stately effect that completely undermines the desparation he's trying to portray. By the time the obligatory sax solo shows up things have got so dull that in the video even Collins himself walks out during it.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 3, 6, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 27, 41, 44, 68
Available on: No Jacket Required

Phil Collins 'In The Air Tonight ('88 remix)'

Chart Peak: 4 (original version No.2 in 1981)

YouTube

Although I remembered that it existed, I didn't really remember what the 1988 remix sounded like, so when I got Now 12 home I made a point of listening to this track. It sounded remarkably restrained, I thought, especially compared to so many of Ben Liebrand's other remixes (and his production work on 'Holiday Rap'); in fact it wasn't that different from the original at all. Only later did it occur to me to use the resources of the Internet to check up on this, and whilst I've only tracked down the 12" version of the remix online I can tell from there that it's not what I've got here. In fact, without wishing to exaggerate my Phil-Collins-related expertise, I've worked out that what I actually have here is the original UK single version, distinguishable from the more widely-available album cut by the extra drums on the earlier verses. I don't know whether this applies to every pressing of the compilation, but it's certainly the case on mine, which complicates the post a bit.

Of course, those drums (overdubbed at the insistence of Ahmet Ertegun, apparently) aren't the most memorable drums on the record. It's doubtless a matter of debate among fans whether they even should be there, or whether we should be kept waiting with just the drum machine. Even though he'd been lead singer of Genesis for more than half a decade by this time, Collins had little experience as a songwriter when he started a solo career, and by his account at least the lyric was improvised in the studio. It's a plausible claim, if less so than when he says it about 'Sussudio', but he doesn't deny that he was also influenced by the break-up of his marriage. What he ended up up with as the launch of his solo work is in some respects more of a mood piece than a song, as the minimal instrumentation and creeping pace generate an atmosphere of a storm about to break, just as the title suggests.

BA-DUM BA-DUM BA-DUM BA DUM CRASH! is what you've waiting for, and it finally happens at about 3:49 on my copy. The storm breaks, and it's a relief, but it leaves very little for the remainder of the song to do, pushing the focus onto the vocal which really isn't the best part of it. Still, the 1981 version stands up better than it was socially acceptable to admit until a couple of years ago. And yet it was a victim of its own success in a way; not only that the sheer familiarity of the record dulls its impact, but that it perhaps inadvertantly made Collins a major star in his own right, launching him into two decades of formulaic hits and albums that shifted massive units but never worked the way this does. Only last week, he announced that he wouldn't make any more albums if people kept criticising him, and I can't help thinking it's worth a try.

And just for reference, the 1988 remix isn't very good, because it fluffs the main point of the track by having beats all the way through. And it's still too slow to dance to.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 3, 5, 6, 13, 14, 17, 18, 27, 41, 44, 68 [original version of this track]
Available on: Face Value [album version]

Genesis : "Jesus He Knows Me"

Chart Peak: 20

YouTube

This one I knew and rather liked when I was 14, as Collins and colleagues take aim at the (with hindsight rather soft) target of phoney televangelists. Now I'm no longer a teenager, it impresses me less as a piece of satire, especially with the heavy-handed middle-eight, but as I've hinted before I find pop Genesis more appealing than the prog end of their repertoire and I have to give Phil Collins credit for having the sense of humour to wear a comedy wig in the video. In fact the pastiches of low-budget God channels might be the best thing about this.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 7, 8, 9, 21, 24
Available on: We Can't Dance

Phil Collins 'I Wish It Would Rain Down'

Chart Peak: 7

YouTube

One thing I've tried to do as I write this blog is examine some of my musical prejudices; I try to approach records honestly and give them a fair hearing even if they're the sort of thing I don't expect to like. And Phil Collins is a case in point, a man surely crying all the way to the bank about the poor reputation he has.

If you're looking to justify all negative sentiments about his work, though, 'I Wish It Would Rain' is a pretty strong exhibit. It comes from ...But Seriously, the album where he started looking for subject matter outside his own life, but this track seems to be an exception, a mopey ballad about, er, being mopey or something - it seems actively to repel interest so I've never really understood what it's about, save that it doesn't seem to cover any broader social issues. Everything about this record sounds like the work of people who are very talented in theory but can't think of anything interesting to do with it, a fault to which Collins is very prone; and just to cap it off here, he brings in Eric Clapton on guitars.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 3, 5, 6, 12, 13, 14, 18, 27, 41, 44, 68.
Available on: ... But Seriously

Phil Collins 'You'll Be In My Heart'

Chart Peak: 17

YouTube

You wouldn't know it just from the video but this, his last major hit with new material, comes from the Disney film of Tarzan - the only concession the vid makes to its cinematic origins is in the scenes where Phil is singing in a cinema seat (it's unclear why none of his fellow patrons tell him to shut up!). In fact, apart from some of the special effects there's precious little evidence that this isn't from his 80s pomp: to my eyes at least he looked much older in those days than he actually was, so I suppose the advantage is that you don't look much different fifteen years on. There's even a scene where they shine a red light on him so he looks like a baked bean, just as he did on the cover of No Jacket Required!

I decided actually watching the film was beyond the call of duty, but apparently it's sung by a gorilla there. Hmm... a gorilla performing the music of Phil Collins... there may be something in that idea. Anyway, it packs in the most of the necessary cliches about always being there for somebody, other people not understanding, etc. But the music fails to pack the necessary punch, which may be part of the reason I have no memory at all of ever hearing it before. And indeed, is why I probably never will again.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 3, 5, 6, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 27, 41, 68.
Available on: Love Songs: A Compilation... Old and New

Genesis 'That's All'

Chart Peak: 16

YouTube

You see, if it was me compiling this album I'd have saved this one up for the last track. Because it's called 'That's All' - geddit? Either way, this is sort of an interesting choice, since Genesis had their biggest single of the year (of their entire career, in fact) with 'Mama', but that was obviously considered a little bit too odd for this album. This is a far more conventional song, with Phil Collins singing over a piano riff about a relationship that seems to be going around in circles. Indeed, the tune seems to go around in circles too, making this one of their more effective songs.

Maybe it's just because I don't find Collins very likeable, but the rather crabby tone of this song is quite an advantage, that and the fact that it's not especially long. It's not quite as good as I thought I remembered it being, because there's a certain fussiness about it, both in the song itself, which seems to have one middle-eight too many, and in the performance, which does sound rather too much like the product of several weeks' repeated effort (apparently they were playing along to a drum machine, which probably accounts for the rather sterile air). And they finally snatch defeat with the hammy video where they try to dress up as tramps.

At the time, knowing little or nothing of their history, I couldn't understand why Phil Collins seemed to make Phil Collins records and Genesis records, which didn't sound all that different. Presumably he ultimately came to the same conclusion, which would explain why he left the band. But I have to admit that I greatly prefer this to his other appearance on Now 1.

Also appearing on: Now 7, 8, 9, 21, 23, 24
Available on: Platinum Collection

Phil Collins 'You Can't Hurry Love'

Chart peak: 1 (2 weeks)

YouTube

A logical start for the album, as the first new Number One single of 1983. And an interesting start for me, in that it's a track I (sort of) remember from the the time but hadn't heard recently. Once this ceased to be current, radio unsurprisingly tended to play the Supremes version.
What I remembered most was the video, introduced on Top Of The Pops as "Phil Collins, Phil Collins... and Phil Collins!" thanks to what my five-year old self saw as the incredible technological marvel of superimposing three of him in the same picture: of course, he's doing that because there were three Supremes but such subtleties were lost on me back then.

Hearing the track again, it's clear why I don't have strong musical recollections of it. Tempting as it might be to dismiss Phil Collins as the enemy of pop music "we" all know him as, or indeed to go revisionist and explain that he's really brilliant, there really isn't much going on here. He competently performs an approximation of the original backing track, and sings over the top of it in his not-especially-likeable voice and, er, that's it. There's no sense of why he wanted to do this, other than possibly the desire to have a big hit; if that was hit his instincts were right, as it turned out to be the only Top 40 single from his Hello I Must Be Going album.
Perhaps this is why he seems one of the major acts of this era who've had the least benefit of reassessment, save for some grudging recognition of his drumming skills, and those are barely relevant in a solo career dominated by programmed drums and click tracks. Even the advert-led revival of 'In The Air Tonight' doesn't seem to have made him much more respected, for all the records he sold off the back of it.

Oddly enough, shortly after I wrote the above I heard somebody on the radio trying to do exactly that. He made the expected references to Collins as a drummer but also trotted out the typical line that the 1980s were a flamboyant time in pop. Which is fine, but surely that's exactly the point: there's nothing flamboyant about this. He doesn't even drag up as the Supremes in the video. Perhaps you could argue that a straight cover of a sixties pop song was a surprising thing for a member of a progressive rock band to be be doing, but outwith that context it's nothing.

One other odd reminiscence - a food-based Top Of The Pops parody in The Beano where a character called Filled Colin sang "You can't curry gloves/No, you'll just lose some weight..."

Also appearing on: Now 3, 5, 6, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 27, 41, 44, 68.
Available on: Phil Collins : Hits