Phil Collins recorded his first solo album Face Value while on break from his duties as the drummer and lead singer of the rock band Genesis. The album was a channel for Collins’s feelings about his divorce and a place to express his love of the melodies written by jazz fusion group Weather Report and Black music in general. “In The Air Tonight” also realized Collins’s experimentation with drum sounds successfully. He worked with producer Hugh Padgham on the gated reverb sound of his instrument that became synonymous with the ’80s. This new technique distinguished “In The Air Tonight” along with Collins’s famous drum break at the end of the song. It was a worldwide hit and the emergence of a landmark sound for the decade. The song entered into pop culture via radio, MTV and a memorable placement on the first episode of the television show Miami Vice. The video received a Grammy nomination for Best Video, Short Form and still entertains Collins’s fans in the 21st century. Face Value was reissued in 2016 with a contemporary photo of Collins’ face on the cover. His autobiography Not Dead Yet was published that same year. Genesis regrouped in 2020 and had to reschedule their upcoming The Last Domino? Tour to September 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.Â
