4 Songs You May Not Know Phil Collins Wrote

Phil Collins may be best known for his 1981 megahit “In the Air Tonight” and for writing the iconic soundtrack to Disney’s Tarzan. The musician’s vast discography includes many other hits, from “Against All Odds” to “Another Day in Paradise.” The Genesis vocalist and drummer also occasionally wrote songs for—or more commonly, with—other artists. Here are four tunes that you may not know this legendary musician penned.

1. “Hero” // David Crosby
2. “Loco in Acapulco” // The Four Tops
3. “Everything That I Am” // Alex Rutherford, Josh Strickland, and Merle Dandridge 
4. “Easy Lover” // Phil Collins and Phil Bailey

“Hero” // David Crosby

Collins co-wrote this song with David Crosby of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and it appeared on Crosby’s final studio album, Thousand Roads, which was released in 1993. Collins also provided vocals and played the drums on this track. 

The duo shared a close friendship ever since they met at an Atlantic Records party in the 1980s. In 1994, Collins paid for Crosby’s liver transplant. The two consistently praised each other over the years and collaborated a number of times, but “Hero” is their best-known joint effort.

“Loco in Acapulco” // The Four Tops

Collins co-wrote a number of songs for the 1988 film Buster, which he also starred in alongside Julie Walters. These songs included “Two Hearts,” a song he wrote with Motown star Lamont Dozier that became a huge hit.

He and Dozier also wrote another, slightly lesser-known song for the film: “Loco in Acapulco,” which was recorded by the band The Four Tops. The song recounts a wild adventure in the Mexican city of Acapulco, and Collins also lent his drumming skills to it.

“Everything That I Am” // Alex Rutherford, Josh Strickland, and Merle Dandridge 

Collins famously wrote and performed many of the songs on the soundtrack to the 1999 Disney movie Tarzan, which included the Academy Award-winning track “You’ll Be In My Heart.” Slightly lesser-known is the fact that Collins wrote nine additional songs for the Broadway musical. One of these songs was “Everything That I Am,” which describes Tarzan’s existential crisis as he tries to determine his next steps in life.

“Easy Lover” // Phil Collins and Phil Bailey

Collins co-wrote this song with Earth, Wind, and Fire frontman Philip Bailey. Bassist Nathan East also contributed to the song, and recalled how it came about in an interview with AllMusic. 

“After two weeks of recording, we had the album Chinese Wall, and there were some really great songs, some were a little bit esoteric, but very cool songs, and Philip one day in the studio said, ‘Man, we still don’t have that undeniable single that the record label would instantly pick, and that’s what we need,’ so literally I just went over to the piano and started fooling around with the riff and surprisingly, in about 20 minutes, came up with this song that almost wrote itself,” East said.

“I was playing the main riff on the piano, and Phil Bailey started singing the verse that he sings, and we’re fooling around with some chords and Phil Collins starts chiming in with these melodies, and we said, ‘Man, let’s put this thing down.’” The rest, of course, was musical histo

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