In the Air Tonight
| In the Air Tonight | |
|---|---|
| Phil Collins | |
| publication |
 5th January 1981
|
| length | 4:57 |
| Genre (s) | Pop rock |
| Author (s) | Phil Collins |
| album | Face Value |
In the Air Tonight is a song by pop singer Phil Collins that was released as a single and on his1981album Face Value .
In the Air Tonight became a worldwide hit and stayed at number 1 in the German charts for a weekand in the top 10 for another five weeks. In Austria and Switzerland the song was two weeks each, in Great Britain it reached number 2 in the USA it only reached number 19, but over the years it has become a million seller.
Content and music
In the chorus, the singer speaks of something that is in the air on that particular evening and that he has been waiting for all his life. Every line ends with "oh lord", he is overwhelmed by it. In the first stanza he addresses a person known as "my friend" (in English with an undefined gender), of whom he must be bitterly disappointed, he expresses reproaches and rejection. Then the chorus returns to that something in the air. The second stanza recalls the beginning of the relationship, from which only pain remained. Then the refrain is repeated until the end.
The text remains deliberately vague and, supported by the initially very quiet music, creates a gloomy atmosphere. For example, the singer leaves open who is being addressed directly and what he has been waiting for all his life. However , Collins repeatedly rejected possible interpretations and approaches (see Trivia and Legends ): The text had been completely improvised by him in the studio and therefore had no deeper meaning or direct biographical references intended by him.
The music, the piece by surfaces chords from the Sequential Circuits -Prophet-5-Synthesizer on a simple, from a Roland - Drum machine - the CR-78 embossed basic rhythm generated -; an electric guitar reinforces the atmosphere with individual inserts. The text of the second stanza is overlaid by short, sharp synthesizer soundscapes. After the second verse, acoustic drums suddenly and loudly set in, to which the chorus, which is sung louder and louder, increases towards the end.
The distinctive sound of the famous drum fill-in after the second verse came about by chance in London's Townhouse Studio, because producer Hugh Padgham accidentally switched on the reverse talk-back function while recording on the mixer . This drum sound, which can be heard in a similar form on Peter Gabriel's solo album from the previous year, subsequently became a defining feature of both Genesis and Phil Collins.
The single and album versions differ considerably in that the single version already has the drum sound mentioned above.
In 1988 a remix by Ben Liebrand was released.
In September 2007, the song was used in a commercial for the Dairy Milk candy bar , in which a gorilla plays the drum fill . As a result, In the Air Tonight rose to 14th place in the UK singles chart.
The song was used again in a commercial from November 2012. Mercedes-Benz hereby advertised the new CLS Shooting Brake .
The music magazine Rolling Stone enclosed the German issue 297 (July 2019) with a remastered version legitimized by Collins as a vinyl single. On the B-side is a demo version of The Roof Is Leaking .
Trivia and Legends
The line of text Well if you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand ("Even if you told me you were drowning, I would not give you a hand") led to the formation of a legend, according to which Phil Collins continues Distance saw a man drowning in a lake, while a person standing by did not intervene. This interpretation can also be found in Eminem's Stan . However, the line is expressly formulated in the subjunctive and only gives a hypothetical example. That fits better with the interpretation that it is generally about anger and revenge.
According to other performers, the song addresses Collins' marital problems. They refer to verses like Well, you can wipe off that grin. I know where you've been. It's all been a pack of lies. ("You can hide your grin. I know where you've been. It was all a bunch of lies.") The legend arose around a paint bucket that was next to Collins' keyboard in a video recording of the song had been a swipe at the painter with whom Collins' wife had an affair. Collins, on the other hand, founded the paint pot with purely decorative aspects in an interview in 2009.
Cover versions
The song has been covered by many R&B / Hip-Hop artists and groups, including the a cappella band Naturally 7 . The rapper Tupac Shakur used the melody of the song for his song "Starin through my rearview". The song was covered by rapper DMX together with Nate Dogg , who sings the lines "Coming In the Air Tonight", and by US rapper Lil 'Kim (the song was a collaboration between her and Phil Collins).
Groups from other musical genres also published their versions of the song, such as the American nu-metal band Nonpoint and the German hard rock guitarist Axel Rudi Pell or the Finnish supergroup Northern Kings .
Awards for music sales
| Country / Region | Award | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales) |
||
 Denmark (IFPI)
|
 gold
|
45,000 |
 Germany (BVMI)
|
gold
|
250,000 |
 Italy (FIMI)
|
 platinum
|
50,000 |
 New Zealand (RMNZ)
|
platinum
|
15,000 |
 United States (RIAA)
|
Gold (Physical) +  3 × Platinum (Digital)
|
3,500,000 |
|
United Kingdom (BPI)
|
platinum
|
600,000 |
| All in all |
3 × gold 6 × platinum |
4,460,000 |
Main article: Phil Collins / Music Sales Awards
Web links
- Jochen Scheytts music pages
- Backgrounds to drowning legend (English)
- Official music video on YouTube
Individual evidence
- ↑ Phil Collins: All About 'In The Air Tonight' (interview) on YouTube
- ↑ Kanye West proves Stronger than 50 Cent in UK leg of rap album battle , article on guardian.co.uk of September 17, 2007, accessed September 22, 2007
- ^ "Time for a new form" advertising campaign for CLS Shooting Brake starts , article on mercedes-fans.de from November 12, 2012, accessed on November 23, 2012
- ^ Coleman, Ray - Phil Collins, The Definitive Biography, Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, London 1997
- ↑ In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins - Top Of The Pops. Retrieved January 8, 2020 (German).
- ↑ Phil Collins Interview 2009 (Mark Lawson) - Transcription. Retrieved January 8, 2020 .
- ^ Certificeringer. ifpi.dk, accessed on June 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Gold / platinum database. musikindustrie.de, accessed on July 22, 2018 .
- ^ Certificazioni. fimi.it, accessed on June 3, 2019 .
- ↑ NZ charts. nztop40.co.nz, accessed July 22, 2018 .
- ↑ Gold & Platinum. riaa.com, accessed July 22, 2018 .
- ↑ BPI Awards. bpi.co.uk, accessed July 22, 2018 .