After two successful solo albums, Face Value and Hello, I Must Be Going, Genesis frontman Phil Collins saw his solo career skyrocket thanks to the release of his third solo record, No Jacket Required, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary on Saturday.
The 1985 release saw Collins embracing a more up-tempo sound, which proved to be wildly popular with fans. The album hit #1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart, where it spent seven weeks. It also went to #1 in several other countries, including the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
No Jacket Required, which featured guest appearances by Sting and Collins’ former Genesis bandmate Peter Gabriel on background vocals, contained four top-10 hits: the #1 singles “Sussudio” and “One More Night,” as well as “Don’t Lose My Number,” which peaked at #4, and “Take Me Home,” which peaked at #7.
Collins has said the album’s title was inspired by an evening out in Chicago with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, where he was denied admittance to a restaurant because it had a “jacket required” dress code.
No Jacket Required went on to become one of the bestselling records of all time and in 2001 was certified Diamond by the RIAA for selling 12 million copies in the U.S. It also won several accolades, including three Grammys, one for album of the year.
And while fans may have loved the album, it seems Collins grew to like it less and less. In fact, in a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone he claimed it was his least favorite record, sharing, “At the time, I wasn’t being me.”
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