Given all of his accomplishments,\u00a0Phil Collins\u00a0doesn\u2019t seem like the kind of artist who scared easily whenever he worked with other singers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was more than willing to give it a go with any musician that he felt could use some help, and even when he was embarrassing himself all the way through his Live Aid performance with Led Zeppelin, he was still willing to face the crowd with a smile on his face on every single song. But if there was someone who was totally in charge of their craft singing with him, Collins knew that he had to get his shit together a little more before he walked into the studio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Granted, it\u2019s not like everything came easy to Collins when he started making music, either. He spent years trying to make sure that every one of those Genesis albums sounded as perfect as possible, and while a lot of them did go in some strange directions, it was another matter for him trying to remember every single piece of the musical puzzle when he started to step out from behind the drum kit to sing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But even when they started having hits, Collins never wanted to be the biggest star in the world when he started out. He only put out\u00a0Face Value\u00a0<\/em>because the label thought it would be a good idea, and since all of those songs were based around how he felt about separating from his wife, Collins felt that he would be far better suited to release an album of more complex material like he played in\u00a0Brand X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then again, when you write a song that becomes as big a hit as \u2018In the Air Tonight\u2019, the label is going to be making the decisions for you more than a few times. Collins clearly had what it took to be a pop star, but when he started to work outside of Genesis, he took it as an opportunity to help out any of his inspirations that he felt had fallen by the wayside. And it\u2019s not like he didn\u2019t understand what made other artists tick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joining the members of ABBA may have been a strange decision on the surface, but he did have that same sense of musical perfection when he started working on Eric Clapton\u2019s solo material. He was there to remind people that his gods were still pumping out the best music of their career, but when it came time to sing next to R&B giants like The Four Tops, he did have second thoughts about working with the likes of Levi Stubbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n