The solo career album that Phil Collins named as his favorite

One of the most successful musicians of all time, Phil Collins first achieved fame as Genesis drummer and then as the band’s vocalist too. In parallel with Genesis he started his solo career in 1981 and became one of the best-selling musicians of all time with more than 150 million records worldwide.

During his solo career he recorded 8 studio albums that had many hits that became favorites of million of fans. In an interview with Consequence back in 2016 he revealed which record was his favorite from his career.

The solo career album that Phil Collins named as his favorite

“I’m old-school, and albums are what you did, and singles were just flagships for the album. But of course, now it’s more songs than albums. I don’t know how many people actually buy a whole album unless it’s by an artist that grew up in that era. There’s an awful lot of songs at the bottom of the CD that we could do without, you know?”

Both Sides was an album that I think was overlooked at the time. I mean, it sold millions of copies, but for some reason, I get the feeling that it was a little overlooked. And it’s one of my best albums. It’s my favorite album anyway,” Phil Collins said.

Released in 1993, “Both Sides” was Phil Collins’ fifth solo studio album and he played every instrument on the record. It had hits like: “Both Sides of the Story”, “Can’t Turn Back the Years” and “Everyday”. The record achieved commercial success at the time of its relase reaching No. 1 in the United Kingdom and No. 13 in the United States.

It has one of the songs that he likes the most to perform live

Besides being Collins’ favorite album, the record also has one of the tracks that likes the most to play live in concert. In a conversation with Australian TV Show “The Project” (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) in 2019 he revealed that the tracks “Can’t Turn Back The Years” (From “Both Sides) and “Take Me Home” (From “No Jacket Required”) are the two tunes that are his favorites to perform live.

“Is from ‘Both Sides’ (1993), which I think is my best album and that song is one of my favorite songs on that album”, Phil Collins told The Project about “Can’t Turn Back The Years”.

In an interview posted on his official Youtube channel in 2016 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), Phil Collins talked about the album, saying: “An album like ‘Both Sides’ really did fall through the cracks. I mean, it sold well. But it didn’t sell as well as the one before. I am just so proud of that record. It’s my favorite album.”

“You know, I just went upstairs and I did it all on 12 track. Some of those songs like ‘I’ve Forgotten Everything’, I played it once, twice. Then when I sang it, I just sang it. I didn’t write the words down. I just sat down in front of the speakers and I sang. To me, that’s like this comes out of you. I’m very proud of that.”

His inspiration for the album

In a video made to promote the album at the time of it’s release (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), Collins explained what was his inspiration to make the record, saying: “Ultimately, each album is a reflection of what you do at the time. This album is where I am. There is a lot of space on this album. The reason the space is there it’s because I dind’t have a lot of people coming in. There is no horn tracks, there is no R&B on this album, that’s one thing that is very different. I started writing, I dind’t know I was gonna write and all these things started without me really thinking about it.”

“So the album kind of made itself. The more I played the less I wanted anybody else involved. I mean, the songs… Now we come to the delicate part… When you are in my age you kind, you feel you’ve got life sorted out a bit, you know what’s happening. But still things happen to you and there is still bridges that won’t burn. There are still ghosts that you can’t lay to rest and the lyrics on this album, a lot of them came as the same time as the music. The more that became evident, what these songs were about, the less I wanted anybody else to help me with them. It ended up being the most enjoyable experience I ever had, really, honestly,” Phil Collins said.