I was a freshman in high school before I really became "tuned in" to the music world and began investing in my own collection. The Phil Collins song "Another Day in Paradise" won Record of the Year at the 1991 Grammy Awards, which was the first awards show I had ever watched. A couple of months later, we went on a band trip to play in a competition and afterwards we stopped at the Pueblo Mall where I purchased a cassette tape which I was excited to pop into my Walkman for the ride back home.
Of course, it's me, so it wasn't anything too fun, it was Phil's "serious" album, appropriately named ...But Seriously. I don't think I realized how incredibly successful he had been in the 1980s, from his diamond-certified, Grammy-winning album No Jacket Required to his trio of 1985 chart-toppers to the iconic 1981 song "In the Air Tonight."
...But Seriously introduced me to the world of Phil Collins. I still have that cassette I purchased nearly 30 years ago. It's a good album in its own right, regardless of his prior successes. Love him or hate him, he's one of the all-time greats. You have to love any country in which a short, middle-aged, balding British man whose album covers are just extreme close-ups of his face can become a massive pop star. Indeed, there's hope for all of us.
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