Phil Collins wrote the best unrequited love songs

I do like Against all odds but there are better songs.
“Missing” by Everything but the Girl - such evocative lyrics - one of my all time favourite songs.
I also love “Incomplete” by the Back Street Boys.
Oh and “Please don’t leave me” by Pink.

Wow that's really funny that that's your take on them. I was about ten till early teens when they climbed to their peak so in my smash hits obsessed world they were Gods! between 83 and 85 along with Wham and Duran Duran. Then I moved on to U2! I still love that Martin and Shirley are still happily married! I love The Pet Shop Boys too. I remember Neil Tennant announcing he was leaving his job at Smash Hits to be in his band full time and then Voila West End Girls - that song still gives me goosebumps and Being Boring.

I knew someone at university who did the flowers in the back pocket -- I'd forgotten! He used to get them from people's gardens.

Tbh some of the things you just listed were quite appealing to me back in the day and I quite fancied Morrissey in my teens, but I was an idealistic and quirky teen and have always been a bit strange (so everyone tells me) 😄

Not as strange though as a classmate of mine, who worshipped Morrissey and actually modelled her (yes, I said her) look on him! She skipped the hearing aid and the flowers in the back pocket though, I think school would have taken a dim view. 😆

Depressing (to me, anyway) how his political views have done a 180 in later life.

Agree and also its not meaningful to compare him to current music stars: the rules of engagement are completely different today.

He used the media of the day to his advantage, stars of today use TikTok or another platform as appropriate. A huge star in the 80s had the full weight of the publicity machine of giant record labels behind them and multi year album deals etc. Nowadays they would kill for that sort of financial commitment.

I don't see how you can say he's underrated. He was in one of the biggest prog rock bands of all time, his solo career was phenomenal, he acted, collaborated with loads of equally massive singers, wrote film scores, the lot. People have such short memories.

When it comes to Morrissey it doesn't take too much imagination to see why he might have had a lot of experience of unrequited love.

^AIBU not to get involved with this guy who seems to have a bit of a thing for me? He has a great singing voice, he's the lead singer in a band, he writes the lyrics, they seem to be doing well, but he's also a militant vegan and animal rights activist, a lapsed Catholic who doesn't seem to have got over it, says he's mostly celibate and describes himself as humasexual, hates the Royal Family and anything else 'posh' in a really quite vitriolic way even though he's minted himself, says incredibly outrageous stuff - just doesn't seem to have a filter ...'

More red flags than a school summer fair!

I'm sure the media did over-egg this and I'm sure they were unfair to him, they're not known of their kindness and tolerance towards fallen stars.

I just found his "I'm a normal bloke, me" shtick really annoying, with the Thatcherite overlay and a smugness. He was sort of like the music industry's Ian Beale. (Yes I'm massively projecting 😀)

And I thought his music was massively overrated. He had maybe two quality songs: Against All Odds and In the Air Tonight. The rest was motorway service station shop soundtrack music.

Adding Something Happened on the Way to Heaven and I Wish it Would Rain Down to the list.
It's nit (just) the lyrics, it's the emotion he spits them out with as well-

You can run and you can hide
But I'm not leaving 'til it's all over
We've had our problems, but I'm on your side
You're all I need, please, believe in me

Though your hurt is gone
Mine's hangin' on inside, and I know
Well, it's eating me through, it's eating me through every night and day

Sususudio was a banger!
Sorry, have moved on from the love songs
Also will never forget how he played at Live Aid in Wembley, then Concorded it over the pond to Live Aid US the same day. ( Environmental concerns aside).

He’s amazing. Had a teacher recommend I listen to You Can’t Hurry Love when I was 13, can’t remember the context behind the recommendation but I’ve been into him ever since.

You can pull up the version of Against all odds recorded live at live aid in 1985 (for those old enough!!) I love that version and many of Phil’s songs . Not sure I’d consider it moving or emotional. Just evokes memory…

Had. It stopped being has some 20 yrs ago which is why he retired

When I was pregnant with my first child I played that on repeat. It took me seven years to get pregnant then we almost lost the baby several times. “You’ll be in my heart” got me through

What about the incredible Tarzan soundtrack 😍

Love him and most of his songs.

Carless whisper was my first break up song at 16 …. I remember crying my eyes out on my bed, playing it repeatedly on my record player 🤣

Has anyone mentioned In The Air Tonight and Mama? I prefer angry Phil to sad Phil.

That and his support for Thatcher and his fax machine divorce antics!

Unfortunately "American Psycho" has tainted Phil Collins songs for me. 😂😂😂

Against All Odds is genuinely heart rending, an incredible ballad. Still stops me in my tracks.

I hate everything else he’s done. In Too Deep makes me cringe. I hate his voice and I hate his professional bloke schtick.

I think he just got lucky with that song.

My ex sent me phil collins songs when we split up. He cheated and knew he made a massive mistake. Poor sod

😁😆
Ah, Phil Collins: a punchline that never gets old...

Oops. Didn't quote, so reposted.