Not knowing it, I started listening to Phil Collins in the early '80s. His first song I remember is "I Missed Again" off Face Value (1981). The first time I saw him on TV was in the video of his remake of the Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love" (from Hello, I Must be Going, 1982). He did a pretty good job with it - but it was a damned good song to start with. He did show, however, some rare tenderness and vocal versatility in his choice of that song as well as his rendition. At that time, most male pop artists were not singing songs like that.

Next time I saw Phil was in the gloomy video of "That's All" by Genesis, from their self-titled album (1983). "Illegal Alien", also from that album, came later. Although it explored a very timely and serious issue, "Illegal Alien" did so with hope and humour. It sounded totally different from "That's All".

Well, in Collins' own words, "I'm an ordinary man" (I think that's from "Take Me Home", off No Jacket Required, 1985). Although I've followed Collins on the radio for decades, telling whether a song is a Phil Collins song or a Genesis song can be confusing. As I understand it, "Against All Odds" (1984) was his own. I didn't like the song much at the time, but it was on the radio all the time. In the last few years, it's grown on me.

No Jacket Required - once again, a Phil album, as I understand it - seems to be Phil's most famous effort. It had some good songs: "Sussudio" and "One More Night" being two examples. The video of "Sussudio" is very entertaining. Phil has a good sense of humour.

As I've mentioned before, Phil's songs tend to sound different from one another. I've always appreciated variety among an artist's songs as proof of creativity and imagination.

Well, in 1990 I went off to university and lost track of Phil. I hear, however, he does Disney soundtracks sometimes.

This drawing of Phil is well over a year old - it may be two years old. I think it shows Sir Phil in a knightly manner.

Looking good, Phil!

Wikipedia was a source for this article: here, here, here, and here.