Phil Collins has enjoyed enormous success throughout his career. The iconic musician has released countless hits that have withstood the test of time. Interestingly, Collins recently revealed that one of his greatest hits was almost totally improvised. His admission came during a recent interview on BBC Radio 2.
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"I suppose, you know, a lot of my lyrics come from somewhere. I very rarely sit down, very rarely sit down and think 'what am I going to write about?' I don't ever do that," Collins said. "Normally, if I'm playing — something usually comes when I'm playing a piano — and something will develop if I'm lucky, and then what I'm going to sing kind of goes along with it or comes along very soon afterwards."
Collins named "In The Air Tonight" as a song that he improvised nearly 80% of the lyrics for.
"I had this chord sound on this keyboard that I had ... and I had this lovely sound, which is the sound you hear on the record," he detailed. "...(I) programmed the drum machine just to make an interesting pattern, and then I played along with it, and that's what happened. When I'd done that, I sang along with what I had just to get the sound of a voice in there. The words that came out on that first verse were improvised."
Phil Collins Began Writing All of His Songs in a Similar Manner
As the interview continued, Collins admitted that after "In The Air Tonight," he began following a similar pattern when writing music.
"That started the way I started writing," Collins added. "I mean, that was pretty early on in the writing process of what was to become Face Value. I thought, well, that works. That's the way I can do it."
However, Collins did admit that his writing process changed when he was tasked with working on Disney hit, Tarzan.
"Then I had to think, I've got a story to tell here, and this is what they want me to say. Then it becomes a totally different kind of thing," Collins admitted. "But still, even those songs came from spitballing phrases and lines that made sense in that format. It's not crafting. It's an element of luck, you know, and good fortune that comes with all this."
Still, the fact that some of Collins' biggest hits came from improvizational work is astounding. It truly does show the level of talent he possesses.
