Writer: Phil Collins
Producer: Phil Collins with Hugh Padgham
Recorded: 1979; various studios
Released: February 1981
| Players: | Phil Collins–vocals, drums, drum programming, keyboards John Giblin–bass Daryl Steurmer–guitar Sharokav–violins |
| Album: | Face Value (Atlantic, 1981) |
As the first single of Phil Collins's solo career, “In The Air Tonight” established him as a worldwide solo star. It just missed the top spot on the U.K. pop chart after its release and reached Number 19 on the Billboard pop chart.
Spurred in part by the success of this single, the Face Value album has sold more than five million copies.
The electronic Linn drum sound employed for the track's rhythm became one of the most influential sounds of the early and mid-'80s.
Like most of the other material on Face Value, this song of betrayal was inspired by the breakup of Collins's marriage to his first wife Andrea. She began seeing someone else while Collins toured the world with Genesis in the late '70s, inspiring much of the vitriol contained in the lyrics.
“This was the first batch of songs I'd ever written on my own,” Collins says. “As far as I was concerned, all I was doing was having fun with an eight-track tape machine in my home. Had I not gone through (the divorce), Face Value would not have been made because I wouldn't have been jolted into writing songs.”
Collins–a former child actor in Britain–joined Genesis as a drummer in 1972, becoming the band's singer and frontman after Peter Gabriel left the band in 1975. “I had never thought of myself as a singer, either, until Peter left Genesis,” Collins said. “It takes that kind of jolt to push you into things.”
