The countdown concludes for the top 80’s solo artists who had been in successful 80’s bands. And now, drum roll please (provided by Phil Collins), without further ado…

1. Phil Collins – Genesis

Genesis was formed in 1967. Phil Collins joined the band in 1971 as the drummer. When the lead singer, Peter Gabriel, left the band between 1975-1977, Genesis held auditions for a new lead singer. Phil Collins had previously been a background singer, and coached prospective lead singers. Eventually the band decided to name Collins the lead singer. In 1979, Collins almost left the band due to personal issues at home with his wife. But the remaining members (Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks) decided to take a hiatus instead. Phil Collins’ marriage ended in divorce, and the band started back up. In 1980, the album Duke was released, and contained the hit singles “Misunderstanding“, and “Turn It On Again“. In 1981, Genesis had the follow up album Abacab. The singles from that album were “No Reply At All” and the title track “Abacab“.

Also in 1981, Phil Collins released his solo debut, Face Value, which consisted of material he wrote while on hiatus. It had the one of his biggest hits, “In the Air Tonight“. Then Collins had another successful solo album called Hello, I Must Be Going!, which spawned the singles “I Don’t Care Anymore” and “You Can’t Hurry Love“.
Then Genesis released another album called Genesis. It had the hits “Mama“, “That’s All“, and “Illegal Alien“.

In 1984, Phil Collins released a song for the movie Against All Odds, called “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)“. He also produced an album for Philip Bailey called Chinese Wall, and performed a duet with Bailey on it called “Easy Lover“.

In 1985, Phil Collins released his most successful solo album, No Jacket Required. It contained the hits “Sussudio“, “One More Night“, “Don’t Lose My Number“, and “Take Me Home“, as well as smaller hits “Who Said I Would“, and “Only You Know and I Know“.

In 1986, Genesis released their most successful album, Invisible Touch. The following were hits from that album:
“Invisible Touch”
“Tonight, Tonight, Tonight”
“Land of Confusion”
“In Too Deep”
“Throwing It All Away”

The band then went on hiatus for 5 years. In the meantime, Phil Collins continued his solo career.
In 1988, he starred in the movie Buster. He had 2 hits from the movie – “Two Hearts” and “A Groovy Kind of Love“.
In 1989, Collins released another very successful album – …But Seriously. “Another Day in Paradise” went to Number 1 on the Billboard Charts at the end of 1989 and Collins won a Grammy for Record of the Year for the song. Interesting note – it became the last #1 U.S. pop hit of the 1980s. Other songs included “Something Happened on the Way to Heaven” (#4 U.S., #15 UK), “Do You Remember?” (#4 U.S.), and “I Wish It Would Rain Down” (#3 U.S., #7 UK).