Phil Collins’ favourite Motown songs of all time
Rock and soul have never actually been that far apart. The whole point behind both genres was to give people a break from the traditional pop songs that people like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra were riding the wave of, and progenitors of both genres like Chuck Berry and Ray Charles had their roots in blues, it was never that hard to find common ground in the early days. And while Phil Collins was probably the last person that someone would expect to shake his groove thing based on looking at him, he understood what made some of the greatest Motown tunes work.
Judging by his own songs, though, not every one of Collins’ attempts at soul was the coolest thing in the world. He did have enough cool points to be on a Bone Thugs-N-Harmony record, but when listening to tracks like ‘Sussudio’, some moments could go from genuinely funky to something that a hapless dad would be singing if he were jamming with a bar band on the weekends.
But the truth is, there is a lot to be learned from soul on the rhythmic side of things. Even if Collins was more into jazz when working out the complex patterns on Genesis albums, some of the best Motown songs thrived on rhythm, which is why he grew to love tunes like ‘Heat Wave by Martha and the Vandellas or ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’ by the Temptations.
Each of them had a certain sense of groove that was always going to appeal to a drummer’s sense of timing. And when listening to everything that Stevie Wonder did for the label in his early years, though, there was no one doubting that they were dealing with a true musical genius on their hands. Wonder could play with the best of them and manage to hold his own no matter where he went, but Collins had an equal soft spot for when things died down and artists broke out the ballads as well.
Then again, any drummer wasn’t going to go quietly with a ballad that didn’t have any kind of tempo. His version of ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ was never going to be considered an uptempo rock stomper by anyone’s metric, but it was done in the service of “selling out”. Based on the kind of music he listened to, Collins approached Motown songs only with love, and when he made his own version, he wasn’t half bad at it, either.
It’s not like he didn’t get help from other artists outside of Motown, either. Aside from the traditional artists that all drummers look up to, like Buddy Rich and John Bonham, Collins had been paying attention to bands like The Action, who managed to take the same soulful approach and go the extra mile to match what the giants of Motown did.
That’s probably why he ended up stretching a little bit when working with Genesis as well. There are bound to be claims to this day that Collins was responsible for killing the band in many regards, but judging by the pieces that he added, it was totally acceptable for him to have a massive drum solo on one album and manage to throw in a great horn section in the middle of ‘No Reply At All’.
And those acts are only scratching the surface of his love for soul music. Nothing in his collection was going to displace the Zeppelin records that he held close to the chest, but even someone as relentless as John Bonham knew the importance of settling into a groove, and that’s something that every single Motown artist could do in their sleep.
