Some of the American yuppies who bought Genesis’ ’80s music had grown up with the band in their prog era, but plenty hadn’t. They were also making rich, layered digital music - using bajillion-dollar Fairlight synths, putting time and effort into creating immersive sonic environments.Īs with Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms, the music of Genesis and their associates probably sounded best on compact disc, the emerging format that rich people really liked. Collins discovered his trademark gated drum sound, for instance, when he was working on Gabriel’s song “Intruder,” and Gabriel sang backup on Collins “Take Me Home.” These guys were all influencing each other. Collins also maintained a cordial relationship with the ex-members of Genesis. Part of it is that Phil Collins was interested in R&B and dance music and that he actually had the necessary chops, as a singer and songwriter, to push both himself and Genesis toward pop’s center. Around the same time that Collins was becoming a solo star, Genesis finally made it into the top 10, getting to #6 with 1983’s “ That’s All.” (It’s a 7.)įorces were at work here. The band scored its first real American hit in 1978, when “ Follow You Follow Me” peaked at #22. (It peaked at #46.) But when Collins took over as frontman, he pushed the group in more accessible directions. In the Peter Gabriel era, only one Genesis song, 1972’s wiggy “ Happy The Man,” even made the Hot 100. Since the days of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, all those Genesis musicians, current and former, had been drifting toward the pop mainstream. So how does a band like Genesis become an absolute commercial juggernaut? Plenty of graduates of the British art-rock universe of the ’70s made hits in the ’80s, but nobody out there was crushing shit like Genesis. That would be nuts for any band, let alone one that had gotten its start making mythological, nerded-out song-cycles. That means that the current and former members of Genesis were at least partially responsible for six of the songs on the Hot 100, including the top two. (Mike + The Mechanics will eventually appear in this column.) And another Mike + The Mechanics song, “Taken In,” was at #48, on its way to peaking at #32. (It’s a 5.) The week that “Invisible Touch” hit #1, “All I Need Is A Miracle” was still on the Hot 100, down at #67. (It’s a 5.) The group’s follow-up “All I Need Is A Miracle” did even better, making it up to #5.
The Mechanics’ debut single “ Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)” peaked at #6. In the time that Collins ventured off to make No Jacket Required, Genesis bassist and guitarist Mike Rutherford started a side project called Mike + The Mechanics, and their self-titled debut album had done well for itself, launching two singles into the top 10. (“No One Is To Blame” is a 7.) Collins seemed to have an invisible touch.Īnd yet Phil Collins was not the only member of Genesis who was charting around that time. (It’s a 10.) But Collins, working with regular collaborator Hugh Padham, had co-produced Howard Jones’ single “ No One Is To Blame,” and that song was still in the top 20 after peaking at #4. “ Take Me Home,” the fourth and final single from No Jacket Required, had only just dropped off the charts after peaking at #7. The week that “Genesis” hit #1, Collins didn’t have any singles on the Hot 100. It definitely sounded like a Phil Collins album. A whole lot of people probably heard Genesis’ Invisible Touch album as the follow-up to No Jacket Required. By the time Genesis reached #1 with “Invisible Touch,” Collins had already scored three #1 singles of his own, and his album No Jacket Required had been one of the biggest sellers of 1985.
Collins could’ve left Genesis at any point, but he decided instead to balance out his solo work with the band that had brought him to the dance. By the time Genesis scored their only #1 hit, ’70s art-rock peers like Pink Floyd and Yes and even Vangelis had made #1 hits, but none of them had come to utterly dominate American pop radio the way Genesis had.īy that time, Genesis were, of course, led by Phil Collins, the goofy and genial drummer who, against all odds, had become one of the world’s biggest pop stars. By the summer of 1986, for instance, Genesis, a band once known for expansively bugged-out concept albums, had become a chart-conquering behemoth. All it had to do was stop being prog-rock. In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.