In both his solo career and fronting Genesis, Phil Collins dominated the 1980s. His many ballads crowded the radio, his rounded face loomed from record shop shelves; And everywhere, The Academy Awards, Band Aid, Live Aid, Miami Vice, Phil Collins was there. However it was a monkey's paw kind of deal, he became ubiquitous but at the same time became the punchline to every joke. He sold as many records as U2 or Bruce Springsteen, but the initial jolt toward a solo career was when his whole world fell apart. It was the break-up that spawned that seminal drum fill, the sound of the 80s and the odd persistent urban legend.