Phil Collins

Serious Hits Live (1990)

 

  1.Something Happened on the Way 
    to Heaven
  2.Against All Odds
  3.One More Night
  4.Who Said I Would
  5.Don't Lose My Number
  6.Do You Remember
  7.Another Day in Paradise
  8.Separate Lives
  9.In The Air Tonight
 10.You Can't Hurry Love
 11.Two Hearts
 12.Sussudio
 13.A Groovy Kind of Love
 14.Easy Lover
 15.Take Me Home

In addition to being one of the most succesful artists of the 1980's in terms of music sales, Phil Collins was also known for putting on an incredible live show. Playing in excess of 2 1/2 hours each night, there was always something new to watch and listen to while attending one of his performances. He was a singer, drummer, piano player, would spend time talking with his audience and having one heck of a good timeas well. A unique thing about Phil Collins was that he was now a superstar by himself and with Genesis, yet when he played live shows as a solo artist, he never needed to play any Genesis material. Conversely, when he toured with Genesis, there was never any call for his solo material either. Personally, I don't know any other artist that can boast that accomplishment. Performing the generous length of time he did, there was never a problem with getting all of the hit songs into the setlist - and by now he had many. This release captures just about all of the hits in a terrific live format.

Being that his portfolio was so huge, he smartly toured with individuals who were necessary to accompany the songs where needed. For example, he toured with a four piece horn section to accompany so many of the brassier songs, he had three back up singers to assist with his hit "duet" songs (that would be Separate Lives and Easy Lover), and since he needed to be in the foreground to sing most of the time, he had a drummer tour with him that had essentially the same style as he did. Many of the tunes here could be argued to be carbon copies of his studio releases, but most seem to have the energy needed for a live performance. Add the fact that he hadn't had a greatest hits record at this point and the fact that he was at his commercial peak, made this package even more attractive.

What was a nice bonus was that he released a concert video of the tour at the same time. What was so nice was that the video included the whole show which was actually twice as much material as featured here. The true lover will seek out the video if they had a choice because of that reason. Fortunately, it has also since been released on DVD. Thanks Phil!

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