Phil Collins presents the first taste of his eagerly anticipated new soul album project ‘Going Back’ with the September 6th release of the single ‘(Love Is Like A) Heatwave’. The album follows on September 13th.
Penned by the legendary Motown songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland and originally a hit for Martha and the Vandellas, ‘(Love Is Like A) Heatwave’ sees Phil Collins faithfully recreating one of his all time favourite classic soul gems. The track also features a tangible link to the past courtesy of performances from three members of legendary Motown session players The Funk Brothers – bassist Bob Babbitt and guitarists Eddie Willis and Ray Monette.
“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,” say Collins. “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 ‘(Love Is Like A) Heatwave’ that I experienced a wave of happiness and wonder that this was actually happening to me!”
The songs included on ‘Going Back’ range from the album opener, the Temptations’ ‘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 songs by Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions, The Ronettes, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Supremes and Kim Weston.
Phil Collins launched ‘Going Back’ with a series of select shows. After four intimate dates at New York’s Roseland Ballroom, he also performed a special date at the Montreux Jazz Festival. The first chance for British fans to see performances of the new material comes with a primetime ITV special live show that will be televised on September 11th.
Phil Collins’ exceptionally successful musical career spans four decades, 100 million album sales (which rises to 250 million if you count 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.
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