Phil Collins Hits CD

Live Recording

Personnel includes: Phil Collins (vocals, keyboards, drums, tambourine, drum programming); Philip Bailey, David Crosby, Marilyn Martin, Amy Keys, Arnold McCuller (vocals); Dominic Miller, Daryl Stuermer, Michael Thompson, Michael Landau, Ronnie Caryl, Eric Clapton (guitar); L. Shankar (violin); Eric Rigler (Uileann pipes); Greg Phillinganes (piano, Wurlitzer piano); Peter Robinson
(piano, vibraphone, glockenspiel); David Frank (keyboards, Mini-Moog synthesizer, bass, DMX); Babyface (keyboards, drum programming, background vocals); Nick Glennie-Smith, Rob Mousney, Lesette Wilson (keyboards); Nathan
East, Leland Sklar, Cornelius Mims, John Giblin, Freddie Washington (bass); Sheila E.(percussion); Peter Gabriel, Sting, Marva King (background vocals).
The Phoenix Horns: Don Myrick (saxophone); Michael Harris, Rhamlee Michael Davis (trumpet); Louis Satterfield (trombone).
The Vine Street Horns: Andrew Woolfolk (saxophone); Harry Kim, Daniel Fornero (trumpet); Arturo Velasco (trombone).
Producers include: Phil Collins, Hugh Padgham, Babyface, Lamont Dozier, Arif Mardin.
Personnel: Phil Collins (vocals, keyboards, drums, drum machine, tambourine, background vocals); David Crosby, Amy Keyes, Amy Keys, Philip Bailey, Arnold McCuller (vocals); Daryl Stuermer, Dominic Miller, Eric Clapton, Michael Hart Thompson , Michael Landau, Michael Thompson (guitar); Lakshminarayana Shankar (violin); Eric Rigler (Uilleann pipe); Don Myrick, Andrew Woolfolk (saxophone); Daniel Fornero, Harry Kim, Rahmlee Michael Davis (trumpet); Arturo Velasco, Louis Satterfield (trombone); Vine Street Horns (horns); Greg Phillinganes (piano, Wurlitzer organ); Peter Robinson (piano, vibraphone, glockenspiel); David Frank (keyboards, mini-Moog synthesizer); Babyface (keyboards, drum programming, background vocals); Lesette Wilson, Rob Mounsey, Brad Cole (keyboards); Paulinho Da Costa, Sheila E. (percussion); Lynn Fiddmont, Helen Terry, Alex Brown, Marva King, Peter Gabriel, Sting (background vocals).
Illustrator: Janfranco Caro.
Arrangers: Tom Tom 84; Harry Kim; Phil Collins.
If Hits seems a little inadequate, even though it weighs in at 16 tracks, that's because Phil Collins had such a long, productive run. Also, to casual listeners (and possibly even some fans), it's hard to tell which singles are by Genesis and which ones are solo cuts. So, it's almost a certainty that listeners will find something missing from this disc -- and not just because Genesis cuts are absent, but because there's not enough space to fit all of Collins' solo hits, especially since the compilers decided to include a couple of lesser, latter-day hits at the expense of some earlier, bigger ones, while adding his non-LP cover of Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" to entice hardcore fans. Thus, there are only 13 hits, which means some other big hits and good songs are absent -- "I Missed Again," "I Don't Care Anymore," "Don't Lose My Number," "Do You Remember?" are all MIA. A few of these omissions are quite regrettable, but in the end, Hits is nevertheless a representative and pretty entertaining collection. The sequencing is not chronological, so it doesn't develop a nice flow (although "Take Me Home" is admittedly the ideal closer), but the chief strength of this collection is that it puts all of the big hits - including "Easy Lover," "Against All Odds," "In the Air Tonight," "Sussudio," "One More Night" and "Separate Lives" -- in one place. No, it's not perfect -- and it's hard not to wish that it was -- but Hits still contains the majority of Collins' solo smashes, and that alone makes it a nice addition to his catalog. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
In the early '80s, Collins took a break from the helm of Genesis to inaugurate a solo career that abandoned his group's art-rock agenda for a mainstream pop approach. In the ensuing years, the king of Nice Guy Pop established himself as one of the world's premier top 40 balladeers, as evidenced by the wall-to-