In 1981 Phil Collins, the drummer and later singer for Genesis released his first solo song, "In the Air Tonight." It is an eerie, moody song that surprised listeners with a killer drum fill three minutes in. Anyone who listened to the entire album Face Value had to know something awful was going on in Collins' life. It was a truly dark time when he was going through a divorce. But the first song was a hit, and the video was played heavily on the new channel called MTV. However, the song's longevity is a bigger story than its initial release. People just can't get enough of that drum fill. And it wasn't planned to be there.
As with the lyrics, the iconic drum passage wasn’t something Collins fussed over. The original demo had the drums dropping in without fanfare. But in the studio, Collins improvised a little flourish, as drummers often do.
“We decided to keep that take, and it happened to have that drum fill in it,” Collins said. “It’s just become what I’m known for. But it was real luck."
The song came back again and again, in the TV series Miami Vice, in other artist's songs, in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, in a memorable Cadbury ad, and oddly in an urban legend. The line that goes "Well if you told me you were drowning I would not lend a hand” led to an incredibly detailed story about a real drowning, complete with a stunning punch line. Read that story, plus the inspiration and history behind "In the Air Tonight" at Mental Floss.