PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FRIDAY 16 APRIL 2010 PHIL COLLINS
Recreates favourite soul gems on ‘Going Back’
First new studio album in eight years due for release in September 2010
Phil Collins has announced the forthcoming release of ‘Going Back’, a personal labour of love project that finds the eight-time Grammy winner faithfully recreating the soul gems that played such an influential role in his musical life. Due for released in September, ‘Going Back’ represents Collins’s first new studio album in eight years.
Phil Collins’ exceptionally successful musical career spans four decades, 100 million album sales (which rises to 250 million if you include his work with Genesis), eight Grammy Awards, an Oscar and a Golden Globe. His extraordinary run of hits includes five UK number one albums; three number one singles and a further nine top ten hits.
“It shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone that I’ve finally made an album of my favourite songs,” explains Collins. “These songs – along with a couple of Dusty Springfield tracks, a Phil Spector/Ronettes tune, and one by the Impressions – make up the tapestry, the backdrop, of my teenage years. I remember it as if it was yesterday, going to the Marquee Club in London’s Soho and watching The Who, The Action, and many others, playing these songs. In turn I’d go out the next day to buy the original versions.”
The songs included on ‘Going Back’ range from the album opener, the Temptations’ Holland-Dozier-Holland-penned ‘Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue)’ to the moving album-closing title track, a Collins-arranged version of the Gerry Goffin/Carole King tune ‘Going Back’ made famous by Dusty Springfield. In between, the collection captures multiple songs by Stevie Wonder – ‘Uptight (Everything’s Alright)’, ‘Blame It On The Sun’ and ‘Never Dreamed You’d Leave In Summer’; Martha And The Vandellas – ‘(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave’, ‘In My Lonely Room’ and ‘Jimmy Mack’; and the Four Tops – ‘Standing In The Shadows Of Love’, ‘Something About You’ and ‘Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever.’
Collins says, “My idea, though, was not to bring anything ‘new’ to these already great records, but to try to recreate the sounds and feelings that I had when I first heard them. My intention was to make an ‘old’ record, not a ‘new’ record. To be able to have three of the surviving Funk Brothers play on all the tracks was unbelievable. There was one moment when they were tracking ‘Heat Wave’ that I experienced a wave of happiness and wonder that this was actually happening to me! I learned more about production skills and the wonderful songwriting of those concerned whilst making this album, than I have from anything else. To those pioneers… much love and gratitude.”
The Temptations get another shout-out with ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’, while the Goffin-King team is again represented by a second Dusty Springfield track, ‘Some Of Your Loving.’ Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions are captured on ‘Talking About My Baby’, while Phil hails the Ronettes with ‘Do I Love You?’ The album also features Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ ‘Going To A Go-Go’, the Supremes’ ‘Love Is Here’ and Kim Weston’s ‘Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While)’.
While in the past Collins has paid tribute to his roots by covering some of his favourite songs – including ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’, ‘A Groovy Kind Of Love’, ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, ‘True Colours’ and others – this marks the first time in his 30-year solo career that he has devoted an entire project to the work of other songwriters and performers.
To celebrate ‘Going Back’, Collins will play a string of very special live concerts at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom from June 22nd-25th. Billed as Up Close and Personal: Phil Collins Plays 60s Soul, the shows will be exclusively devoted to the music from ‘Going Back’ and other classics from the era.
Joining Collins on stage will be an extraordinary 18-piece ensemble of musicians and vocalists. Anchoring the group will be legendary Motown session players The Funk Brothers – bassist Bob Babbitt and guitarists Eddie Willis and Ray Monette – who are also featured on the ‘Going Back’ album. The live band will also include long-time Collins cohorts Chester Thompson (drums), Daryl Stuermer (guitar), plus Brad Cole (keyboards) and Leslie Smith (percussion). The ensemble will be completed by a five-member horn section and six backing vocalists.
On June 17th, Phil Collins will receive the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s prestigious Johnny Mercer Award at the organisation’s annual gala awards dinner in New York City. Collins, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003, will join an esteemed list of past Mercer Award winners that includes several legendary composers whose work he celebrates on ‘Going Back’, including Holland-Dozier-Holland, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder and Carole King. In addition, among this year’s inductees into the Songwriters Hall of Fame is Earth, Wind & Fire’s Philip Bailey, with whom Collins collaborated on the hit single, ‘Easy Lover.’
‘Going Back’ will be released in Australia in September.
www.philcollins.com
― Brian Keno (King Boy Pato), Friday, 16 April 2010 01:33 (fifteen years ago)