Genesis

Genesis came out of Charterhouse School in Godalming, Surrey, in 1967, a gang of public schoolboys who got their name from pop impresario Jonathan King, an old boy of the place himself. Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Peter Gabriel, Anthony Phillips and Chris Stewart made up that first lineup, and King saw them through a few singles and the debut album From Genesis to Revelation. Once they had shaken him off they took to the road, signed with Charisma, and dove headlong into progressive rock with Trespass in 1970.

Phillips left, and in came Phil Collins on drums and Steve Hackett on guitar, in time for Nursery Cryme. What followed was English art rock at its most ornate: Banks's keyboards stacked up like cathedral pipes, Rutherford shuttling between bass and guitar underneath, and out front Gabriel, flute in hand, turning every concert into theatre with costumes that grew stranger by the tour. Foxtrot, in 1972, was their first album to chart in Britain, and it carries "Supper's Ready"; Selling England by the Pound got to number three and gave them their first UK hit single, "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)". Then came The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, a double concept album, and after touring it on both sides of the Atlantic, Gabriel walked.

Nobody gave them much of a chance after that, and then the drummer stepped up to the microphone. With Collins singing, the four-piece made A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering, both in 1976, and kept right on winning, with "Squonk" proving the old muscle was intact. Hackett quit in 1977, the trio that was left named the next record accordingly, and ...And Then There Were Three... handed them their first major hit, "Follow You Follow Me", a sleek, compact tune that trimmed the fantasy right back.

That was the door to the '80s, when Duke, Abacab, Genesis and Invisible Touch turned them into a pop-leaning arena machine that sold in enormous numbers, and the video for "Land of Confusion" took home a Grammy. Collins left in 1996, Ray Wilson sang on one last studio album, Calling All Stations, and when that met a cool reception the band folded, until Banks, Rutherford and Collins came back for tours in 2007 and 2021. Banks and Rutherford were there from the first day to the last, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Genesis in 2010.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.