Phil Collins vs. Peter Gabriel: Who had the better solo career?

I never see much debate (unless I'm missing it) between the solo careers of the two well-known lead singers of Genesis. Gabriel began his solo career in 1978 with his first album, containing the national hit "Solsbury Hill" giving him instant success. He later turned away from both this sound and success and began to focus on more experimental music infused with African rhythms. The third album, despite it's discord, experimental and cold sound, gave him some more success, including "Games Without Frontiers" a track that was heavily played on MTV. He reached superstar status in 1986 with So, which included many pop hits and classics including "Sledgehammer" and "In Your Eyes." Though his success diminished when the musical climate changed in the early 90's, his success in the 80's should not be understated, and he has also remained a successful cult act when drawn with his earlier, "arty" material. He went from prog rock singer, to experimentalist, to pop star, and he has many fans in each respective genre, from the proggers, the artsy underground music fans, and 80's pop fanatics.

Phil Collins started his solo career in 1981, following a stressful divorce with a handful of songs that were rejected by his Genesis band mates. Though his career started later than Gabriel's, it took off with much greater success. His first solo album contained two hits; the classic "In The Air Tonight" and "I Missed Again." The rapid growth of his success as a solo artist both aided and overshadowed Genesis. His career as a solo artist hardly missed a beat as his music was flaming up the charts in the US and he became an 80's superstar, perhaps more so than Gabriel, until, like he, dwindled with the change in the music scene. He, however, was not quite as "diverse" as Gabriel musically. So those who think sales figures and pop-song writing are most important my favor Collins while those who think musical artistry and creative diversity might favor Gabriel.

Who will win? Phil Collins or Peter Gabriel. Criteria that can be considered include vocal ability (though this is NOT about who is the better singer) appearance, chart success, and most importantly, song writing. Could either be statistical OR opinion. This shouldn't be anything serious, just for fun and I wanted to know which one had the most fans! I prefer Gabriel personally. I'm a big fan of the way his career progressed and how he handled it, both in how he sold and how he sounded. He is so diverse and does have many great songs and albums to boot.

Vote away, ladies and gentlemen!

 

I find Gabriel's work more intriguing artistically. Collins shifted lots of units making pretty pedestrian music.

D.D.

 

All in all, considering everything my choice is Phil Collins. At his peak he was everywhere, solo-hits, a duet with Philip Bailey, producing albums, managing to make Frida from Abba sound like....erm..Phil Collins. I think Gabriels artistic peaks were higher, but after "So" he seemed to lose focus a bit.

 

My vote goes to Phil Collins as well. Maybe Phil Collins was never quite as "artsy" as Peter Gabriel, but his "stamp" on music in the first half of the 80's was huge. If you factor in his work with Brand X (admittedly before he went solo) Phil Collins was also musically quite diverse.

 

Peter Gabriel, on the grounds of more consistent output. In terms of who I prefer overall as I musician, Collins. Favorite drummer and some excellent innovations.

EDIT: Also want to give Phil a point for his tender vocals on the earlier work. Awesome.

 

Phil...he was more commercial.

 

Not to be a language geek, but I think you mean "shipped," not "shifted."

 

Peter Gabriel, much more interesting music.

 

Collins dissappointed with the first album immediately - Face Value. Had many more hopes for it. Cover of a song from Duke was a disgrace. Peter, on the other hand, chose his own way, and while I am not a fan of his first four albums... not a big fan, but So is a sublime record for ages.

 

This is really close. Both of them made great songs (Side 1 of "Face Value" is just perfect, as is Side 1 of "So") and both made (to my ears) boring music. Collins is a nice and funny person I think. His interviews were always very entertaining and his drumming was so powerful and fresh during the Genesis years. In the end I vote for Gabriel because of his great live shows and constant search for new directions which I find very healthy in the world of music. Plus he wrote "Don't give up" which I always loved.

 

Peter Gabriel, by far... by very, very, very, very far... you get the idea...

 

Where I'm from in the UK, in this context, we'd say "shifted".

"Shipped" is an American word.

 

It's always unfortunate that this forum tends to have to define one thing as 'better' than another. Gabriel and Collins set out to achieve different things with their solo career and they achieved them some of the time and failed at others.

In keeping with the thread title however I would argue for example that Gabriel has made more adventurous music generally but he's probably not made an album as complete as Face Value.

They do have something in common in that they both released definitive break up albums (US and Face Value or Both Sides). They both lost their muse over the last 15 years or so. And of course they both started out as drummers!

 

I thought Peter was fantastic for his first 4 albums, then he made a semi interesting pop album, after which he lost it big time.

Phil, as much as I love his work with Genesis and Brand X, I can't stand his solo career (In the Air Tonight excepted)

Peter gets my vote easy.

 

Only took one post to get to the totally inaccurate knee-jerking comment I knew this thread would contain. Way to go!...I guess...

Ed

 

Phil had the better commercial career, and Peter had the better artistic career.

 

Have to say Phil Collins (though But Seriously was his last consistently good album). Also one of only 3 artists (McCartney, Michael Jackson) that have sold over 100 million records both solo and as a group.
Now I'm off to listen to our hosts fab mastering on the Audio Fidelity editions of Collins first four albums (cheers Steve!)

 

This.

 

Gabriel may have peaked higher with his third and fourth albums, but Collins, on the other hand, has been more consistent in my opinion. I'd call it a draw.

 

Phil was certainly more successful and cashed out but Peter has had the better musical career. With the possible exception of 'So', Peter never seemed to package himself just to see how high he could chart or how many records he'd sell. He liked to try new styles and followed different and varied musical paths while Phil seemed quite content to tweak his style and music to sell as many records as possible.

 

Commercially, I guess P. Collins sold more copy and definitely plyed more on AOR radio. Artistically P. Gabriel has my vote. His music was a LOT more interesting and challenging.

 

What is meant by 'better'?
I have all of Peter Gabriel's albums and none of Phil Collins'.

 

It's the old art versus pop debate.

Anyway talking about the two Genesis guys gives me an excuse to post an excerpt from 2014's BBC "rockumentary" the life of rock with Brian Pern which throws new light on a famous event:

 

You pretty much answered your own question. My quick answer is that Peter Gabriel for that reason. He never sacrificed musical integrity, even when "Sledgehammer" was all over the radio, with So staying in the top 10 and Grammy nominations. Agreed with OP in that he may have lost focus after So though. The man likes to have his hand in a lot of different activities, but momentum was lost by how long it took until Us came out. That's how he works.

To be fair to Phil Collins, it was no slam dunk when Face Value first came out that it would launch his solo career, especially one as enormously successful as this one. When you consider the precedents, solo albums by drummers didn't tend to have long shelf lives. The difference was his being a serviceable vocalist. He was everywhere during the 80's. Solo career, Genesis became even more popular, guest spots, production credits, maybe even an appearance on "Miami Vice."

If you push everything else aside, Gabriel never made anything as cringe-worthy as "Sussudio" and the junior prom theme song, "One More Night." The AF gold discs really sound nice, but the Collins solo work were never intended to be as challenging as Gabriel's.

 

Can't get off the fence here. I really like a lot of what each of them have produced, although not everything in either case.

In terms of sales, PC has been more successful. I probably listen to them in fairly equal measure. I don't, and never have, 'got' the bile often reserved for Phil Collins and I love the experimentation of Peter Gabriel.