Released on 18 February 1985 "No Jacket Required" was the third solo album by English drummer and singer Phil Collins. The artist resumed his solo career and started work on a new
album. He made a conscious decision to write more uptempo and
dance-oriented songs, as much of his previous material was influenced by
matters surrounding his first divorce. The album spawned four singles "Sussudio", "One More Night", "Don't Lose My Number" & "Take Me Home".
No Jacket Required was received favourably by the majority of critics and was a huge worldwide commercial success, reaching number one in the UK for five consecutive weeks and for seven non-consecutive weeks in the US. It was the second-best-selling album of 1985 in the UK, behind Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms. All four singles were top ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with "Sussudio" and "One More Night" reaching number one. The three singles released in the UK all reached the top 20.
On pop culture, some tracks were featured on the television shows Miami Vice and Cold Case, and "The Man with the Horn" was re-written and re-recorded for the episode "Phil the Shill".
After touring commitments with Genesis and completion of work on Eric Clapton's album Behind the Sun, Collins focused his attention to his third solo album. Upon returning from his wedding honeymoon, he resumed work on the album in September 1984. He wrote and demoed the songs within five weeks using his 8-track recording setup at Old Croft, later overdubbing other elements like drums, guitars and horns on 24-track at The Townhouse studios - similar to his previous two solo albums.
Sessions for what would become No Jacket Required marked his conscious attempt to move to a more uptempo sound, as much of his previous material was influenced by his first divorce. Some of the songs emerged from Collins' improvisations with a drum machine, including "One More Night" and "Sussudio". Another song created mostly through improvisation, "Don't Lose My Number", was described by Collins as having been written mostly during the recordings for his first solo album, Face Value. Collins added that he does not fully understand the meaning of the lyrics.
Other songs were written with a more personal message. "Long Long Way to Go" is often considered one of Collins' more popular songs never to be released as a single and was at that point in his career his most political song. "Doesn't Anybody Stay Together Anymore" is another song in which Collins was making a personal message. The song was made in response to everyone around him getting a divorce, including his manager, friends and himself years before. "Take Me Home" is another song in which the meaning was originally very vague. At first listening, it appears that the song is about going home, but this is not true. Collins has stated that the song lyrics refer to a patient in a mental institution, and that it is based on the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
"We Said Hello Goodbye" appeared as a B-side to "Take Me Home" and "Don't Lose My Number" originally, and as an "extra track" on the CD release of the album. Producer Arif Mardin composed the beginning portion of the song. "The Man with the Horn" was originally recorded during sessions for Collins' second solo album Hello, I Must Be Going! in 1982. However, the song was not released until it appeared as the B-side to "Sussudio" in the UK and as the B-side to "One More Night" in the United States. Collins has said that he has "no emotional attachment" to the song.
The album is named after an incident at The Pump Room restaurant in Chicago, Illinois. Collins, entering the restaurant with former Led Zeppelin lead vocalist Robert Plant, was denied admittance because he did not meet the restaurant's dress code of "jacket required" for dinner, while Plant was allowed in. Collins was wearing a jacket and argued about it. The maître d'hôtel argued that the jacket was not "proper".
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