Phil Collins

A former child actor, Phil Collins played drums with a few London bands as a teenager, including Flaming Youth, with whom he released the critically acclaimed
Ark II. After answering an ad, Collins became the drummer for the art-rock band Genesis in 1970, when he was 19. Collins wrote, sang and played with Genesis for the next five years, while also playing with the jazz-fusion band Brand X as a side project. When lead singer Peter Gabriel left Genesis in 1975, Collins took over on vocals, and the band began to move toward commercially accessible pop music. Collins's second album as frontman,
Duke (1980), hit No. 11 on the pop charts. The following year he released his solo debut,
Face Value, which featured the single "In the Air Tonight"; it received rave reviews and quickly went to No. 1. He and Genesis followed an alternating schedule one solo album, one band album and in 1982, Collins had another hit release with
Hello, I Must Be Going, which featured "I Don't Care Anymore" and his cover of "You Can't Hurry Love." After starring in the 1988 comedy film
Buster, Collins scored another No. 1 album with 1989's
But Seriously. In 1995 Collins left Genesis to focus on his solo career full time: He put out a greatest-hits collection (
Hits, 1998) and an album of big-band covers (
Hot Night in Paris, 1999), and composed songs for Disney movies, including the Oscar-winning "You'll Be in My Heart" from the
Tarzan soundtrack.