The drummer and singer Phil Collins is one of the few artists who were able to sell more than 100 million records worldwide both as a member of a band, which was Genesis, and as a solo act. He first joined the Progressive Rock group in 1970 and five years later, when Peter Gabriel left, he also became their vocalist.
In 1981, after four albums as the lead vocalist of Genesis, he decided to release his first solo album “Face Value”, which was the start of a career that would make him a pop star all over the world. Although he made many praised solo albums, there was one that he didn’t like that much. He once revealed which is the solo album that is one of his least favorites.
The album that Phil Collins said was one of his least favorite ones
Curiously, his solo career album which is his least favorite is the best-selling one: “No Jacket Required” released in 1985. He said that in an interview with Rolling Stone back in 2016. “Why do you have to bring me down by asking about this one? It’s from one of my least-favorite records, No Jacket Required. I wanted to work with different people at the time, people that could do things I wasn’t capable of doing.”
“So I got a hold of Dave Frank (from the New York synth-pop duo the System). I said, “Do you fancy having a go at this?” (So) he programmed the whole song. There’s a killer horn section,” Phil Collins said.
Produced by Collins himself and Hugh Padgham, “No Jacket Required” had many of Collins’ most famous songs. Some of them are “Sussudio”, “One More Night” and “Take Me Home”. It had two special guests: Sting and Peter Gabriel as backing vocalists in some tracks.
The album peaked at number one on the charts of several countries. Including the United Kingdom and the United States. It sold an estimated amount of more than 25 million copies worldwide. It is 12 million more than “But Seriously” (1989), which is his second best-selling solo record.
He doesn’t agree that “No Jacket Required” as the greatest moment of his solo career
Although “No Jacket Required” is his best-selling album, something that many musicians would agree it was the best moment of their careers, Collins doesn’t think like that. As he told UK Music Reviews in 2017, he said that the most wonderful moment of his career was playing with Eric Clapton.
“There have been lots of wonderful moments. I always say that playing with Eric Clapton in his band was for me one of the highlights of my career. Playing with great musicians in the four piece that we had in the late 80s was great musically. But most people would say ‘surely it was No Jacket Required’ or ‘surely it must have been Face Value’. So as you can see, on any given day I reserve the right to feel slightly different about it,” Phil Collins said.
Phil Collins released eight studio solo albums, the most recent one being “Going Back” released in 2010. He sold an estimated amount of more than 150 million records worldwide as a solo act.
The meaning of the name album name “No Jacket Required”
In an interview to promote “No Jacket Required” in 1985, Phil Collins explained the meaning of the title. He said that it was actually about not being able to enter hotel restaurants back in the 80s. “It counts in years of spending vast sums of money in hotels for very nice rooms, mind you. Last sums of money and not being considered adequate enough, fully dressed enough to go and eat in the restaurant or the bar.”
“Because quite often you go spending 200 dollars at night for a room in New York. They’re glad to take your money but they weren’t that you can’t have a drink in the bar unless you’ve got the correct jacket. I mean, I could walk in, in a jacket like this and get a drink. If I went into the bar with a sort of 400 pound leather jacket I would not get a looking at all. It’s happened to Robert Plant too a couple of times. It’s happened all over the world a lot of times. So get it straight hotel managers!” Phil Collins said.