About that guy who coulda saved that other guy from drownin' Collins co-produced the single with Hugh Padgham, who became a frequent collaborator in the following years.The song was an instant hit, quickly climbing to No.

The music video (directed by Stuart Orme) animates the photograph of Collins's face from the cover of the Face Value album, slowly fading in through the introduction until it fills the screen, singing the first chorus. The lifting of the embargo then saw the record drift as high as No.5, and it went to No.1 in the UK six years later when RCA re-released it at the height of Bowie mania. The Who's turbocharged hit was the sound of mid-60s rebellion, and it was so dangerous the BBC decided to ban it.

[10] Musically, the song consists of a series of ominous chords played on a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 over a simple drum machine pattern (the Roland CR-78 Disco-2 pattern, plus some programming); processed electric guitar sounds and vocoded vocals, an effect which is increased on key words to add additional atmosphere. In times of war, it has become common for a long list of tunes to be blacklisted; most famously, the first Gulf War saw Phil Collins's In the Air Tonight added to the list (because it might remind listeners of scud missiles). Read about our approach to external linking.

A good many songs were banned because of inadvertent product placement, from Chuck Berry's Maybellene (a cosmetics company, albeit with a different spelling) to Pink Floyd's passing reference to a London newspaper in the 1968 song It Would Be So Nice. In this case, the Solid State Logic 4000 mixing board had a "reverse talk-back" circuit (labelled on the board as "Listen Mic"). "In the Air Tonight" is the debut solo single by the English drummer and singer-songwriter Phil Collins. And then Mark Chapman shot John Lennon and that was that. The mood is one of restrained anger until the final chorus when an explosive burst of drums finally releases the musical tension and the instrumentation explodes into a thunderous crescendo.

He knew his wife was cheating, and he's been "waiting for the moment, all [his] life" to expose this. In 1983 the music video was released on the home video Phil Collins[21] available on VHS[22] and LaserDisc[23] which received a Grammy nomination for Best Video, Short Form. The BBC has deemed many records unfit for air since it began radio transmissions in the 1920s. Collins's face returns for the second chorus. The video then cuts to Collins sitting in an empty room at night. The urban legend is referenced in the Family Guy episode "The Peter Principal" as Brian is listening to Bonnie and Joe argue about the contents of the song. Reason for banning: The death of the Princess of Wales. It's the angry side, or the bitter side of a separation. Twice a spectral figure appears in the window, but only the second time does Collins get up to look at it, then is shown walking to the one door of the room. I saw it with my own two eyes The most popular misinterpretation of the song is that Collins wrote the song after he witnessed a man watch another man drown and did nothing to save the drowning man even though he was very close to the victim and could have saved him. I'm not quite sure what the song is about, but there's a lot of anger, a lot of despair and a lot of frustration. The lyrics you hear are what I wrote spontaneously. These were added at the suggestion of Atlantic Records head Ahmet Ertegun.

[15], In 1984, the song was memorably used in a scene from the first episode of the television series Miami Vice, which film and television critic Matt Zoller Seitz cited as why the song has been stamped as "Property of Michael Mann" (the series' executive producer) for years, rarely being used in other screen works due to its indelible use in the series, akin to Martin Scorsese's signature use of songs by The Rolling Stones for his films.[16].

The song's music video, directed by Stuart Orme, received heavy play on MTV when the new cable music video channel launched in August 1981. I've seen your face before, my friend, but I don't know if you know who I am

There have also been plently of variations on this myth including one that mentions Phil Collins was on a boat with a friend when his buddy fell overboard. By the time the single had sold around 300,000 copies, and given that other stations were playing it on heavy rotation, the BBC relaxed its ban. Read more: 7 secret codes and ciphers hidden in music. You don't hear it at all for the first two minutes of the song ... then there's that great doo-dom doo-dom doo-dom comes in, and the drums come in half way through the song, setting the template for all the Eighties drum songs after that.[14].

Collins recedes into the darkness as the song repeats and fades. 3.

Reason for banning: Astronauts on dangerous mission. The means by which Collins attained the drum sound on this recording was long a source of mystery. 40 Banned and Censored Songs, Superintendent John Huppenthal issued a “notice of noncompliance. [3][4] The song was ranked at number 35 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 80s" in 2006.

After critics had panned the single, the BBC stopped playing it. I know where you've been

Like us on Facebook, on Instagram at bbcmusic, or follow us on Twitter @bbcmusic, 10 long-awaited albums that will be the soundtrack of 2019, 8 predictions for music in 2019 from expert pop forecasters, 7 of the most scathing record reviews of the year, 9 brilliant music videos that you may have missed in 2018, Test your knowledge of the year in music with our poptastic quiz, 7 heartbreaking Christmas songs that might make you cry. Quiz: How many of these Mastermind music questions can you answer? Sink the Bismarck from 1960 was a chart success despite the fact the committee frowned upon its historical inaccuracies, such as the claim the Second World War began in 1941 in the first line, and that the first pressing of the single spelled the name of the ship incorrectly (the sleeve carried the typo "Bismark").

Massachusetts singer Bobby Pickett wrote novelty song Monster Mash in 1962 to spoof dance crazes such as The Twist and The Mashed Potato that were prevalent at the time. 2 on the UK Singles chart but was held off the top spot by the posthumous release of John Lennon's "Woman". Reason for banning: The death of the Princess of Wales Indie darling Lawrence of Belgravia, also of Felt and Go-Kart Mozart, was the victim of very bad …

Despite antipathy from the broadcaster, the song went to No.3 in the UK charts in May of that year, though Horton's luck was to be short-lived, as was his life: he was tragically killed in a car crash six months later, aged just 35.

In the Air Tonight is a song by English singer-songwriter Phil Collins. The exact process was a result of serendipity: an unintended use of studio technology giving unexpectedly useful results. "[6] The song received renewed attention in 2020, when twins Tim and Fred Williams published a popular video[7] on YouTube that showed their initial reaction to the song.[8]. Fellow musicians and journalists have commented on its use in the record.

And the only thing I can say about it is that it's obviously in anger.