On Thursday 15 January 1981 singer and songwriter Phil Collins made his solo Top of the Pops debut with his first solo single In The Air Tonight. Although it was still only at no. 36 in the charts, the single would subsequently make a massive leap to no. 4 the week after, and become one of the year's biggest hits around the globe.
With its unique atmospheric minimalist sound, culminating in a crashing drum attack towards the finale, the song has since become a classic in both pop and rock music and a standard of Collins' canon.
In The Air Tonight was the lead single from the album Face Value, released later in the month. Much of the album's writing, as well as some songs recorded with Genesis in 1980, were the result of Collins' divorce in 1979. The scathing lyric has often been criticised although Collins has defended his words as being expressed merely out of pure "anger" after the divorce.
The singer would continue with a successful solo career for much of the decade. Face Value and other solo albums are to be re-issued in re-mastered formats as from 2016.
NOTE: This video upload and chart countdown are from the show aired two weeks later on 29 January when Collins had reached no. 3. The performance was however first shown on the 15th January show and then repeated.
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