If you listen to music any at all, it doesn’t matter what genre is your favorite, then you have probably heard a Phil Collins song or two in your lifetime. Very few artists can claim the success that Phil Collins enjoyed back in the 1980s through the early 90s. According to his web site, Phil Collins has won 7 Grammy Awards, 2 Golden Globes and has been nominated for 2 Oscars. That is quite impressive to say the least.

Phil Collins: Early Years

Phil Collins was born in London in 1951. On his fifth birthday, he received a toy drum kit as a present, and thus began his love of drums. He began his career actually as an actor, making childhood appearances in the The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” and in the movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” He won the role of the Artful Dodger in the British production of “Oliver!” when he was fourteen. However, Collins gravitated towards music. He was heavily influenced by American soul and R&B artists, in particular the artists of Motown, such as Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross and The Temptations. He was also influenced by jazz music.

Phil Collins Joins Genesis

In 1970, Phil Collins joined the British progressive rock band Genesis, replacing their third drummer in as many years. For the next five years he was the back beat of the band. Then, in 1975, lead singer Peter Gabriel left the band to pursue a solo career. An extensive search for a replacement led the band to just behind the drum kit. Phil Collins earned the job as the new lead singer of Genesis. Over the next six years, Genesis would flourish with Collins singing lead, but their best years wouldn’t come until the 1980s.

Face Value

In 1981, Phil launched his own solo career. He had not left Genesis, but rather was doing the solo album as a side project. “Face Value” was released in February of 1981, and it became a worldwide smash hit. The album included what is perhaps the most iconic song that Phil Collins ever recorded, the haunting “In The Air Tonight.” This helped to propel Phil into a solo career that was perhaps unparalleled.

Throughout the remainder of the decade, Collins would score hit after hit, releasing three more solo albums, along with recording several movie soundtrack scores, including the smash hit “Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)” for the movie “Against All Odds.” He also recorded with Genesis, and the band’s biggest hits to date came out on their 1986 album “Invisible Touch”, which featured the hits “Throwing It All Away” and “Land of Confusion.”

Phil Collins would score several hits throughout the decade with songs such as “One More Night”, “I Wish It Would Rain” and “Another Day In Paradise” for which he won Record of the Year in 1989 and would get solid airplay for almost three years.

Phil Collins: The 90s And Beyond

During the 1990s, Phil Collins’ success seemed to dwindle. He did not score nearly as many hits during that decade as he did during the 80s, however Phil was undaunted and continued releasing albums. Finally, in 1998, Collins released “…Hits”, a compilation album of his biggest songs, which did quite well on the album charts and served as a reminder of just how successful Phil Collins had been. In 2000, he accomplished a rarity, when his song “You’ll Be In My Heart”, which was recorded for the soundtrack to the Disney film “Tarzan”, won a Golden Globe, an Oscar and a Grammy.

In 2010, Phil Collins released “Going Back”, which included his covers of some of his favorite songs from his youth, primarily Motown covers and soul standards. The album did well internationally and has sparked Collins’ love for music. Hopefully it will inspire him to return to the studio once again and produce another smash album. Until then, all Phil Collins fans can sit and listen to his past successes and dream of what might come.

What was your favorite Phil Collins song?