SONG OF THE DAY

“That’s All” by Genesis (Genesis, Atlantic/ Virgin/ Vertigo, 1983). Written by Phil Collins, Tony Banks, and Mike Rutherford.

MY TAKE

I’m hilarious. I blog about Nat King Cole’s song “That’s All” yesterday, and then I blog about a Genesis song by the same name today. Oh, hahahahaha! Truth? I love both songs, I am not just doing this to be funny. This song is one of their best too, especially to sing-a-long to. The vocal melody has such an awesome crescendo —the lyrics get angrier, and then it does that awesome 180 degree dip into the “truth is I love you more than I wanted to,/ There’s no point in trying to pretend” section, and then slamming keyboards and anger again. Great transitions, have-to-sing-a-long-to vocals, pumping keyboard beat. Killer.

INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)

– The U.S. single, which went to #6 in early 1984 (making it their first U.S. top-10 hit), included “Second Home by the Sea” as the B-side.

– The UK single featured “Taking It All Too Hard” as the flipside, and went to #16.

– The song begins with Tony Banks playing the main riff of the song on a Yamaha CP-70 Electric Grand Piano. The other keyboards used on this song are a Sequential Circuits Prophet-10 for organ pads and a Synclavier II for theorgan solo in the middle section. The coda lapses into a somewhat dischordant guitar solo played by Mike Rutherford, as the drum beat intensifies, before the song fades away.

– The video depicts the band as homeless men playing cards and keeping warm at an open fire.

– The song was played live during the Mama, Invisible Touch, The Way We Walk, and Calling All Stations (with Ray Wilson on vocals) Tours. The song was played only during the first few shows of the Calling All Stations tour, before it was completely dropped.

– A live version appears on their albums The Way We Walk, Volume One: The Shorts, and their DVD Genesis Live at Wembley Stadium.

– Canadian country music group, Doc Walker, covered the song on their 2008 album Beautiful Life. It was released as the second single from the project and peaked at #68 on the Canadian Hot 100.