In the Air Tonight
In the Air Tonight is a song by the pop singer Phil Collins, released as a single and on his album Face Value in 1981.
In the Air Tonight was a worldwide hit and held for a week at No. 1 on the German charts and another five weeks in the Top 10 in Austria and Switzerland, the song was two weeks each to 1, in the UK it reached number 2 and in the U.S., there was room 19 and a million seller.
Words and Music
The text is intentionally vague, leading to various interpretations (see below: Trivia and legends) has given rise. Clear is basically just that the singer initially responsive to another person and stated that he had the fact (which is not known ) observed: I saw what you did.
The chorus is an equally vague feeling of the speech, to which the singer had been waiting all his life: I can feel it coming in the air tonight / I've been waiting for this moment for all my life.
Musically, the piece by surfaces chords from the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synthesizer is a simple, from a Roland drum machine - shaped base- rhythm - the CR- 78; an electric guitar makes individual inserts for a strengthening of the atmosphere, which increases by increasing use of the drums and the ever louder chorus sung at the end.
The special and often acclaimed Sound of Drums was formed in London Town House Studio by chance, because producer Hugh Padgham had accidentally turned on the reverse talkback function with an image of the mixer.
This drum sound that can be heard in similar form in Peter Gabriel on his solo album last year, was subsequently a defining characteristic of both the Genesis and Phil Collins.
Single and album version differ significantly by the fact that can be heard in the single version at the beginning of the above- mentioned drum sound.
1988 remix by Ben Liebrand has been published.
In September 2007, the song was used in a commercial for the chocolate bars Dairy Milk, in which a gorilla playing the drum fill. As a result, In the Air Tonight rose to 14th place on the UK Singles Charts.
Again, in a commercial, the song was used from November 2012. Mercedes -Benz hereby advertised for the new CLS Shooting Brake.
Trivia and legends
To the lyrics was formed a legend; The occasion was a line of text to the drowning of a person ( Well if you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand ). Accordingly Phil Collins should have seen how a man drowned in a lake, but did nothing to save him. This interpretation is also found in Eminem's Stan. Other versions say that the man did not die by accident, but was murdered. Years later commented Collins this legend in an interview with the BBC and denied this interpretation of the text. In fact, he did not know himself what the text is. According to others, discussed the song Collins's marital problems.
To a bucket of paint, which stood in a video recording of the song on the keyboard of Collins, the legend was formed, this was a jab at the painter, with the ex-wife of Collins had an affair. Collins, however, said in an interview from decorative reasons for the paint pot.
Cover versions
The song has been covered by many R & B / hip- hop artists and groups, including the a cappella band Naturally 7 also by rapper DMX, the song has been covered along with Nate Dogg, the lines " Coming In the Air Tonight " singing, and of U.S. rapper Lil 'Kim (the song was a collaboration between her and Phil Collins). Also groups of other genres 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.