"In the Air Tonight" is the debut solo single by English drummer and singer-songwriter Phil Collins. It was released as the lead single from Collins's debut solo album, '' Face Value'', in January 1981. Collins co-produced "In the Air Tonight" with

Hugh Padgham Hugh Charles Padgham (born 15 February 1955) is an English record producer and audio engineer. He has won four Grammy Awards, for Producer of the Year and Album of the Year for 1985, Record of the Year for 1990, and Engineer of the Year for 199 ...

, who became a frequent collaborator in the following years. It reached No. 2 on the

UK Singles chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

behind the posthumous release of

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

's "

Woman A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

". It reached No. 1 in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden, and the top 10 in Australia, New Zealand and several other European territories. It reached No. 19 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the United States, but reached No. 2 on the Rock Tracks Chart, later certified gold by the RIAA, representing 500,000 copies sold. The song's

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

, directed by Stuart Orme, received heavy play on MTV when the new cable music video channel launched in August 1981. "In the Air Tonight" remains one of Collins' best-known hits, often cited as his signature song, and is especially famous for its drum break towards the end, which has been described as "the sleekest, most melodramatic drum break in history" and one of the "101 Greatest Drumming Moments". In 2006, the song was ranked at number 35 in VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 80s". In 2007, Mike Gruss, former columnist for ''

The Virginian-Pilot ''The Virginian-Pilot'' is the daily newspaper for Norfolk, Virginia. Commonly known as ''The Pilot'', it is Virginia's largest daily. It serves the five cities of South Hampton Roads as well as several smaller towns across southeast Virgini ...

'', referred to the song as a " soft rock classic." In 2021, it was listed at No. 291 in ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

s "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Background and recording

Inspiration

Collins wrote the song amid the grief he felt after divorcing his first wife Andrea Bertorelli in 1980. In a 2016 interview, Collins said of the song's lyrics: "I wrote the lyrics spontaneously. 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." In a 1997 BBC Radio 2 documentary, the singer revealed that the divorce contributed to his 1979 hiatus from the band

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

, until they regrouped in October of that year to record the album, ''

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

''. Originally, Collins was going to include the song on ''Duke'', but it was rejected by the band. Tony Banks, however, says he never heard the composition.

Musical style

It has been described as being "at the vanguard of experimental pop" in 1981 and "a rock oddity classic", having been influenced by "the unconventional studio predilections of Brian Eno and Peter Gabriel". 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 The Roland CompuRhythm CR-78 is a drum machine launched in 1978. Although primitive by later standards, the CR-78 represented an important advance in drum machine technology at the time, in particular by allowing users to program and store thei ...

Disco-2 pattern, plus some programming); processed

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

sounds and vocoded vocals, an effect which is increased on key words to add additional atmosphere. 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. Collins has described obtaining the drum machine specifically to deal with personal issues relating to his divorce through songwriting, telling '' Mix'' magazine: "I had to start writing some of this music that was inside me". He improvised the lyrics during a songwriting session in the studio: "I was just fooling around. I got these chords that I liked, so I turned the mic on and started singing. The lyrics you hear are what I wrote spontaneously. That frightens me a bit, but I'm quite proud of the fact that I sang 99.9 percent of those lyrics spontaneously".

Drum sound

The song is famous for its use of the

gated reverb Gated reverb or gated ambience is an audio processing technique that combines strong reverb and a noise gate. The effect is often associated with the sound of 1980s British popular music. It was developed in 1979 by producer Steve Lillywhite and e ...

drum sound. Fellow musicians and journalists have commented on its use in the record.

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

singer

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...

called the drum fill "the best ever – it still sounds awesome", while music critic and broadcaster

Stuart Maconie Stuart Maconie (born 13 August 1961) is an English radio DJ and television presenter, writer, journalist, and critic working in the field of pop music and popular culture. He is currently a presenter on BBC Radio 6 Music where, alongside Mark ...

was quoted: The means by which Collins attained the drum sound on this recording was long a source of mystery. The exact process was a result of serendipity: an unintended use of studio technology giving unexpectedly useful results. In this case, the

Solid State Logic SL 4000 The Solid State Logic SL 4000 is a series of large-format analogue mixing consoles designed and manufactured by Solid State Logic (SSL) from 1976 to 2002. 4000 Series consoles were widely adopted by major commercial recording studios in the 1980s. ...

mixing board A mixing console or mixing desk is an electronic device for mixing audio signals, used in sound recording and reproduction and sound reinforcement systems. Inputs to the console include microphones, signals from electric or electronic inst ...

had a "reverse talk-back" circuit (labelled on the board as "Listen Mic"). Normal "talkback" is a button that the mixing engineer has to press in order to talk to the recording musicians (the recording and the mixing parts of a studio are, otherwise, completely sonically isolated). Reverse talkback is a circuit (also button-activated) for the engineer to listen to the musicians in the studio. In order to compensate for sound level differences—people can be close to the reverse talkback microphone or far off—this circuit has a compressor on it, which minimises the differences between loud and soft sounds. While recording " Intruder" for his former bandmate Peter Gabriel's third solo album, at some point Collins started playing the drums while the reverse talkback was activated. Engineer

was amazed at the sound achieved. Overnight, they rewired the board so that the reverse talkback could be recorded in a more formal manner. Later models of the SSL 4000 allowed the listen mic to be recorded with the touch of a button. When recording engineer Padgham was brought in to help develop Collins' demos that would become '' Face Value'' they recreated the "Intruder" sound using the reverse talkback microphone as well as heavily compressed and gated ambient mics. Padgham continued working with Genesis for '' Abacab'' later in 1981 and the same technique (generally referred to as gated reverb) was used, and the powerful drum sound has become synonymous with later Genesis projects and Collins' solo career ever since. The original single version of "In the Air Tonight" features extra drums that play underneath the song until the signature drum crash (referred to by fans as the "magic break") appears. These were added at the suggestion of Atlantic Records head Ahmet Ertegun. In 2007, Collins wrote:

Release

Speaking about the song's rapid ascension in the music charts, Collins wrote the following in 2007: The song appeared as part of the soundtrack for the 1983 movie '' Risky Business'' and plays when the characters played by

Tom Cruise Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), known professionally as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actors, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Go ...

and Rebecca De Mornay have sex on a subway train. In 1984, the song was memorably used in a scene from the

first episode A series premiere is the first aired installment of an episodic entertainment series, most often a television series. In the United States, many series premieres are aired in the fall time or, for mid-season replacements, either in the spring or ...

of the television series ''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs, two M ...

'', which film and television critic

Matt Zoller Seitz Matt Zoller Seitz (born December 26, 1968) is an American film and television critic, author and film-maker. Career Matt Zoller Seitz is editor-at-large at RogerEbert.com, and the television critic for '' New York'' magazine and Vulture.com, as ...

cited as why the song has been stamped as "Property of

Michael Mann Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television who is best known for his distinctive style of crime drama. His most acclaimed works include the films ''Thief'' (1981), ...

" (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 Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, inclu ...

's signature use of songs by

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

for his films. "In the Air Tonight" received a new wave of attention thanks to its use in the series, enough for it to briefly re-chart in the United States just outside the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number 102. The song was remixed in 1988 by

Ben Liebrand Ben Liebrand () (born 27 September 1960 in Nijmegen, the Netherlands) is a Dutch dance music DJ and remixer. He has produced for artists such as Forrest and MC Miker G & DJ Sven and remixed tracks by artists such as Alexander O'Neal, Salt-N- ...

for his weekly appearance in the Curry & Van Inkel radio show on Dutch radio. The mix was completed and then taken by Liebrand to be part of a mix showcase at the DMC Mixing Championship Finals in London, attended by 3500 worldwide deejays. The mix was picked up by

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), Tom Newman. It ...

for an official release, which hit Number 4 in the UK charts. In July 2020, a video reaction to the song by TwinsthenewTrend increased the sales and streaming of Collins's original version. The TwinsthenewTrend first-listen video was viewed 4.9 million times in its first two weeks online. Continued popularity brought new traffic to the Collins song which rose to number 3 on ''Billboard'' Digital Song Sales chart in August 2020.

Urban legend

urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

has arisen about "In the Air Tonight", according to which the lyrics are based on a drowning incident in which someone who was close enough to save the victim did not help them, while Collins, who was too far away to help, looked on. Increasingly embellished variations on the legend emerged over time, with the stories often culminating in Collins singling out the guilty party while singing the song at a concert. Collins has denied all such stories; he commented on the legends about the song in a BBC World Service interview: The urban legend is referenced in the song " Stan" by Eminem. The reference is contained in the following lyrics: 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. In July 2020, Andrew Norman Wilson released a video titled "In the Air Tonight" on the Phil Collins

subreddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...

that tells the urban legend in detail.

Music video

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 video then cuts to Collins sitting in an empty room at night. 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. Collins's face returns for the second chorus. He is then shown leaving the room and entering a hallway full of doors. The first one is locked, then the second opens and Collins sees himself looking at the window again, only now the spectre has turned into his own reflection. The third door is locked, but as the fourth one opens, the drum break sounds and the viewer is returned to Collins's face again, this time in thermal coloring, which gradually reverts to black and white. His reflection from the window is briefly superimposed on the face, this time seemingly reflected in water. Collins recedes into the darkness as the song repeats and fades. In 1983 the music video was released on the home video ''Phil Collins'' available on VHS and LaserDisc which received a

Grammy nomination The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

for Best Video, Short Form.

Performance

"In the Air Tonight" remains a popular selection on

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, prima ...

radio stations. It is the song most often associated with Collins' solo career, and he has performed it at many events, including Live Aid, where he played the song on a piano on the same calendar day in both

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

and London. He also performed the song at ''

The Secret Policeman's Ball ''The Secret Policeman's Ball'' is a series of benefit shows staged initially in the United Kingdom to raise funds for the human rights organisation Amnesty International. The shows started in 1976 featuring popular British comedians but lat ...

'', which was his first live performance as a solo artist. "I remember doing 'In the Air Tonight' at Live Aid," he recalled, "and eteTownshend saying, 'Are you going to do that fucking song again?' as it was the only one I ever played."

Single and credits

VSK102 UK Single Release (Martin H) # "In the Air Tonight" # "The Roof Is Leaking" Sleeve includes a black and white 12-page cartoon storyboard drawn by Collins' brother Clive Collins.

UK and US single (1981)

# "In the Air Tonight" – 4:57 #* Phil Collins –

drum machine, vocals, drums, Prophet 5 synthesizer, Rhodes piano, Roland VP-330

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

John Giblin John Giblin, is an active session musician, contributing mainly as an acoustic and electric bass player, and spanning genres of jazz, classical, rock, folk and avant-garde music. Best known as a studio musician, recording film scores and cont ...

– bass #*

Daryl Stuermer Daryl Mark Stuermer (born November 27, 1952) is an American musician, songwriter, and producer best known for playing the guitar and bass for Genesis during live shows, and lead guitar for Phil Collins during most solo tours and albums. He has ...

– guitar #*

L. Shankar Lakshminarayana Shankar (born 26 April 1950), better known as L. Shankar, Shankar and Shenkar, is an Indian violinist, singer and composer. Early life, family and education Shankar was born in Madras, India, and raised in Ceylon (current- ...

– violins # "The Roof Is Leaking" – 3:36 #* Phil Collins – piano, vocal #*

– banjo #* Joe Partridge – slide guitar * A demo track for "In the Air Tonight" also appeared on the " If Leaving Me Is Easy" single.

12" German maxi-single (1981)

# "In the Air Tonight" (album version) – 5:35 #* Phil Collins –

drum machine, vocals, drums, Prophet 5 synthesizer, Rhodes piano, Roland VP-330

– bass #*

– guitar #*

– violins # "The Roof Is Leaking" – 3:36 #* Phil Collins – piano, vocal #*

– banjo #* Joe Partridge – slide guitar

Japan CD single (1988)

# "In the Air Tonight" (extended) # "In the Air Tonight" ('88 remix) # "I Missed Again" (Album Version)

German CD single (1990)

# "In the Air Tonight" (extended version) – 7:33 (Additional production by

) # "In the Air Tonight" ('88 remix) – 5:07 (Remixed by Phil Collins and Hugh Padgham) # "I Missed Again" – 3:42 (catalogue 2292-57672-2)

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Personnel

* Phil Collins – vocals, drums, Roland VP-330

, CR-78 drum machine, Prophet-5 synthesizer, Rhodes piano *

– guitar *

– bass *

– violin

Cover versions

*In 2004, the band

Nonpoint Nonpoint is an American rock band from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The band currently consists of vocalist Elias Soriano, drummer Robb Rivera, lead guitarist Jaysin Zeilstra, rhythm guitarist Rasheed Thomas, and bassist Adam Woloszyn. History ...

recorded a cover for their album, ''

Recoil Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the rearward thrust generated when a gun is being discharged. In technical terms, the recoil is a result of conservation of momentum, as according to Newton's third law the force r ...

''. This cover would later be featured in the soundtrack of the 2006 film adaptation of ''

''. *In 2016, the newly formed boy band

Mic Lowry Mic Lowry, stylised as MiC LOWRY, is a British vocal harmony boy band from Liverpool singing pop, contemporary R&B and soul music. The five-member band was formed in 2011 and is currently made up of Delleile Ankrah, Kaine Ofoeme, Ben Sharples a ...

released an adaptation of the song titled " Oh Lord". A music video was released on 29 September 2016 on the band's official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

page. The band was chosen Elvis Duran's Artist of the Month for March 2017 and were invited to perform the song nationwide in the United States through ''

The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It ...

'' presented by

Kathie Lee Gifford Kathryn Lee Gifford ( née Epstein; born August 16, 1953) is an American television presenter, singer, songwriter, actress and author. From 1985 to 2000, she and Regis Philbin hosted the talk show '' Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee''. Gifford is ...

and

Hoda Kotb Hoda Kotb ( ; arz, هدى قطب, ''Hudā Quṭb''; ; born August 9, 1964) is an American broadcast journalist, television personality, and author. She is a main co-anchor of the NBC News morning show ''Today'' and co-host of its entertainment ...

. They also performed live on ''

The Wendy Williams Show ''The Wendy Williams Show'' (often shortened to ''Wendy'') is an American syndicated talk show created and hosted by Wendy Williams, and produced by Wendy Williams Productions, along with Perler Productions. The show is distributed by Debmar- ...

'' on 8 March 2017. The song charted in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

reaching number 54 on the chart. *In 2017, the band

In This Moment In This Moment is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed by singer Maria Brink and guitarist Chris Howorth in 2005. They found drummer Jeff Fabb and started the band as Dying Star. Unhappy with their musical direction, they ...

recorded a cover for their album, ''

Ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...

.'' *

Marissa Nadler Marissa Nadler (born April 5, 1981) is an American musician and fine artist. Active since 2000, she is currently signed to Sacred Bones Records and Bella Union, and released her ninth full-length studio album, ''The Path of the Clouds'', in Oc ...

and

Stephen Brodsky Stephen Brodsky is an American rock musician best known as a member of Cave In, Mutoid Man, New Idea Society and Old Man Gloom. He also has a solo career and is a former member of Converge, Kid Kilowatt, Parasite and Pet Genius. History Stephe ...

recorded a cover in 2019. *

Dave Audé Dave Audé (born Oct 12, 1969) is an American DJ, producer and remixer. He operates his own label Audacious Records, and is known for having more number ones than any other producer on the ''Billboard'' Dance Club Songs chart. He has done prod ...

cover this song with Nicole Markson and was released 24th of November 2022.

References

External links

The Singer and the Song
a "Learning English" episode from the BBC World Service, which includes a clip from the song and a recording of Collins reading part of the song's lyrics (in

RealAudio RealAudio, or also spelled as Real Audio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks and first released in April 1995. It uses a variety of audio codecs, ranging from low-bitrate formats that can be used over dialup modems, to high-fi ...

)
"Classic track: In the Air Tonight"
About the lyrics and the drum sound. {{DEFAULTSORT:In The Air Tonight 1981 songs 1981 debut singles Phil Collins songs 1980s ballads Number-one singles in Germany Number-one singles in New Zealand Number-one singles in Sweden Number-one singles in Switzerland Virgin Records singles Rock ballads Songs written by Phil Collins Song recordings produced by Hugh Padgham Song recordings produced by Phil Collins Atlantic Records singles Miami Vice Songs about depression Songs about death Number-one singles in Austria Breaks Urban legends Experimental pop songs