10 Song Meanings Fans Can't Accept

While Phil Collins was already a god in the rock world for his years in Genesis, his time as a pop star didn't kick into high gear until "In the Air Tonight" hit it big. From the chilling atmospherics to the iconic drum break, the song bleeds with absolute menace as Collins becomes more disgruntled with every word.

Collins may have written from the heart, but the fans have a more tragic idea of what happened. As the alleged story goes, Collins was originally writing the song in regards to a man he saw on a lake near his home. Upon seeing a man drowning in the water, the man refused to save him and left the victim in the water to die. Collins then wrote this song to write the murderer's wrongs and eventually performed it to him at one of his solo shows.

Though the theory is certainly intriguing, Collins' real inspiration was less tragic but no less heart-wrenching. After having his wife leave him midway through a tour with Genesis, Collins went back to his empty home and started writing "In the Air Tonight" as a letter to his wife, as he tried to make peace with his relationship. Though Phil eventually cleared everything up on the public stage, fans still can't enough of the song's more dramatic background.