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Phil Collins: “In The Air Tonight” (1981)

It’s Collins’ breakout solo single and one of his most unforgettable. It’s borne out of the anger and bitterness from his first divorce, and he’ll revisit that subject the following year with “I Don’t Care Anymore” (’82). But what’s essentially key is that breakdown barging in halfway through the song. Collins had acquired a drum machine (Roland CR-78) for the opening syncopated rhythms but then abruptly converts into his drum set in an instant. During the creation of Peter Gabriel’s “Intruder” (’81), the use of the recording studio’s Solid State Logic 4000′s reverse talk-back feature allowed Collins’ drum crash / “magic break” to come through and recording engineer Hugh Padgham re-wired the board to record through it, and thus the drum’s “gated reverb” is created, adding the single’s heaviness as it ships off.

Homegrown Trinidad Scorpion peppers.