Philip David Charles Collins, LVO (born 30 January 1951) is an
English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a
drummer and vocalist for English progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist.Phil Collins' status as one of the most successful pop and adult contemporary singers of the '80s and beyond was probably as much a surprise to him as it was to many others. Balding and diminutive, the Genesis drummer-turned-vocalist was almost 30 years old when his first solo single, "In the Air Tonight," became a number two hit in his native U.K. (the song was a Top 20 hit in the U.S.). Between 1984 and 1990, Collins had a string of 13 straight U.S. Top Ten hits.
Long before any of that happened, however, Collins was a child actor/singer who appeared as the Artful Dodger in the London production of Oliver! in 1964. (He also has a cameo in A Hard Day's Night, among other films.) He got his first break in music in his late teens, when he was chosen to be a replacement drummer in the British art rock band Genesis in 1970. (Collins maintained a separate jazz career with the band Brand X as well.)
Genesis was fronted by singer Peter Gabriel. They had achieved a moderate level of success in the U.K. and the U.S. with elaborate concept albums, before Gabriel abruptly left in 1974. Genesis auditioned 400 singers without success, then decided to let Collins have a go. The result was a gradual simplifying of Genesis' sound and an increasing focus on Collins' expressive, throaty voice. And Then There Were Three... went gold in 1978, and Duke was even more successful.
Collins made his debut solo album, Face Value, in 1981, which turned out to be a bigger hit than any Genesis album. It concentrated on Collins' voice, often in stark, haunting contexts such as the piano-and-drum dirge "In the Air Tonight," which sounded like something from John Lennon's debut solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.
During the '80s, Collins was enormously successful in balancing his continuing solo work with his membership in Genesis. In 1992, Genesis released We Can't Dance and began an extensive tour. Upon its completion, Collins released Both Sides in 1993, and the record became his first album not to produce a major hit single or go multi-platinum. In 1995, he announced that he was leaving Genesis permanently. The following year, he released Dance into the Light. Although the album didn't chart highly, its subsequent supporting tour was a success. The Hits collection followed in 1998, and a year later Collins made his first big-band record, Hot Night in Paris. The song cycle Testify arrived in 2002, and his next studio-recorded solo release was 2010's Going Back, which saw him revisiting the Motown hits that so influenced him and featured three of the surviving Funk Brothers -- guitarists Eddie Willis and Ray Monette, and bassist Bob Babbitt.
After some time out of the spotlight, much of it spent recovering from physical ailments, Collins returned in 2014 to play a couple of songs at his sons' school and to write songs with Adele. Soon after, he began work on reissuing his solo albums, sorting through the archives for demos and live recordings to flesh them out. In early 2016, Warner Music began releasing the discs in pairs, with new portraits of Collins on the covers in place of the original images. Collins returned to the stage in March of 2016, performing at the Little Dreams Foundation Benefit Gala in Miami. He published his autobiography, Not Dead Yet: The Memoir, in October of that year, and the double-disc compilation The Singles appeared during the same month. 2017 saw the release of Take a Look at Me Now: The Complete Studio Collection, chronicling all of Collins' studio album work from 1981 to 2010.
Phil Collins.1981 Face Value
Phil Collins.1982 Hello, I Must Be Going!
Phil Collins.1983 Live USA 1983
Phil Collins.1984 Against All Odds (Soundtrack)
Phil Collins.1985 No Jacket Required
Phil Collins.1987 12''ers (Remix album)
Phil Collins.1988 Buster (Soundtrack)
Phil Collins.1989 ...But Seriously
Phil Collins.1990 Serious Hits... Live!
Phil Collins.1990 The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Tribute Hits Of Phil Collins)
Phil Collins.1992 The Very Best
Phil Collins.1993 Both Sides
Phil Collins.1994 Greatest Hits
Phil Collins.1996 Best Ballads
Phil Collins.1996 Dance Into The Light
Phil Collins.1998 ...Hits
Phil Collins.1998 Tarzan (Soundtrack)
Phil Collins.1999 A Hot Night In Paris (The Phil Collins Big Band)
Phil Collins.2001 Urban Renewal (A Tribute To Phil Collins)
Phil Collins.2002 Testify
Phil Collins.2003 Brother Bear (Soundtrack)
Phil Collins.2004 Love Songs - A Compilation... Old And New
Phil Collins.2004 The Platinum Collection
Phil Collins.2006 Tarzan (Original Broadway Cast Music and Lyrics by Phil Collins)
Phil Collins.2010 Going Back (Special Edition)
Phil Collins.2016 The Singles (Expanded Edition)
