“Sussudio” by Phil Collins

"Sussudio" kicked off the No Jacket Required campaign in Britain, where Virgin issued it in January 1985 as the lead single from Phil Collins's third solo album; America got it second, through Atlantic that April, after "One More Night". The title means nothing at all: it's a made-up word that fell out of Collins during a practice session.

It's machine-age pop with muscle. Collins and David Frank work the drum machine, Frank adds bass synth and keyboards, Daryl Stuermer plays guitar and the Phenix Horns blast over the top, with Collins and Hugh Padgham producing and Padgham engineering. MTV played it constantly from May, and by July it was number one on the Billboard Hot 100; it made 12 in the UK and topped the charts in Panama and Peru.

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