The “most treasured” achievement of Phil Collins’ career
Phil Collins could easily claim to be one of the few musicians who have done it all in the music industry.
As much as he tried to remain humble as one of the biggest artists in the world, it’s hard to really deny that he made the kind of tunes that millions of people wanted to hear, even if his music could get more than a little bit cheesy at times. But for all the prog madness that he played or the number-one hits, he knew that a few of his accomplishments went far beyond what he could have imagined.
If Collins had stayed behind the drumkit for the rest of his life, though, chances are he would still have been perfectly happy. He was always one of the biggest drummers in the prog scene when he didn’t say a word, and when Peter Gabriel left Genesis, Collins only found the need to get to the front of the stage because they couldn’t find anybody else that sang the way they wanted.
But once he started his solo career, there came a moment where he felt almost too omnipresent on people’s radio stations. When people weren’t blasting songs like ‘Sussudio’, they were listening to him play the hits with Genesis or even having a hand in producing songs with everyone from Philip Bailey to Eric Clapton. Success is rarely ever a bad thing, but when there’s so much of it happening at once, it can get to be more than a touch annoying as well.
So as the 1990s began, it was easy to see why so many people closed the door on Collins for a while. Both Sides was clearly a personal album for him and had a lot more nuanced songs than what he was used to, but when you had people like Noel Gallagher coming up calling him one of the biggest embarrassments to music, Collins knew it was time for him to switch things up. And instead of making chart hits, he found his calling on the silver screen.
Although the idea of having pop songs in movies was nothing new, Collins knew that he was taking a gamble writing the music for Tarzan. Elton John had worked out alright making the music to The Lion King, but how would the ‘In the Air Tonight’ be able to write songs about the lovable man of the jungle and not come off as absurd? As it turned out, though, the rest of the world was more than willing to give him a go when Disney first came out with the film in 1999.
Collins was back on top for a whole different demographic now, but even he couldn’t imagine walking away with an Oscar for his work, saying later, “I truly didn’t believe it would be me. When Cher opened the envelope and said ‘Ph…’ you could have knocked me down with a feather. It really was, and is, an incredible feeling. Of all the awards I’ve been fortunate to collect over the years, the Oscar is the most treasured.”
For all of those that were framing Collins as the death of good taste, though, it’s hardly fair to use that same argument with the songs here. ‘Son of Man’ is actually a fairly decent tune even without the context of the story, and while ‘You’ll Be In My Heart’ has a place in every millennial’s heart with Glenn Close singing it, hearing the solo version with Collins is equally as emotional.
While this being a career highlight might rub a few Genesis fans the wrong way, it’s not like they were ever competing ventures for Collins. He always had to make sure that there was compromise with the band, but this was the labour of love that turned into one of the biggest touchstones of his work.
