Phil Collins’ favourite Genesis song that “came more or less out of nowhere”
Genesis has created a fascinating, lasting phenomenon in today’s climate. Perhaps it’s the internet and platforms like TikTok that have captivated the new generation’s attention, but something about their sound, in a more general sense, seems entirely fitting for today’s landscape. And if Phil Collins‘ all-time favourite Genesis song is anything to go by, that deduction is right on the money.
For anyone with a TikTok account, you’ll likely know the swirl of Genesis songs currently on rotation. For those who have placed themselves in a faction of blissful ignorance, it’s not hard to guess which songs these are. However, what’s particularly intriguing about this resurgence is that it feels entirely appropriate in the current swarm of nostalgia-hungry audiences.
Even those discovering their music for the first time become endeared to the unmistakably timeless flavour their sound evokes and how paradoxical that feels against the backdrop of quintessential 1980s charm. After all, in that sense, most of their popular hits tick all the boxes: endearing and energetic rhythms, catchy melodies, and a sense of simpler times.
On top of all that, there’s also something undeniably authentic about it. Even without knowing the band’s backstory or the inspiration behind some of their hits, the songs pull you in with their almost playful atmosphere, like catching a glimpse of a specific moment in time when it didn’t matter if you danced or sung badly, so long as you were a part of the moment as much as anybody else.
In many ways, that’s also what drove Phil Collins to create the best music he possibly could. In his world, spontaneity was like gold dust, which is incidentally how one of their biggest and most current TikTok-era hits came to be: ‘Invisible Touch’. Some artists come up with musical segments and build from there, but with this track, Collins somehow envisioned the song fully formed one day when he entered the studio. Perhaps this is also why it’s his favourite song.
As he recalled to the Guardian: “‘Invisible Touch’ is my favourite Genesis song and it came more or less out of nowhere. We would arrive in the studio every day and just start playing. One day Mike Rutherford played a riff on the guitar, with an echo, and I suddenly sang: ‘She seems to have an invisible touch – yeah!’ It came into my head fully formed.”
Interestingly, he also said this was the song that made him realise their approach felt closer to jazz than anything else, but that improvisational quality was what ultimately made it work. “We weren’t afraid to make lousy noises,” he explained. “We knew each other well: if I started singing crap, no one would say, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ Still, there was a good percentage of crap.”
There’s no denying that ‘Invisible Touch’ remains Genesis’ opus. Considering how organically it came together and its power in drawing in new audiences no matter the era, it proves exactly why the band became a defining force in music in the first place. Sometimes, it’s just about feeling, and that’s enough for a concept to survive the ages.
