Phil Collins’ opinion on Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys

Phil Collins started his musical career mainly as a drummer, achieving fame as a member of the Progressive Rock group Genesis and after the original vocalist Peter Gabriel decided to leave the group he also became their vocalist. It was a turning point for not only his career but the band’s future, changing their songwriting, becoming a little more pop oriented, they became one of the best selling bands of all time with an estimated amount of more than 100 million copies sold worldwide. Collins would also have a really successful solo career, also selling more than 100 million records on his own.

He was influenced by many different music genres when he was growing up and many American bands. One of them was, of course, The Beach Boys, but what is his opinion on them and their mastermind, Brian Wilson?

What is Phil Collins’ opinion on Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys

Like most of the artists from his era, Phil Collins was deeply influenced by the incredible music made by The Beach Boys. Especially the albums from the 60s and early 70s when Brian Wilson took the band to a different level with the composition of incredible albums like “Pet Sounds” (1966). But one of Collins’ favorite songs by the American band was “Sail On Sailor”

He praised that song in an interview with Ken Bruce in the BBC Radio show Tracks of My Years back in 2016 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

“One forgets about The Beach Boys sometimes, the amount of great songs that Brian Wilson wrote, you know. But this album ‘Holland’, that this song comes from has got a lot of good songs on it. It appeared when they were on hip, you know,” Phil Collins said.

The track was first released on their 19th studio album “Holland” in 1973. It was composed by Brian Wilson, Tandyn Almer and Van Dyke Perks with lyrics by Ray Kennedy and Jack Rieley.

“Sail On Sailor” inspired a Genesis song

The Genesis drummer and singer really likes this track and curiously, the song inspired the Genesis song “Misunderstanding”.“‘Misunderstanding‘, I’ve played this stuff to Mike and Tony at my house in Guildford. (So) I said: ‘This is what I’ve been doing, you pick whatever you want.”

“I had written ‘Misunderstanding’ kind of based on ‘Sail On, Sailor’, with a Beach Boys kind of feel. I knew Tony liked The Beach Boys and Mike (also). But that kind of ‘ding, ding, ding, ding, ding… I sailed an ocean, unsettled ocean’. That was what was kind of built on and Tony felt for it. So I said ‘Ok, fair enough’. It’s not a tremendously personal song to me. So I like it very much,” Phil Collins told John Edginton in 2014 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

The Genesis song was part of their album “Duke” (1980) but it was also released as a single. It peaked at number 1 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart and 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

It was more successful than The Beach Boys song which in 1973 peaked at number 79 on the Billboard Hot 100.