In the Air Tonight

"In the Air Tonight"
Song

"In the Air Tonight" is a song by Phil Collins which first appeared on his 1981 album, Face Value. It was the first single of Collins' solo career, and remains one of his best known hits.

The song/recording

The recording is notable for its atmospheric production and macabre theme. Released in January 1981 in the UK, the single was an instant hit, quickly climbing to #2 on the singles chart. It was also an international hit, reaching the top 20 on the Billboard magazine pop singles chart in the summer of 1981.

"In the Air Tonight" remains, alone among Collins' solo oeuvre, a popular selection on many classic rock radio stations. It is the song most often associated with Collins' solo career, and he has performed versions of it at many events, notably at Live Aid, where he played the song on the same calendar day in both Philadelphia and London. He also performed the song at The Secret Policeman's Other Ball.

The lyrics of the song take the form of a dark monologue directed towards an unnamed, possibly prominent person; the singer describes having witnessed an unspecified act perpetrated:

I was there and I saw what you did

saw it with my own two eyes

and anticipating an equally unspecified consequence:

I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord

I've been waiting for this moment for all my life ^[1]

Musically the song consists of a series of ominous chords played over a simple drum machine pattern (the Roland CR-78 Disco-2 pattern, plus some programming); processed electric guitar sounds and vocoded vocals on key words add additional atmosphere. The mood is one of restrained anger until the final chorus when an explosive burst of drums releases the musical tension, and the instrumentation builds to a thundering final chorus.

Collins wrote the song in the wake of a failing relationship with his then-wife. Collins has described obtaining the drum machine specifically to deal with these personal issues through songwriting, telling Mix magazine: "I had to start writing some of this music that was inside me."

The song's popularity in the 1980s increased after a nearly complete recording of it was featured in the pilot episode of the American television show Miami Vice ("Brother's Keeper"), thus becoming one of the first pop/rock songs to be featured as part of a TV program in this manner. On the heels of this successful merging of media, Collins became associated with the show; other Collins tracks including "Take Me Home" were later featured and Collins himself also acted in an episode, "Phil The Shill".

The song was remixed in 1988 by Ben Liebrand 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. This mix was picked up by Virgin records for an official release, which hit #4 in the UK charts.

Drum sound

"Musically, it's an extraordinarily striking record, because almost nothing happens in it ... It's the drum sound in particular that's amazing. 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" - Stuart Maconie

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

In this case, the Solid State Logic 4000 mixing board had a "reverse talk-back" circuit (labeled 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 completely sonically isolated otherwise). Reverse talkback is a circuit (also button-activated) for the engineer to listen to 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 minimizes the differences between loud and soft sounds. While recording "Intruder" for his ex-bandmate Peter Gabriel's solo album, at some point Collins started playing the drums while the reverse talkback was activated. The engineers and his friend Jeffrey were 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 Hugh 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. Hugh 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 appears. These were added at the suggestion of Atlantic Records head Ahmet Ertegun. In the 2007 book about Genesis, "Chapter And Verse," Collins says: "Ahmet came down to the final mix in the cutting room in New York....We were playing back "In The Air Tonight." The drums don't come in until the end but Ahmet didn't know that at this point, because on the demo the drums hadn't come in at all; it was only drum machine all the way. And he was saying, 'Where's the down beat, where's the backbeat?' I said, 'The drums come in in a minute.' 'Yeah, you know that and I know that, but the kids don't know that; you've got to put the drums on earlier.' So we added some drums to the mix and put it out as a single."

Urban legend

An urban legend has arisen around "In the Air Tonight". According to the legend, the lyrics are based on a tragic event Collins witnessed, usually a drowning (as in the song's lyrics), in which a man could have helped the victim, but did not do so (an alternate version of the legend has the onlooker a murderer, intentionally drowning the victim, rather than an apathetic bystander). A common ending is that Collins invites this man to a show and sings the song to him, often with a spotlight pointed at him. Afterward, the man is arrested or, in some versions, is wracked with guilt and has a heart attack or commits suicide. Other versions of the story involve Collins discovering his wife having sex with (or being raped by) another man, often a close friend; the man subsequently drowns while Collins himself watches.

Years later, Collins commented on the legends about the song in a BBC World Service interview:

I don't know what this song is about. When I was writing this I was going through a divorce. And the only thing I can say about it is that it's obviously in anger. It's the angry side, or the bitter side of a separation. So what makes it even more comical is when I hear these stories which started many years ago, particularly in America, of someone come up to me and say, 'Did you really see someone drowning?' I said, 'No, wrong'. And then every time I go back to America the story gets Chinese whispers, it gets more and more elaborate. It's so frustrating, 'cos this is one song out of all the songs probably that I've ever written that I really don't know what it's about, you know.

The urban legend is referenced in the song "Stan" by Eminem. The reference is contained in the following lyrics:

You know the song by Phil Collins, "In the Air of the Night" [sic]

About that guy who coulda saved that other guy from drowning

But didn't, then Phil saw it all, then at a show he found him?

Collins later stated on VH1 Classic's "Classic Albums" series that he came up with "99 percent" of the lyrics on the spot, based on what he felt the vibe was of the dark chords he had improvised over the ominous drum beat. He was "just messing around for fun", completely unaware that what he was creating would ultimately be the staple song from his next album.

Use in advertising

The song has been licensed repeatedly for use in television advertisements for various products; in several cases these uses led to a measurable resurgence in popularity for the song.

The song would gain additional life in the mid-to-late 1980s when the brewer Anheuser-Busch adopted it for an ad campaign promoting Michelob beer, along with night-related songs by Collins' peers Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton.

In 2006, it was used by Mountain Dew in television commercials for its MDX energy drink.

Cadbury Schweppes used the song in their 2007 Gorilla advertising campaign for its Dairy Milk chocolate bar. The commercial features a gorilla playing the piece's famous drum sequence. After its premier week in September, the song reached number 14 in the UK singles chart and number 9 in the UK Download Chart. The advertisement also helped the song re-enter the New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart at number three in July 2008 and went to number one the following week staying there for two weeks, beating its original 1981 #6 peak. The single was also certified Gold with sales of over 7,500. . This commercial was parodied in the 2007 Hogmany episode of the BBC Scotland football comedy, Only An Excuse, with a similar gorilla against an identical purple wall, this time with the drum-kit replaced with a bass-drum as used by Loyalist flute bands, and the tune quickly changing from In the Air Tonight to The Sash My Father Wore.

Use in sport

Since the song's release, "In The Air Tonight" has been the most played song on PA systems of NFL Stadiums, and has become almost a tradition to some players. Some players, most notably all pro linebackers Derrick Brooks and Ray Lewis, even sing the song while in a play. The song's popularity among NFL players was the subject of an NFL Films piece on ESPN.

The song has been used as entrance music for a number of players and teams of various sports, including the University of Miami football team, NBA team the Miami Heat, and boxer Jermain Taylor. Pro basketball player Kevin Garnett is often seen mimicking the drum solo in timeouts and refers to it as "one of his favorite songs", and it is also used during pre-game introductions at Boston Celtics games. The song has also been used during the 2008 Montreal Canadiens playoff games, before the players come out on the ice.

Before and through the 2005 NFL season, ESPN's Sunday Night Football used the song when introducing their "skycam" camera.

Sampling of the song

• The song has been sampled by many artists, including Shaquille O'Neal in his song "Edge Of Night", Nas in his song "One Mic", Tupac Shakur's "Starin' Through My Rearview" and "Letter to the President", DMX's "I Can Feel It", Krayzie Bone's "Silent Warrior", Joe Budden's "Rest in Peace (In the Air)", Sean Kingston's "I Can Feel It", Young Buck's "New York City" and LL Cool J's "Doin' It", Lil Kim's "In the Air Tonight", Naturally 7's "Feel it".

Other pop culture references

• The song appears on the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories soundtrack. It is also the title of a mission, which revolves around protecting Phil Collins as he sings, which unlocks a CGI cutscene of a Phil Collins concert where the song is played in full. Collins also provides additional dialogue.
• In the Family Guy episode "Petergeist", Stewie is caught in an alternate universe in which he can speak through the TV to his mother, Lois, but only in an echoing voice. He sings a few lyrics of "In the Air Tonight", mimicking the song's famous echoing voice and drum solo transition.
• The melody of the song persists throughout the film Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters. It is also referenced multiple times in the dialogue.
• The song is quoted in an epigraph to the second book of Stephen King's novel The Tommyknockers, and is later recalled by the lead character.
• The song plays during the train love scene in the 1983 movie Risky Business.
• The song is used in the movie Big Trouble when a drunk security guard played by Andy Richter stalks a group of teens he finds suspicious. (In the novel on which the movie is based, the song plays in the security guard's mind as he does this.)
• The song is used at the end of the first season finale episode of Tru Calling - "Two Weddings and a Funeral".
• Pop culture website retroCRUSH named the drum break in the song to be the Coolest Song Moment of All Time." [2]"
• The song plays in an episode of "Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights" when Max & Paddy are following a man they have been hired to kill, when Max shouts "Put me tape in!" The scene is a homage to the pilot episode of Miami Vice, only instead of Sonny Crockett's Ferrari Daytona Spyder but instead a more comically aesthetic Volvo estate.
• The song is mentioned on Jay-Z's remix of "A Milli" (titled "A Billi"). He raps "Call me Philly Collins, I feel a villain is in the air".
• The song appears on the game Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore.

Single and credits

UK and US single

1. "In the Air Tonight" 5:36
   • Phil Collins: Roland CR-78, vocals, drums, Prophet, Rhodes, Vocoder
   • John Giblin: Bass
   • Daryl Stuermer: Guitar
   • Shorokav: Violins
2. "The Roof Is Leaking" 3:36
   • Phil Collins: Piano, Vocal
   • Daryl Stuermer: Banjo
   • Joe Partridge: Slide Guitar

• A demo track for "In the Air Tonight" also appeared on the "If Leaving Me Is Easy" single. ^[3]

Japan CD single (1988)

1. "In the Air Tonight (Extended)"
2. "In the Air Tonight ('88 Remix)"
3. "I Missed Again (Album Version)"

Videos

• Video of Collins singing "In the Air Tonight" on his "First Final Farewell tour" (Courtesy of Rootv.com):
  • Video (56K) (Windows Media Player)
  • Video (300K) (Windows Media Player)

Charts

Chart (2008)	Position [4]
New Zealand RIANZ Chart	1

In The Air Tonight (2001 Re-release)

"In the Air Tonight"
Song

In 2001 the remix-version "In the Air Tonight" was re-released to promote the R&B/Hip Hop Collins tribute album Urban Renewal, the song is a duet between Collins and Lil' Kim. They didn't work together for the video; scenes from the original video and new scenes featuring Lil' Kim were used to create a video.

Track listing

U.K. CD single

1. Boogieman Radio Version
2. Startargate Remix
3. Mintman's Floorfiller Mix
4. Boogieman's Album Version
5. True Business Remix

German CD single

1. Soulforce Club Mix
2. Soulforce Sunshine Mix
3. Soulforce Monster Dub

Charts

Chart (2001)	Position [5]
UK Singles Chart	26
Swiss Singles Chart	11
Belgian Singles Chart	7
Canadian Single Chart	19
Swedish Single Chart	27
German Single Chart	3
Austrian Single Chart	8
Dutch Single Chart	30

Other versions

• Rapper Cuban Link along with fellow former Terror Squad members, Remy Ma and Triple Seis, reinterpreted the song in the track "Moment of Truth" as a diss track towards Fat Joe.
• Flatulist Mr. Methane recorded a version of the song with additional fart noises and alternate lyrics (describing the abdominal effects of eating hot curry)
• A version of this song is on the Gregorian album Masters of Chant Chapter II.
• Welsh rock band Lostprophets did a cover version.
• Austrian band Stahlhammer covered the song in their 2006 album Opera Noir.
• A remake of the song appears on the Nonpoint album "Recoil".
• The Nonpoint cover was featured as the theme song of the 2006 feature film Miami Vice.
• R&B group Naturally 7 performed the song on their 2006 album Ready II Fly. Their version, entitled "Feel It (In The Air Tonight)", has additional lyrics.
• Axel Rudi Pell covered the song for his solo CD, Diamonds Unlocked, released on October 1, 2007.
• Finnish symphonic metal band Northern Kings (an "All-Star" band consisting of four already well known musicians: Jarkko Ahola from Teräsbetoni, Marco Hietala from Nightwish and Tarot, Tony Kakko from Sonata Arctica and Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto from Charon.) covered the song on their first album Reborn in 2007.
• Imzadi, a Tulsa, Oklahoma rock/dance band did a cover version.
• Noise Rock band godheadSilo also covered the song on their album Share the Fantasy.
• The All American Rejects are currently performing a cover of it on their latest tour.
• The African group Toure Kunda recorded a cover version of the song, and it was featured on the 2003 compilation CD, "Cover The World," on the Putumayo World Music label.
• It was covered by Rocksolid on their Rock Anthems album in 2002.
• Scottish techno band Ultra-Sonic covered the song in a chilled/ambient style on their 1995 album "Global Tekno".
• Canadian singer Holly McNarland did a cover version.

Live cover performances, appearances in other media, etc.

• Maroon 5 has played part of the song on their most recent tour[6] after the drum solo they go into the beginning of their song "Shiver".
• Full Blown Rose sang the song for Tru Calling's season one finale.
• Ryan Star played the song during the 9th week in the 'Rock Star Supernova'. His performance was voted as the 'Encore Performance'.
• Lady Antebellum covered the song as their encore at their 2008 fan club party at the CMA Music Festival.
• In the Family Guy episode Petergeist, Stewie Griffin sings a part of the song when he is trapped in the TV.
• MercyMe covered this song in 2004 on the "Imagine Tour". They opened their set with this song and can be seen on their live DVD: "MercyMe- Live"

Sources

1. ^ philcollins.co.uk Chart Position source
2. ^ "In the Air Tonight" from Urban Legends Reference Pages
3. ^ tv.com "Miami Vice" episode reference source
4. ^ tv.com "Roswell" episode reference source
5. ^ philcollins.co.uk Singles Source
6. ^ tv.com "Tru Calling" episode reference source

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)
• "Classic track: In the Air Tonight" About the lyrics and the drum sound.
• Snopes.com, reference to the urban legend of the drowning
• aglassandahalffullproductions.com, Cadbury advert featuring the song.