The one song that always makes Phil Collins weep: “Just the best”
Despite his origins stemming from the world of progressive rock, where bombast and complex structures were considered the modus operandi, Phil Collins has gone on to prove that he’s just as adept at writing heartbreaking ballads.
For someone who simply started out as the drummer with Genesis, his eventual shift to take over as the band’s vocalist and a more prominent songwriting force within the band after the departure of Peter Gabriel may have come as something of a surprise, but the further the band moved away from their early identity, the more it became apparent that Collins possessed an interest in shifting towards a more pop-adjacent style.
Eventually opting to begin releasing solo albums in tandem with Genesis still continuing as a group, Collins’ solo work was far less proggy in its approach, and where his band had previously struggled to establish themselves as a chart-viable act, he began to release songs that would contend for the higher positions not just in the UK charts, but overseas as well.
His debut solo single, 1981’s ‘In the Air Tonight’, remains one of his most well-known tracks, having reached number two in the UK, far greater than anything he’d achieved with Genesis. He’d go on to score a number one hit the following year with his cover of Diana Ross’ ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’, thrusting himself further into the spotlight as a result of toying more with music in a pop vein.
However, the fact that he’d altered his style wasn’t a complete reflection of his own tastes, and despite having shifted from progressive rock to pop in just a short span of time, it’s clear from other comments that Collins has made in the past that he’s simply always been a fan of simple songwriting, especially the sort that can easily trigger the strongest emotions.
But what exactly is it about a song that makes Collins feel these emotions, and what songs does he feel have the ability to render him a tearful mess whenever he hears them? During an interview with UK Music Reviews, he claimed that it’s quite easy for him to be stirred by a song, and revealed the one track that is capable of getting to him every time.
“To be honest with you I can cry at the drop of a hat with a good piece of music,” Collins claimed. “ I don’t know what the last piece of music was that made me cry but I always fill up whenever I hear ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ by Bonnie Raitt.”
He also brought up the same song during a later interview with SiriusXM, telling a similar story of how he first came across the track and was left speechless by its beauty. “I was surfing the TV for no apparent reason,” he recalled. “It was like in the middle of the afternoon but I was going through the TV stations. I came across this shadowy figure playing piano and straight away I recognized as Bruce Hornsby so I stayed. Then Bonnie Raitt’s voice came in and I just melted pretty much there and then. I just thought that that song, the lyrics of that song are just the best.”
While plenty of other artists have attempted to tackle the song themselves, Collins firmly believes that Raitt’s version is the superior interpretation and that it’s this one in particular that he has such a strong connection with. “I’ve never heard anybody do it like she does,” he added.
In all fairness, very few are capable of doing what Raitt does, and if any song was going to make Collins cry, it feels right that it’s a song as emotive as this.
