![]() ![]() Producers and musicians heard In the Air Tonight and went "I want that sound".īlack Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne declared decades after its release "that drum fill is the best ever. ![]() It's on records of every big act of the era - Whitney Houston, Madonna, Kate Bush, Prince, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, and more. Gated reverb, on the back of that dramatic, huge-sounding drum fill of In the Air Tonight, became the sound of drums in the 1980s. While Intruder was the first track to use the technique, In the Air Tonight was the song that made it famous. Playlist compiled by Francois Tetaz and Gus Franklin Hip to Be Square - Huey Lewis and The News.I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) - Whitney Houston.Padgham and his engineers worked through the night to rewire the desk so the sound could be replicated to record Collins' drums the next day, and a technique known as "gated reverb" was born. Producer Hugh Padgham was impressed by the sound coming through the talkback mic capturing the echo - or reverb - of the drums in the room loudly before suddenly cutting off before the echo could fade away naturally. Somewhere among all this, Collins found time to play drums on ex-bandmate Gabriel's third solo album, where a happy accident in the recording studio would shape the future of music.Ī microphone used to communicate between the drummer in the studio and the producer in the control room was accidentally left turned on while Collins drummed on Gabriel's track Intruder. Genesis rejected the song, much to their later regret.Ĭollins tucked it way and made it the opening track and first single off Face Value. He said the "album is definitely autobiographical triggered by" his divorce.īut before Collins could get to work on Face Value, Genesis reconvened to make their 10th album, Duke.Īmong the songs Collins presented to his bandmates was a dark dirge called In the Air Tonight - a droning synth-driven track filled with barely contained anger he'd written in the wake of his divorce. Genesis missed its chance not picking up Collins' offering for Duke. "I had a lot of time on my hands," Collins told the BBC's Classic Albums episode about writing Face Value, the debut solo record he ended up creating during that hiatus. The band had just broken into the US on the back of the ninth studio album … And Then There Were Three … and hit single Follow You Follow Me, but a gruelling nine-month, 100-plus show tour contributed to Collins' divorce from his first wife Andrea Bertorelli and led to Collins taking time away from Genesis. In 1979, Phil Collins was the drummer and reluctant vocalist for British fusion rock band Genesis, having stepped into the frontman role when Peter Gabriel left the group. The song's legacy is entwined in that epic drum fill, considered to be one of the all time great pieces of pop percussion.īut there's a lot more to Collins' smash hit than drums - there's the air of mystery, a production mistake that shaped the future of music, and an urban legend about a drowning that never happened. It takes three minutes and forty seconds before the signature moment arrives.Ī powerful cacophony of drums explodes out of the speakers, taking Phil Collins' ominous, seething opus In the Air Tonight to another level that has helped it endure for four decades. ![]()
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