The AT40 Blog/June 30, 1984 ... Family vs. Ghosts

They were sitting there right next to one another on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 30, 1984. The fact that they were both riding high on the charts made their battle up the Hot 100 all summer one to remember.

These two songs were the highest of five Top 40 debuts that week, one of those debuts being the Top 10 Peabo Bryson smash "If Ever You're In My Arms Again." Van Halen debuted at No. 39 with the third hit from their monster album "1984" called "Panama" and Eddy Grant had the title song from the new Michael Douglas-Kathleen Turner movie "Romancing The Stone."

But there was no doubt what the two alpha male debuts that week were. One was by a legendary former Motown act. The other was by a man who worked at one time for Motown legend Stevie Wonder.

 First at No. 30 coming in was the highest debut on the entire Billboard Hot 100. It was a comeback single and first chart single in three years for brothers Randy, Marlon, Jackie, Tito and white-hot superstar Michael. Yup, the Jacksons made an incredible debut in the Top 40 with the first single from the new album/cassette called "Victory." The song, "State Of Shock," was co-written by Michael and guitarist Randy Hansen. It was originally tabbed to be a duet between Michael and Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury, but the project got scrapped. And obsessed with how Jackson and his smash album "Thriller" was doing, Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger wanted to be a part of some new Jackson project. Somehow, it was arranged for Jagger to join Jackson and his brothers for the famous uncredited duet.

And there was a lot of media hype surrounding what would be the triumphant "Victory" tour featuring all six of the Jackson brothers (Jermaine included). The tour had just made its debut that week in Kansas City.

While the Jacksons were off and running with the first single from their new album/cassette, the highest Top 40 debut of the week was just above it at No. 29. It was from a new movie directed by Ivan Reitman and written by and co-starred Harold Ramis about three scientists who have developed equipment to stop ghosts from invading in New York City. And the producers had contacted Ray Parker Jr., reportedly, after Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham, who had composed and recorded "Holiday Road" for the National Lampoon's "Vacation" soundtrack, turned them down, reportedly saying he didn't want to be a "soundtrack artist." So Parker, coming off the success of the 1982 Top 10 solo debut "The Other Woman" and the Top 15 hit earlier in '84, "I Still Can't Get Over Loving You," scratched out the song "Ghostbusters," the movie's title track, and both produced and recorded it. And immediately, radio program directors and DJs fell in love with the song. It debuted on the Hot 100 at No. 68 on June 16, went to No. 47, then got to No. 29 by June 30.

So the summer battle was set to see who would eventually replace Prince's "When Doves Cry" at the top of the chart. The next week, July 7, "Ghostbusters" jumped 10 places from No. 29 to No. 19, while "State Of Shock" moved up nine places from No. 30 to No. 21. The next week, "Ghostbusters" crashed the Top 10 party, going from No. 19 to No. 8, while "State Of Shock" leaped from No. 21 to No. 15. Then on July 21, "State Of Shock" made a huge leap from No. 15 to No. 6, while "Ghostbusters" entered the Top 5, jumping from No. 8 to No. 3. On July 28, "Ghostbusters" moved up one notch to No. 2, while "State Of Shock" jumped two places to No. 4.

The intrigue grew the week of August 4 when "Ghostbusters" was stuck at No. 2 behind "When Doves Cry," holding in its fifth week at No. 1, while "State Of Shock" moved in right behind "Ghostbusters" again at No. 3. Could "Ghostbusters" gain momentum again and go to No. 1 or would "State Of Shock" pull off the, umm, shocker, and leap the "Ghostbusters" and ascend to No. 1? After all, Michael Jackson was a pretty hot artist at the time. It really would not have been a surprise.

The answer was found out August 11. "Ghostbusters" jumped the notch necessary to become Parker's first No. 1 hit. The song would stay at the top for three weeks. The Jacksons and Mr. Jagger held at No. 3 with "State Of Shock" and that would be where the song would wind up peaking ... No. 3 for three straight weeks.

For both the Jacksons and Parker, the battle royale up the Top 40 chart in the summer of '84 marked one sobering fact -- neither act would ever score a Top 10 hit again. And though Parker won the battle, he found the price of victory was costly: Huey Lewis sued Parker for using the bass line from Huey Lewis & The News' hit from earlier in '84, "I Want A New Drug" for "Ghostbusters." The two battled it out in court and in the end, both Lewis and Parker came to a settlement out of court.

It's hard to believe that 30 years have passed since that amazing race up the chart for pop music supremacy that summer between those two titanic hit songs. And though two of the most well-known artists in music history were singing on one of those songs (Jackson and Jagger), it proved that the power of movies was much greater.

Remembering Casey Kasem

Like most kids growing up in the 1970s, my introduction to Casey Kasem had nothing to do with music or countdowns.

For generations, he was the voice of Shaggy on the old "Scooby-Doo" cartoons that we used to watch on Saturday mornings. We just didn't know that was him. Hey, we were kids. Whoever's voice played what cartoon character didn't matter a whole lot then.

Over the years as I left childhood and became a teenager did I know who this man born in Detroit was. That was because at Christmas time 1978, I was introduced to this radio show that had been around for over eight years called American Top 40.

I didn't hear the whole countdown of the 100 biggest hits of the year. As a matter of fact, I missed the first part of that countdown on Christmas weekend 1978. I caught the last couple of hours of the second part on New Year's weekend. I was stunned that a Top 10 hit called "I Go Crazy," which seemingly never left radio from the fall of 1977 until the spring of 1978, finished at No. 12 on the chart for the year in spite of the fact it only got to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. And though the Bee Gees' hit from "Saturday Night Fever" called "Night Fever" spent eight weeks at No. 1 that year, longer than any other song, it finished No. 2 behind Andy Gibb's "Shadow Dancing," which spent a mere seven weeks at No. 1.

That would be my introduction to the charts. Three weeks later on Super Bowl Sunday, I got reintroduced to what was now the regular countdown of the 40 biggest hits of the week. I remember getting home from something our family did and my dad turning the stereo to WXLO-FM (99.1) in New York. He knew I might be interested in this show called American Top 40. Again, I didn't hear the entire countdown, but picked up in the third hour sometime after noon and listened until 2 p.m. when the band Chic made AT40 history by going back to No. 1 for the third time in its chart run with "Le Freak," something never done in the AT40 era.

Yeah, I was hooked for the rest of my pre-teen, teen and young adult life. AT40 was my weekend life no matter what radio station it was on – whether it was WXLO, WJLK in Asbury Park, WJRZ in Manahawkin, N.J., WPLJ in New York or WPST in Trenton. For four hours, AT40 was my best friend. By 1982, all the debut songs in the Top 40 that week were getting taped. By 1979, my dad was buying Billboard magazine every week so I knew what songs were ready to hit the AT40 countdown that weekend.

Until his departure from the show the first time on August 6, 1988 because the company refused to fork out $1 million a year for him to host the most recognizable music show in the world anymore, AT40 hosted by Casey Kasem wasn't a weekend event.

It was a religion.

Still is thanks to the rebroadcasts of the shows I listened to in the 1980s and the ones from the 1970s that I missed but rediscovered thanks to Sirius XM, which brought the shows back in August 2006, and to the Premier Radio Network, who have done an outstanding job of taking the restored broadcasts and having them played on various radio stations all over the world.

So when Casey Kasem passed away on Father's Day morning, June 15, at the age of 82 after fighting a form of dementia for the better part of two years, it was as if another huge piece of my childhood died, too. I understand what dementia in any form does to a family all too well. So, believe me, his passing was not unexpected.

A lot of the music trivia I learned about, whether it was the song or the act performing, was because of the show. It was Casey Kasem who delivered the stories in that recognizable voice of grandfatherly reason. That style was why he was the King of the Countdowns. Too many of the countdown show hosts out there now try to get fancy and do something that just doesn't resonate with an audience. I won't name names, but you kind of know who and what I'm talking about.

Each countdown every week was a four-hour present as far as I was concerned – even if I did know what the song was and where it was in the Top 40 that week. And sure, there were stories he'd repeat over and over again about such artists as Marvin Gaye (how Gladys Knight and the Pips made "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" a smash first before Gaye did as his version sat around for three years collecting dust), James Brown (about growing up so poor and then earning enough money to buy the radio station he listened to as a kid), Ray Parker Jr. (about how he hung up on Stevie Wonder four times before finally being convinced by the man himself he was who he said he was) and Freddy Fender (how he was gone from the music scene after being arrested in 1960, then tried to recapture the promised glory and it took over a decade to do so). I knew the end result each time, but that was OK. And yes, in 1987, Casey could not bring himself to say the controversial title of that George Michael song from the "Beverly Hills Cop II" soundtrack, but that was OK. It was a pretty controversial time to see a song called "I Want Your Sex" climbing the chart.

The countdown was entertainment thanks to the trivia, the stories, the "extras" and those famous long-distance dedications. Four hours of listening to the countdown meant four hours I wasn't thinking about getting into some kind of trouble, not that I was looking for it. And if it wasn't just the radio program – it was his early Saturday afternoon staple on television "America's Top 10" in which you got to see the man himself introduce the videos of the songs that were on the various charts that week. Yes, you could call Casey Kasem the very first "VJ" if you'd like, long before Mark, J.J., Alan, Nina and Martha and MTV invaded the cable airwaves and started introducing music videos.

From January 1979 until August 1988, Casey Kasem, born Kemal Amin Kasem on April 27, 1932, to Lebanese parents and who first got into the radio business as a disc jockey in nearby Flint, Mich., in the 1950s after serving in the Korean War, was my weekend radio entertainment. And even when he was on vacation and had someone like Mark Elliott, Robert W. Morgan or even game show legend Bob Eubanks hosting that week, I knew "Uncle Casey" would return the next week to count down the hits.

And when he counted down to Steve Winwood's "Roll With It" at No. 1 on that August 6, 1988 countdown, I listened to the end to hear him give his final thank yous and give credit to those who worked diligently on that broadcast that week. I was waiting for a final farewell after hosting the show since July 1970. For months, I knew this would be the last AT40 under the ABC/Watermark flagship for him. They claimed it was a "ratings issue" that they wouldn't pay him what he was worth.

Um, guys, he was worth every last penny you paid him. There was quite an interest in AT40 solely because of Casey Kasem. By 1988, the music industry was changing and not all for the better. So maybe numbers were down by then because of the stuff that was being put out there. Remember, rap and hip-hop were slowly coming of age. Even so, a 56-year-old Kasem could make the music sound hip.

To this day, it's one of the worst decisions ever made by a radio network. Yes, ever!

But shockingly, he didn't say goodbye to his fan base that day he signed off on AT40. It felt like he was going to be back the next weekend, even though I knew Shadoe Stevens was taking over and ready to put his own mark on the show to what some people thought was going to be a "younger, hipper" audience.

Some of us who were fans of the show because of the original host never bought it and never really bought the whole Shadoe "appeal." But I was a faithful listener of the show and he did try to make it appealing as best as he could. It wasn't Shadoe Stevens' fault in the end, really. The Billboard charts were splintering into full-out messes and the technology that charted the Hot 100 chart was severely changed.

Not having Casey Kasem around anymore to count down the hits was bad enough. But to change twice between 1991 until the show's end in 1995 to a radio airplay chart was even worse. Technology may have made for more of an accurate account of the charts, but it wasn't making for a better show or countdown followers. And the music wasn't getting any better either.

Meanwhile, Kasem returned with Casey's Top 40 in early 1989 and it was still the same ol' Casey counting down the hits, telling stories and freely handing out trivial bits to the audience. But the genie was out of the bottle by then. Using a "different" source to count down the hits other than Billboard just never felt right. They were counting down from the Radio & Records music charts and since I had no access to them, I really could never get into it. And even after the AT40 name was resurrected in 1998 and Kasem was allowed to host under that title again, it still wasn't the same. Billboard's Hot 100 was the countdown chart bible. By the latter end of the century, there were too many charts saturating the landscape and telling everyone what their big hits were.

It was still Casey, though. And so when I heard he was being sent out to the AT40 pasture again in late 2003 in favor of the "younger, hipper" Ryan Seacrest, I knew it was over. For a short time, I tried to listen to the Seacrest-hosted AT40 but because the musical landscape isn't even close to what I remembered from the 1970s and '80s and it's his style of hosting a show, I just could never regularly listen to that show again.

And you might call it being nostalgic, but since 2006, I try not to miss any rebroadcast of the old AT40, whether it's the '70s or '80s rebroadcasts, even if Sirius XM's failed excuse for
editors chops the old show to embarrassing bits, not allowing us to hear more of Kasem's personality on those shows.

I knew this day was going to come sooner or later, especially after Dick Clark died in 2012 at the age of 82.

Those who grew up with Casey Kasem, whether if it was as the voice of Shaggy or Alexander Cabot on the cartoon "Josey & The Pussycats" or any of the guest appearances on shows such as "Charlie's Angels," "Hawaii Five-O," "Quincy, M.E." and "Police Story" or his TV or radio countdown shows are in mourning over the passing of this amazing man. I've heard many people have great stories about the kind of man he was to them in the Facebook page for "American Top 40, the '70s" the last year or so. I thank each and every person for telling their story, especially those who worked alongside him at whatever company employed him.

The last year has been a sad, sordid tale with this dying man being pulled around like a wishbone. All I really wished for was that he was surrounded by people who loved him ... and that meant all family members. The man deserved to pass away with dignity – not in dysfunction.

And so I thank those who loved him – whether it was his daughters Kerri and Julie and son Mike to first wife Linda to his second wife Jean and their daughter Liberty as well as the many siblings, cousins, uncles and mother and father – for sharing him with myself and the millions who loved him.

I'm not sure what landmark or monument you can erect in his honor. I leave that up to those who have this man's back and know what's right. I tend to believe he wouldn't want any of us to make much ado about him.

He may not have made a big deal over himself, but he sure was a big deal in every way, shape and form.

R.I.P. Casey. We'll keep our feet on the ground as you have finally "reached the stars."

The AT40 Blog/June 14, 1975: Puttin' country into the countdown

The trend may have started in the mid-1980s and has never reversed itself.

That was about the time that country music stars who took their music to a much broader audience suddenly only had the country fans to entertain because that was about the same time pop radio cut the country stars off at the proverbial bar.

"No more drinkin' here, stick to your own bars."

And that's a shame for the 1970s and early 1980s gave us some of the truly great crossover country songs and songs that may have been considered country songs just because of its feel. And it was in the late spring/early summer of 1975 that country music stars had a starring role on the chart, especially the Top 40 of June 14, 1975.

Lizzie And The Rain Man--Tanya Tucker: This song about a soothsayer coming through a small Texas town, captivating a young girl named Lizzy Cooper, and then promising that the drought-ridden town would get a lot of rain would be 16-year-old Tanya Tucker's fourth No. 1 country hit. It jumped two places from No. 39 to No. 37. This was after the song had been recorded by artists such as Bobby Goldsboro, the Hollies and the song's co-writer, Kenny O'Dell (who co-wrote it with former Newbeats member Larry Henley, the same man who co-wrote the tear-jerker "Wind Beneath My Wings").

Judy Mae--Boomer Castleman:  Better known as the man who invented the palm pedal, the device that helped to make pedal steel-style string bends to be easier, Castleman's one and only Top 40 hit never hit the country chart, but sure had a country feel to it. Moving up one notch from No. 34 to No. 33, "Judy Mae" was a very controversial song for its time. It told about the special relationship held between a son and his step mother, who was half the age of his dad. Let's just say the son had an infatuation for the stepmom and I think it was vice-versa, though Castleman never completely comes out and says so.

Misty--Ray Stevens: The Erroll Garner-penned classic first made famous by Johnny Mathis sure took a wild turn when funny man and Georgia native Ray Stevens of "The Streak" and "Gitarzan" fame took his crack at it, puttin' plenty of banjo, steel guitar and fiddle in the backdrop. The song got as high as No. 3 on the country chart and was on its way to No. 14 pop, moving up from No. 31 to No. 28 this weekend.

Before The Next Teardrop Falls--Freddy Fender: One of the all-time legendary country music songs, the man born Baldemar Huerta hit paydirt with a song he said took 10 minutes to record -- and no less, in two languages, recording the first verse in English, then repeating it in his second language, Spanish. It became the long-awaited breakthrough hit for him as the tear-jerker hit No. 1 on both the pop and country chart. It was on its way down the chart at this point, falling from No. 8 to No. 19.

Wildfire--Michael Murphey: Another tear-jerker from the very minute Murphey tickles the ivories in the opening moments of the song, you are enthralled in the story of the horse lost in a Nebraska blizzard. The song, which moved up from No. 17 to No. 12 and would eventually peak at No. 3, became Murphey's biggest pop hit, but surprisingly, it never was a hit on the country chart, though one assumes it was. Murphey ultimately became a country music star and in 1982, scored the Top 20 pop and No. 1 country crossover hit "What's Forever For?" Coincidentally, Murphey was in a 1960s band called the Lewis & Clark Expedition where his partner in the group was, believe it or not, Boomer Castleman.

Thank God I'm A Country Boy--John Denver: Now what's a country song without a song with "country" in it performed by one of the biggest acts on the chart at the time? John Denver was more folk than pop, but his folk music was being eaten up by the country music fans. So "Thank God I'm A Country Boy," written by John Martin Sommers, was really an ode to the country music fans as it was anything else. And it scored on the chart, hitting No. 1 both on the pop and country charts. It dropped on the pop chart this week from No. 1 to No. 8.

I'm Not Lisa--Jessi Colter: Waylon Jennings' wife was also a singer and "I'm Not Lisa," the story of a forlorn lost lover who treats his new love interest named Julie like his old love, Lisa, struck a chord in the spring of '75 from both men and women who had been there, done that. Colter wrote the song and her husband and Ken Mansfield co-produced it. Made memorable by the 13 soft brushes (six double brushes) of the piano that opens the song by Colter, "I'm Not Lisa" jumped from No. 8 to No. 6 and would climb as high as No. 4 pop after it, too, had gone to No. 1 country.

When Will I Be Loved--Linda Ronstadt: The remake of the classic Everly Brothers Top 10 smash of 1960, Ronstadt practically made it her own thanks to the work of producer Peter Asher and her guitarist Andrew Gold. Ronstadt turned "When Will I Be Loved" into a powerhouse rocker that had a lot of country flavor to it, again thanks to Gold's guitar work. It moved up three places from No. 6 to No. 3 on the same week it climbed to the No. 1 spot on the country chart. It would peak at No. 2 pop the next week, kept out by the Captain & Tennille's breakthrough "Love Will Keep Us Together."

Country music had a big-time friend with the pop charts in 1975. Five of the songs that hit No. 1 country -- "Thank God I'm A Country Boy," "Before The Next Teardrop Falls," "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song," "Rhinestone Cowboy" and "I'm sorry" -- also went to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 that year, too.

You rarely ever see it that day. It's why 1970s radio was as awesome as it was. And it's why 1975 was the best year of any musically in the decade.

Country music made its presence in the middle of the decade. It also left us some classics -- even if some of the songs weren't country chart hits.

The AT40 Blog/June 7, 1986 ... When Genesis had a full-out reunion

They were progressive rock's darlings of the 1970s with such epic songs that in concerts, people fought the urge of going to the bathroom so they can make it through. That's how long a Genesis song lasted.

They released such albums in the 1970s as "Nursery Cryme," "Foxtrot," "Selling England By The Pound" and the classic "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway." Such  memorable tunes from each of those albums included the 10-minute opus "The Musical Box," "The Return Of The Giant Hogweed," "The Fountain Of Salmacis," "Get 'Em Out By Friday," "Watcher Of The Skies," "Firth Of Fifth," "Dancing With Moonlit Knight," "The Cinema Show," "The Battle Of Epping Forest," "In The Cage," and the 22-minute "Supper's Ready," which was broken down into seven parts.

Seven parts! It's a freakin' song ... not a drama!

Heck, the band's 1973 live album has only five songs! Why? Because every song is over eight minutes long!

Needless to say, the idea of "art rock" is to develop it like you're drawing the Mona Lisa or something similar. I'm telling you ... bathroom breaks!

In front of all this was one of the band's co-founders, lead singer Peter Gabriel who would stand in front of the microphone and sing those songs in some of the most outlandish outfits one ever laid eyes on at a concert, everything from face paint to a Trojan warrior to wearing a foxhead to costumes he called "The Flower" and "Magog." According to band members over the years, they didn't understand the thought process in Gabriel's head into some of the things he wore on stage.

But they were successful as prog-rockers, which meant in that era, anything went. In 1975, the band began to reach a more mainstream audience. They cut the songs they were performing down considerably to four and five minutes and "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" became the band's first gold album.

However, by then, Gabriel wanted to branch out. He left for a solo career in '75, leaving Genesis as a quartet with guitarists Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett, keyboardist Tony Banks and drummer Phil Collins. When Gabriel left, so, too, left the voice of the band. They brought in a number of people to try and fill the large void left by the charismatic Gabriel, but in the end, the answer was there all along.

It was decided that Collins, who joined the band last in 1970, would be the new lead voice. And so the band carried on in 1976's "Trick Of The Tail," which continued the structured four- and five-minute song format of "Lamb" and also went gold. That was followed by another gold album, "Wind And Wuthering."

But by 1977, Hackett left to pursue other ventures.

And then there were three.

Literally and the creative name of the trio's next album in 1978. "And Then There Were Three" not only continued the rising success of this band, but it also gave Genesis their first Top 40 hit, "Follow You Follow Me."

Slowly, Genesis was working its way out of the prog-rock staple they became into pop artists and it was working -- "And Then There Were Three" became the band's first million-selling platinum album here. They cashed in on that success with platinum-selling albums "Duke," "Abacab," "Three Sides Live" and the self-titled "Genesis" that gave Phil, Mike and Tony their first Top 10 hit here in the late winter of 1984, "That's All!"

But that wasn't all. There'd be more.

And while the trio was working on their first album together in 2 1/2 years, Gabriel was becoming a solo star. There were those four "Peter Gabriel" albums between 1977-82. And when a record executive raised the idea that Gabriel was going to name his fifth album "Peter Gabriel" with a bit of concern in his voice in 1986, Gabriel reacted in only Gabriel fashion.

"So?"

Henceforth the album -- and title -- that would give Gabriel worldwide success. The first single from that album had debuted in the Top 40 on May 31, 1986, the funky and irreverent "Sledgehammer." While that song debuted at No. 39, right behind it at No. 40 was another debut hit called "When The Heart Rules The Mind" by a group called GTR. It didn't stand for anything else but the abbreviation of the word "guitar." Three of the band's members were guitarists -- bassist Phil Spalding and the two leaders of the group, Steve Howe, who made his fame with the group Yes, and Steve Hackett, who waited nine years for his first Top 40 hit after leaving Genesis.

So former Genesis members were in the Top 40 back to back. The only thing that was needed were Phil, Mike and Tony to make the Genesis reunion complete.

And so on June 7, 1986, GTR moved up five places from No. 40 to No. 35 and Gabriel jumped up seven places from No. 39 to No. 32. And debuting at No. 37 was "Invisible Touch," the long-awaited first hit and title cut from the newest album by -- Genesis!

The reunion was complete! But this wasn't a reunion that lasted one week or one night really. It lasted two months! GTR spent nine weeks in the Top 40 with "When The Heart Rules The Mind," peaking at No. 14, a modest debut hit single for Hackett and his new band.

The real story, though, was going on at the top of the chart by late July. "Invisible Touch" bum-rushed its way up the Top 40 and on the week of July 19, 1986, Tony, Mike and Phil woke up with the news that their single became the No. 1 song in America, a glorifying moment for Genesis -- even if by then they weren't the group that first made their name over a decade earlier making songs into seven- and eight-minute pieces of prog-rock art work.

But all they had to do was look behind them on the Top 40 chart that week to know what was to happen next. Gabriel was pulling up to the bumper at No. 2 and the very next week, Genesis' former lead singer displaced his old band at the top with "Sledgehammer." Like his old band, Gabriel was scoring the one and only No. 1 hit in his career.

The original five members of the group -- Collins, Rutherford, Banks, Hackett and Gabriel -- reunited in 1999 to re-record "The Carpet Crawlers" for a hits collection. But that's really been it with all five members of the band coming together. Genesis, which is currently on hiatus as a touring and recording band, was elected into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, though on the night of their induction, it was just the three main members -- Collins, Banks and Rutherford -- along with Hackett, who joined them for the celebration of all their music. However, there was no Gabriel because he was in rehearsal for a tour he was about to start and the quartet there did not even perform that night.

And in March 2011, Collins retired from the music business, though he's hemmed and hawed over doing a solo tour ... even working with Genesis. However, nothing has materialized, but the other band members have continually said, "Never say never." We shall see. In April 2014, Gabriel was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for his solo work and performed that night.

For now, we have the memories of their music, prog-rock and hit-making. And we have the memories of that two-month period in the late spring and summer of '86 when all five main members enjoyed their "reunion" in various forms in the Top 40 all at once.