The story behind 'In the Air Tonight' and its famous drum fill
One of the most famous drum fills ever, plus the myth Phil Collins keeps swatting down.
Phil Collins's 1981 debut solo single is built around one of the most famous drum breaks in pop — a gated-reverb tom fill that crashes in near the end. The song also spawned a stubborn urban legend that Collins wrote it after watching someone let a man drown; he has patiently debunked that story for decades.