{"id":463,"date":"2026-08-16T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/16\/thats-what-i-sang-when-i-opened-my-mouth-that-day-its-like-verbal-jazz-how-phil-collins-turned-a-moment-of-improvisation-into-the-massive-hit-single-that-launched\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T15:00:00","slug":"thats-what-i-sang-when-i-opened-my-mouth-that-day-its-like-verbal-jazz-how-phil-collins-turned-a-moment-of-improvisation-into-the-massive-hit-single-that-launched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/16\/thats-what-i-sang-when-i-opened-my-mouth-that-day-its-like-verbal-jazz-how-phil-collins-turned-a-moment-of-improvisation-into-the-massive-hit-single-that-launched\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThat\u2018s what I sang when I opened my mouth that day. It\u2019s like verbal jazz\u201d: How Phil Collins turned a moment of improvisation into the massive hit single that launched his solo career"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Phil Collins<\/a> has been in the news recently due to his revelation that he nearly died in 2024 as a result of alcohol addiction. But amid the drama, it\u2019s easy to overlook the fact that he\u2019s one of the most successful musicians the UK has produced, from his days in prog-era Genesis<\/a>, through that band\u2019s transformation into one of the biggest bands of the 80s and his own ubiquity as a solo star during that decade and beyond \u2013 even if it made him one of the most reviled stars of the era.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI look back and realise I was never out of everyone\u2019s eyeline, y\u2019know?\u201d he tells Prog<\/em><\/a>, reflecting on the fact that elements of the public and the press disliked him during his heyday. \u201cI was just omnipresent! Whether on the radio, or on tour. But I can honestly say, on my children\u2019s lives, it was simply enthusiasm. It wasn\u2019t ambition; just one thing led to another. Same thing with Genesis \u2013 we thought playing the Marquee meant we\u2019d made it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Even if Collins had stuck with Genesis, his legacy would have been assured. As the band\u2019s drummer and, later, frontman, he\u2019s been involved in some undeniable classics, from 1972\u2019s monumental Supper\u2019s Ready<\/em>, via crossover singles such as Follow You, Follow Me, Turn It On Again<\/em> and Mama<\/em>, to such massive hits as Invisible Touch <\/em>and Land Of Confusion<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n

But he became the rare rock star who embarked on a parallel solo career that actually overshadowed that of his own band \u2013 and, as he tells Prog<\/em>, it was sparked by a moment of improvisation. That\u2019s precisely what happened with his debut solo single, In The Air Tonight<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cSometimes when the moon\u2019s in the right place and all that stuff you come up with something,\u201d he says. \u201cIn The Air Tonight <\/em>was mainly improvisation. That\u2019s what I sang when I opened my mouth that particular day. It\u2019s like verbal jazz. When a saxophone player gets up and plays, he\u2019s just playing what he plays. Often that was the case with my voice and words.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

However it came together, it worked. In The Air Tonight <\/em>was released in January 1980, a month ahead of Collins\u2019 debut solo album, Face Value<\/em>. The single reached No.2 in the UK and made the US Top 10, making it more successful than any previous Genesis single. <\/p>\n

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Collins also reflects on making Face Value<\/em> as his marriage was crumbling, adding that his personal strife actually aided his creativity. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to go cosmic on you, and say, \u2018Oh I was just channelling something\u2019, but it just came so easily,\u201d he tells Prog<\/em>. \u201cBecause of my mental state probably. The house was empty. That time wasn\u2019t a barrel of laughs, but the more music I did, there was no stopping it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full interview with Phil Collins about his life and career with both Genesis and a solo artist in the brand new issue of Prog<\/em>. Order it here<\/a> and have it delivered straight to your door.<\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phil Collins has been in the news recently due to his revelation that he nearly died in 2024 as a result of alcohol addiction. But amid the drama, it\u2019s easy to overlook the fact that he\u2019s one of the most successful musicians the UK has produced, from his days in prog-era Genesis, through that band\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}