Classic Albums - Phil Collins: Face Value (1999)

×

Classic Albums - Phil Collins: Face Value (1999)

Close

Phil Collins first enjoyed international success as the drummer with Genesis and then subsequently as lead singer when Peter Gabriel left the band. In 1981, however, Face Value launched him as a solo artist and remains in many ways his most exciting and unusual music offering.Face Value was immediately a worldwide hit, entering British charts at Number 1, spending almost six years in the Top 75, and selling in excess of 12 million copies. The album went on to make the U.S. Top 10, earning a gold disc. Face Value also gave birth to several hit singles, including the atmospheric 'In The Air Tonight,' ' I Missed Again,' and 'If Leaving Me Is Easy.' This documentary includes several previously unseen performances, as well as rare home movies, archival footage of the studio sessions where Phil Collins worked closely with engineer Hugh Padgham and the Earth Wind & Fire horn section, unique photographs and documents from Phil's own private archive, and insights into the music from an eclectic range of musicians on the album. Many of these musicians recall their work on the album, alongside engineer Hugh Padgham, who returns to the original multitrack master tapes of Face Value, including a fascinating contribution by Eric Clapton on 'The Roof Is Leaking'. It also includes special performances given by Phil Collins of songs from the album and footage which was finally omitted. Phil also demonstrates how he created the unique drum sound that underpinned 'In the Air Tonight,' his first Number One record.Phil Collins has sold more than sixty million albums since the release of Face Value. This is a rare and welcome insight into Collins' prodigious music talent and the fascinating story in the making of a true Classic Album.

Phil Collins' ascent to the status of one of the most successful pop and adult contemporary singers of the '80s and beyond was probably as much of a surprise to him as it was to many others. Balding and diminutive, Collins was almost 30 years old when his first solo single, "In the Air Tonight," became a number two hit in his native U.K. (the song was a Top 20 hit in the U.S.). Between 1984 and 1990, Collins had a string of 13 straight U.S. Top Ten hits.

Long before any of that happened, however, Collins was a child actor/singer who appeared as the Artful Dodger in the London production of Oliver! in 1964. (He also has a cameo in A Hard Day's Night, among other films.) He got his first break in music at the end of his teens, when he was chosen to be a replacement drummer in the British art rock band Genesis in 1970. (Collins maintained a separate jazz career with the band Brand X as well.) Genesis was fronted by singer Peter Gabriel. They had achieved a moderate level of success in the U.K. and the U.S., with elaborate concept albums, before Gabriel abruptly left in 1974. Genesis auditioned 400 singers without success, then decided to let Collins have a go.

The result was a gradual simplifying of Genesis' sound and an increasing focus on Collins' expressive, throaty voice. And Then There Were Three… went gold in 1978, and Duke was even more successful. Collins made his debut solo album, Face Value, in 1981, which turned out to be a bigger hit than any Genesis album. It concentrated on Collins' voice, often in stark, haunting contexts such as the piano-and-drum dirge "In the Air Tonight," which sounded like something from John Lennon's debut solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.

During the '80s, Collins was enormously successful in balancing his continuing solo work with his membership in Genesis. In 1992, Genesis released We Can't Dance and began an extensive tour. Upon its completion Collins released Both Sides in 1993, and the record became his first album not to produce a major hit single or go multi-platinum. In 1995, he announced that he was leaving Genesis permanently. The following year, he released Dance into the Light. Although the album was a flop, its subsequent supporting tour was a success. The Hits collection followed in 1998, and a year later Collins made his first big-band record, Hot Night in Paris. The song cycle Testify arrived in 2002, and his next studio-recorded solo release was 2010's Going Back, which saw Collins revisiting the Motown hits that so influenced him and featuring three of the surviving Funk Brothers - guitarists Eddie Willis and Ray Monette and bassist Bob Babbitt.

×

Classic Albums - Phil Collins: Face Value (1999)

Close

×

Classic Albums - Phil Collins: Face Value (1999)

Close

×

Classic Albums - Phil Collins: Face Value (1999)

Close

×

Classic Albums - Phil Collins: Face Value (1999)

Close

×

Classic Albums - Phil Collins: Face Value (1999)

Close