Sunday, May 26, 2002 10:28:43 PM
Rock 'n' Roll Artists A-Z...Re: Phil Collins
http://www.philcollins.com/
http://www.philcollinsworld.de/
http://www.phil-collins.ws/
http://feature.atlantic-records.com/Phil_Collins/
http://www.angelfire.com/music4/collinsfan/
http://www.angelfire.com/nj/dennisnet/philcollins.html
http://members.aol.com/jsd1996475/philring.html
Phil Collins was born January 31st, 1951 in Chiswick, Enland. Phil Collins' ascent to the top of the billboard charts was a slow and steady one. He was almost 30 years old when his first solo single, In the Air Tonight, became a #2 hit in the U.K. It also became a smash 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 in the London production of Oliver! in 1964. He got his first break in music at the end of his teens, when he was chosen to be a replacement drummer in the British art-rock band Genesis in 1970. Genesis' original lead singer was Peter Gabriel, who also went on to have a very successful solo career. They had achieved a moderate level of success in Britain and the U.S. 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's 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,".
During the '80s, Collins balanced his continuing solo work with Genesis with enormous success. In 1992, Genesis released We Can't Dance and began an extensive tour. In 1995, he announced that he was leaving Genesis permanently. The following year, he released Dance into the Light. Although the album was a flop, 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.
Phil Collins is one of that very rare breed of artists who combine musical accessibility and overwhelming popularity with the respect of their most illustrious peers. Phil Collins is one of the world’s best-loved male vocalists but also a fantastic rock and jazz drummer.
In addition, he has also risen to the challenge of recording with artists as iconoclastic as Brian Eno, Robert Fripp and John Cale. Genre-hopping is no problem for the man who has been a member of the jazz ensemble Brand X and the hugely successful Genesis. In another role entirely, he has enjoyed both commercial success and critical acclaim for acting performances as divergent as a starring role in the British film "Buster" and a cameo in the American production "And the Band Played ON."
This is the same man who, in 1996, fulfilled a lifetime ambition by taking to the road with his own 20-piece big band, debuting at the Albert Hall in the company of conductor Quincy Jones and guest vocalist Tony Bennett, and going on to play seven other European concerts, including two shows at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival.
This year again, Phil Collins will play a selected number of summer festivals, not only in Europe but also in America with a new big band with special guest vocalist Oletta Adams and featuring Gerald Albright on saxophone.
If very much is known about Phil Collins as a rock artist, less is known about his big dedication to jazz music. Already at school, Phil Collins has been a big fan of legendary drummers Sid Catlett, Sonny Payne and Jo Jones, not to forget Buddy Rich.
For many years, Phil thought of forming a big band and for the 30th anniversary of the Montreux Jazz Festival, Claude Nobs, founder and artistic director of the Festival, gave him a "carte blanche" for an entire evening. First, he was terrified and said "how can I be a drummer in a big band where all the charts are written and I cannot read music!" Anyway, Phil decided to invent his own music writing and the first concert in Montreux in 1996 was such a success that another concert had to be added on the same day.
When Phil is asked about the difference between a rock drummer and a jazz drummer or how to be both of them, he replies, "I cannot switch from jazz to rock overnight. I need a type of immersion in rock or in jazz because the dynamic is very different from one style to another. Overall, the sound is totally different from rock to jazz."
IN 1964, Phil heard the LP "Love Supreme" by John Coltrane with Elvin Jones on drums for the first time. In 1966, he discovered two great LPs by Buddy Rich - "Swinging New Big Band" and the West Side Story medley. At the 1986 Grammy’s ceremony, the producer of the show asked Tony Williams, Buddy Rich and Phil Collins to do a couple of 4/4 exchanges. Phil thought a little bit about the idea and said to the producer "Please give Tony and Buddy more time - those guys deserve it more than I do and I’d rather sit in the audience and watch them play."
Phil now lives in Switzerland and has shown another side of his talent by drawing not only the official poster of this year’s Montreux Jazz Festival, but also portraits of Igor Stravinsky and Miles Davis, to be put in the entrances of the halls bearing their names at the Montreux Convention Center where the Festival is held.
One album by Phil Collins was called "But Seriously" and this title is definitely showing what Phil’s philosophy is all about; a great sense of humour but a very serious and dedicated approach to music, should it be jazz or rock.
News:
It turns out that Phil won his lawsuit against the members of Earth, Wind, and Fire. Phil claimed that the members, who played on his live album "Serious Hits . . . Live!", were being paid royalties for the entire album, even though they only performed on five songs. The judge ruled that Earth, Wind, and Fire didn't have to pay back the money, but that royalties will be halted until the amount originally given is passed (which, since the album's catalog sales have slowed, will likely not happen). The judge scolded Phil Collins' company, however, by saying that this whole fiasco could have been avoided and that the company handled the entire situation poorly (i.e. refusing to send royalty checks to EW&F but not telling them the problem).
As many of you probably already know, Mariah Carey had covered the song "Against All Odds" for her most recent album, "Rainbow". Supposedly she's returned to the recording studio to re-do this song, I believe with the group Westlife, but I'm not definite on this. There's no word yet as to whether this song will be released as a single, which would normally seem likely since she's re-recording it and most of her recent singles have involved duets. However, since "Rainbow" has had such poor sales (well, in comparison to other Mariah albums) and is nearly off the Billboard 200, this is unlikely.
And although it's at the bottom end of the chart and getting ready to fall, Phil's "Hits" album currently has the third longest run on the Billboard 200, with the megaseller by Shania Twain in first place. "Hits" has been on the chart for over 90 weeks. The Tarzan soundtrack, by the way, is still on the chart as well.
Phil won the Oscar! "You'll Be In My Heart" is an Oscar winner, beating out Randy Newman, Aimee Mann, Diane Warren, and "Blame Canada" from South Park! Congrats Phil!
And on an update to an earlier piece, Phil Collins, technically, was in the most recent episode of South Park titled "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000". With all the harsh words you heard from the South Park creators against Phil Collins and their losing to him, the episode wasn't really an insult, though not a compliment either. Really, it involves the kids of South Park in a sled racing competition, and the hill that they race on is called Phil Collins Hill (Why? Because a giant picture of Phil Collins is on the side of the hill, of course.). I had read one person's message on another board making this episode out to be so horrible as to what they did to Phil, and really, besides naming a hill after him, what was so bad? Personally, I thought it was funny.
And then it looks like I spoke too soon once again. The South Park gang have made Phil Collins a character in yet another episode, with rock bands competeing to open for Phil Collins. So maybe they are sore losers. I don't know . . . it's still oddly funny, being that the guy voicing Phil Collins sounds nothing like him. It's somewhat humerous, though, even if the episode is a constant insult to Phil. Oh well . . . life goes on. We could take comfort in the fact that South Park's ratings are at their lowest.
In the "I've got to talk to my manager about that one" Department, Phil's music is featured heavily during a violent murder scene in the new movie "American Psycho" after having gained approval for the song "Sussudio" from Phil's manager. From what I've heard, Phil's a bit upset about this. However, the "psycho" has nothing but good things to say about Phil, so, uh, that's good, right? From what I've been told from people who've read the book, the main character goes on and on about his love of Phil's music while he's killing someone. Sounds interesting, to say the least. You could purchase the infamous book here.
Because of the hit soundtrack, not only did Phil win the American Music Awards in the Adult Contemperary catagory, but Phil also won a Golden Globe! Phil songs have been nominated in the past for an Oscar for both "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)" from Against All Odds, and "Seperate Lives" from White Nights.
Alas, one Oscar Phil wasn't be nominated for is Best Musical Score, which hasn't been offered since Prince won for Purple Rain back in the mid-80's. The catagory got put on hold due to the scarcity of musicals. Only Tarzan and South Park qualified this year, and you need at least five nominees for a catagory to be offered. Oh well, Phil will have to settle for Best Song.
Well, Phil performed the Superbowl! While it's funny to think about an Englishman performing the halftime show for American football audiences, Phil performed "Two Worlds" from the Tarzan movie soundtrack. The movie, by the way, is now out on video on both VHS and DVD. You can pick up yours by going to any of the Amazon.com links on your right and just entering in "Tarzan" for your video.
Phil had two top ten hits on the Adult Contemporary Charts from the Tarzan soundtrack. Of course, "You'll Be In My Heart" was a number one for Phil, actually tieing Celion Dion for the longest length of time ever for a song to be number one on the chart (The Backstreet Boys "I Want It That Way" had knocked it off). The other song, "Strangers Like Me", made it up to number 10.
Well, the new Genesis album came out on 10/26/99. The album, "Turn It On Again -- The Hits" is a collection of all the big songs (well, mostly big songs) from the Genesis collection. The complete song listing goes as follows:
1) Turn It On Again
2) Invisible Touch
3) Mama
4) Land of Confusion
5) I Can't Dance
6) Follow You, Follow Me
7) Hold On My Heart
8) Abacab
9) I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
10) No Son of Mine
11) Tonight, Tonight, Tonight
12) In Too Deep
13) Congo
14) Jesus He Knows Me
15) That's All
16) Misunderstanding
17) Throwing It All Away
18) The Carpet Crawlers 1999
And yes, that is a new song there. "The Carpet Crawlers 1999" is a newly recorded rendition of the classic The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway song "Carpet Crawlers", featuring new vocals by both Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. As you may remember, this was supposed to appear on one of the Genesis box sets, but with the awkward history of the box sets (Only the Gabriel Years box set is available) it was quickly moved to this album.
On a side note, with five of the eight songs from Invisible Touch appearing on this album, don't be surprised to see pop catalog sales of Invisible Touch drop down drastically. It makes sense that they appear on the hits collection -- after all, those five songs were the biggest hits of Genesis's career, with Invisible Touch reaching the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 -- but it's still ashame that it's going to sacrifice sales of the original album.
CAREER HITS
Face Value- 1981
Hello, I Must Be Going- 1982
No Jacket Required- 1985
12"ers- 1987
...But Seriously- 1989
Serious Hits...Live!- 1990
Both Sides- 1993
Dance Into The Light- 1996
...Hits- 1998
A Hot Night In Paris- 1999
Tarzan Soundtrack- 1999
]
Breaking Clay Makes My Day!
http://www.philcollins.com/
http://www.philcollinsworld.de/
http://www.phil-collins.ws/
http://feature.atlantic-records.com/Phil_Collins/
http://www.angelfire.com/music4/collinsfan/
http://www.angelfire.com/nj/dennisnet/philcollins.html
http://members.aol.com/jsd1996475/philring.html
Phil Collins was born January 31st, 1951 in Chiswick, Enland. Phil Collins' ascent to the top of the billboard charts was a slow and steady one. He was almost 30 years old when his first solo single, In the Air Tonight, became a #2 hit in the U.K. It also became a smash 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 in the London production of Oliver! in 1964. He got his first break in music at the end of his teens, when he was chosen to be a replacement drummer in the British art-rock band Genesis in 1970. Genesis' original lead singer was Peter Gabriel, who also went on to have a very successful solo career. They had achieved a moderate level of success in Britain and the U.S. 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's 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,".
During the '80s, Collins balanced his continuing solo work with Genesis with enormous success. In 1992, Genesis released We Can't Dance and began an extensive tour. In 1995, he announced that he was leaving Genesis permanently. The following year, he released Dance into the Light. Although the album was a flop, 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.
Phil Collins is one of that very rare breed of artists who combine musical accessibility and overwhelming popularity with the respect of their most illustrious peers. Phil Collins is one of the world’s best-loved male vocalists but also a fantastic rock and jazz drummer.
In addition, he has also risen to the challenge of recording with artists as iconoclastic as Brian Eno, Robert Fripp and John Cale. Genre-hopping is no problem for the man who has been a member of the jazz ensemble Brand X and the hugely successful Genesis. In another role entirely, he has enjoyed both commercial success and critical acclaim for acting performances as divergent as a starring role in the British film "Buster" and a cameo in the American production "And the Band Played ON."
This is the same man who, in 1996, fulfilled a lifetime ambition by taking to the road with his own 20-piece big band, debuting at the Albert Hall in the company of conductor Quincy Jones and guest vocalist Tony Bennett, and going on to play seven other European concerts, including two shows at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival.
This year again, Phil Collins will play a selected number of summer festivals, not only in Europe but also in America with a new big band with special guest vocalist Oletta Adams and featuring Gerald Albright on saxophone.
If very much is known about Phil Collins as a rock artist, less is known about his big dedication to jazz music. Already at school, Phil Collins has been a big fan of legendary drummers Sid Catlett, Sonny Payne and Jo Jones, not to forget Buddy Rich.
For many years, Phil thought of forming a big band and for the 30th anniversary of the Montreux Jazz Festival, Claude Nobs, founder and artistic director of the Festival, gave him a "carte blanche" for an entire evening. First, he was terrified and said "how can I be a drummer in a big band where all the charts are written and I cannot read music!" Anyway, Phil decided to invent his own music writing and the first concert in Montreux in 1996 was such a success that another concert had to be added on the same day.
When Phil is asked about the difference between a rock drummer and a jazz drummer or how to be both of them, he replies, "I cannot switch from jazz to rock overnight. I need a type of immersion in rock or in jazz because the dynamic is very different from one style to another. Overall, the sound is totally different from rock to jazz."
IN 1964, Phil heard the LP "Love Supreme" by John Coltrane with Elvin Jones on drums for the first time. In 1966, he discovered two great LPs by Buddy Rich - "Swinging New Big Band" and the West Side Story medley. At the 1986 Grammy’s ceremony, the producer of the show asked Tony Williams, Buddy Rich and Phil Collins to do a couple of 4/4 exchanges. Phil thought a little bit about the idea and said to the producer "Please give Tony and Buddy more time - those guys deserve it more than I do and I’d rather sit in the audience and watch them play."
Phil now lives in Switzerland and has shown another side of his talent by drawing not only the official poster of this year’s Montreux Jazz Festival, but also portraits of Igor Stravinsky and Miles Davis, to be put in the entrances of the halls bearing their names at the Montreux Convention Center where the Festival is held.
One album by Phil Collins was called "But Seriously" and this title is definitely showing what Phil’s philosophy is all about; a great sense of humour but a very serious and dedicated approach to music, should it be jazz or rock.
News:
It turns out that Phil won his lawsuit against the members of Earth, Wind, and Fire. Phil claimed that the members, who played on his live album "Serious Hits . . . Live!", were being paid royalties for the entire album, even though they only performed on five songs. The judge ruled that Earth, Wind, and Fire didn't have to pay back the money, but that royalties will be halted until the amount originally given is passed (which, since the album's catalog sales have slowed, will likely not happen). The judge scolded Phil Collins' company, however, by saying that this whole fiasco could have been avoided and that the company handled the entire situation poorly (i.e. refusing to send royalty checks to EW&F but not telling them the problem).
As many of you probably already know, Mariah Carey had covered the song "Against All Odds" for her most recent album, "Rainbow". Supposedly she's returned to the recording studio to re-do this song, I believe with the group Westlife, but I'm not definite on this. There's no word yet as to whether this song will be released as a single, which would normally seem likely since she's re-recording it and most of her recent singles have involved duets. However, since "Rainbow" has had such poor sales (well, in comparison to other Mariah albums) and is nearly off the Billboard 200, this is unlikely.
And although it's at the bottom end of the chart and getting ready to fall, Phil's "Hits" album currently has the third longest run on the Billboard 200, with the megaseller by Shania Twain in first place. "Hits" has been on the chart for over 90 weeks. The Tarzan soundtrack, by the way, is still on the chart as well.
Phil won the Oscar! "You'll Be In My Heart" is an Oscar winner, beating out Randy Newman, Aimee Mann, Diane Warren, and "Blame Canada" from South Park! Congrats Phil!
And on an update to an earlier piece, Phil Collins, technically, was in the most recent episode of South Park titled "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000". With all the harsh words you heard from the South Park creators against Phil Collins and their losing to him, the episode wasn't really an insult, though not a compliment either. Really, it involves the kids of South Park in a sled racing competition, and the hill that they race on is called Phil Collins Hill (Why? Because a giant picture of Phil Collins is on the side of the hill, of course.). I had read one person's message on another board making this episode out to be so horrible as to what they did to Phil, and really, besides naming a hill after him, what was so bad? Personally, I thought it was funny.
And then it looks like I spoke too soon once again. The South Park gang have made Phil Collins a character in yet another episode, with rock bands competeing to open for Phil Collins. So maybe they are sore losers. I don't know . . . it's still oddly funny, being that the guy voicing Phil Collins sounds nothing like him. It's somewhat humerous, though, even if the episode is a constant insult to Phil. Oh well . . . life goes on. We could take comfort in the fact that South Park's ratings are at their lowest.
In the "I've got to talk to my manager about that one" Department, Phil's music is featured heavily during a violent murder scene in the new movie "American Psycho" after having gained approval for the song "Sussudio" from Phil's manager. From what I've heard, Phil's a bit upset about this. However, the "psycho" has nothing but good things to say about Phil, so, uh, that's good, right? From what I've been told from people who've read the book, the main character goes on and on about his love of Phil's music while he's killing someone. Sounds interesting, to say the least. You could purchase the infamous book here.
Because of the hit soundtrack, not only did Phil win the American Music Awards in the Adult Contemperary catagory, but Phil also won a Golden Globe! Phil songs have been nominated in the past for an Oscar for both "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)" from Against All Odds, and "Seperate Lives" from White Nights.
Alas, one Oscar Phil wasn't be nominated for is Best Musical Score, which hasn't been offered since Prince won for Purple Rain back in the mid-80's. The catagory got put on hold due to the scarcity of musicals. Only Tarzan and South Park qualified this year, and you need at least five nominees for a catagory to be offered. Oh well, Phil will have to settle for Best Song.
Well, Phil performed the Superbowl! While it's funny to think about an Englishman performing the halftime show for American football audiences, Phil performed "Two Worlds" from the Tarzan movie soundtrack. The movie, by the way, is now out on video on both VHS and DVD. You can pick up yours by going to any of the Amazon.com links on your right and just entering in "Tarzan" for your video.
Phil had two top ten hits on the Adult Contemporary Charts from the Tarzan soundtrack. Of course, "You'll Be In My Heart" was a number one for Phil, actually tieing Celion Dion for the longest length of time ever for a song to be number one on the chart (The Backstreet Boys "I Want It That Way" had knocked it off). The other song, "Strangers Like Me", made it up to number 10.
Well, the new Genesis album came out on 10/26/99. The album, "Turn It On Again -- The Hits" is a collection of all the big songs (well, mostly big songs) from the Genesis collection. The complete song listing goes as follows:
1) Turn It On Again
2) Invisible Touch
3) Mama
4) Land of Confusion
5) I Can't Dance
6) Follow You, Follow Me
7) Hold On My Heart
8) Abacab
9) I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
10) No Son of Mine
11) Tonight, Tonight, Tonight
12) In Too Deep
13) Congo
14) Jesus He Knows Me
15) That's All
16) Misunderstanding
17) Throwing It All Away
18) The Carpet Crawlers 1999
And yes, that is a new song there. "The Carpet Crawlers 1999" is a newly recorded rendition of the classic The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway song "Carpet Crawlers", featuring new vocals by both Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. As you may remember, this was supposed to appear on one of the Genesis box sets, but with the awkward history of the box sets (Only the Gabriel Years box set is available) it was quickly moved to this album.
On a side note, with five of the eight songs from Invisible Touch appearing on this album, don't be surprised to see pop catalog sales of Invisible Touch drop down drastically. It makes sense that they appear on the hits collection -- after all, those five songs were the biggest hits of Genesis's career, with Invisible Touch reaching the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 -- but it's still ashame that it's going to sacrifice sales of the original album.
CAREER HITS
Face Value- 1981
Hello, I Must Be Going- 1982
No Jacket Required- 1985
12"ers- 1987
...But Seriously- 1989
Serious Hits...Live!- 1990
Both Sides- 1993
Dance Into The Light- 1996
...Hits- 1998
A Hot Night In Paris- 1999
Tarzan Soundtrack- 1999
] Breaking Clay Makes My Day!
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