Today in The Music of New Coke, Phil Collins’ “One More Night” the first single from No Jacket Required.  “One More Night” reached #1 right before the release of New Coke and spent a leisurely 18 weeks on the charts in the spring of 1985.

Few artists have been as battered by the Irony — and the subsequent Post-Irony — Age as much as Phil Collins, rather undeservedly so in my opinion.  Yes, Collins occasionally dipped into the schmaltz well a little too often later in his career and yes, some of schmaltz was making music for Disney movies, but is it possible to sustain ’70s prog rock career forever? And if you could, would you want to? 

“One More Night” is too sentimental for sure, but not because of the lyrics or Collins’ singing.  The smooth saxophone that comes in for the final few bars of “One More Night” crystallizes the lonely sounds of the New Coke era so perfectly it hurts, but in that “not-really-so-painful-way” which was common in the New Coke age pop. Wistfulness is something not afforded to pre-teen girls or the ’80s.  

(If you have never heard the This American Life’s interview with Phil Collins about break up songs, take some time out of your quiet Sunday evening to do so.)