Genesis — The Phil Collins Years

Even though Phil Collins joined Genesis in 1970, his rise to prominence within the group really took off after the departure of Peter Gabriel in 1975, from which point the magnificent Collins reshaped the group around his meaty drumming and powerhouse vocal. The monumental "Mama" is a great place to start, before investigating further via our Next Steps and Deep Cuts.

Many die-hard Genesis fans feared that the departure of Peter Gabriel would prove the band's undoing, but 1976's A Trick of the Tail showed that Phil Collins was the ideal replacement vocalist, sounding to some more like Gabriel than Gabriel himself. Judge for yourself with the title track. The album outsold all the band's previous releases, and the excellent Wind and Wuthering came next.

By 1978, with the departure of guitarist Steve Hackett, the reduction of the group to a trio, and the release of And Then There Were Three, Phil Collins-era Genesis had hit full stride, as prog influences began to wane and the super-pop that would become a solo Collins trademark began to wax. The 1978 B-side "Vancouver" is a classic, emotive Collins ballad.

After a quarter of a century as a member of Genesis, Phil Collins called it quits in 1996. These Essentials trace that time from the embers of the progressive years, through the transitional tracks that cemented the singer/drummer's rock-solid place in the super-group, and beyond to the stadium-filling anthems that went a long way to defining an era (the end of the Cold War, the changing face of mainstream rock) for thousands of Genesis aficionados. More than any other member, the dynamic Collins guaranteed the group's longevity and its induction into the halls of legend.