"Invisible Touch" by Genesis

#1 Alert!

Song#:  2745
Date:  05/31/1986
Debut:  45
Peak:  1 (1 week)
Weeks:  17
Genre:  Pop, Synthpop



Pop Bits:  After Genesis went on hiatus in Feburary of '84, Phil Collins experienced a career high as a solo artist with his Grammy-winning LP No Jacket Required. Mike Rutherford also found himself with a pair of Top 10 hits with his band Mike + the Mechanics while Tony Banks worked on film scoring, which included the 1986 Kevin Bacon vehicle Quicksilver. The trio reconvened late in '85 to work on their thirteenth studio album, Invisible Touch. The pop chart successes of Collins and Rutherford reshaped the former prog-rock band's sound into something far more commercial than they had ever done. Their new direction was on full display with this bubbly first single. After nearly debuting in the Pop Top 40, the song took off and became the trio's first to top the chart. The song would also get to #1 at Rock and #3 AC. Oddly, the song was kicked out of the #1 spot on the Pop chart by their former bandmate Peter Gabriel, whose "Sledgehammer" took over at the top. This song would be Genesis' only one to reach the top of the Pop chart.

ReduxReview:  At the time and even still today this song can draw some passionate responses. Some saw this as Genesis fully selling out and going commercial. Others considered it a near-perfect piece of pop by a constantly evolving band. Whatever side of the fence you are on, it was hard to deny that this was a well-crafted tune that expertly appealed to a wide swath of people. For me, this seemed like a natural extension of the band. They had been moving more in this direction ever since 1980's Duke and the album was just a culmination of all they had done since then - both as a band and solo efforts. Yeah, there were no hints at the prog-rock days of yore (save for perhaps the two-part track "Domino"), but when you can crank out a pure pop confection like this, who cares? I thoroughly enjoyed the song and still do.

ReduxRating:  8/10

Trivia:  A song on the Invisible Touch album earned Genesis their third Grammy nomination. The instrumental track "The Brazilian" would get them a nod in the Best Pop Instrumental Performance category. The band wrote another instrumental for the album titled "Do the Neurotic," but when it came time to select the tracks for the album, it was not used. An edited version of the song would be the b-side to the US version of the "Throwing It All Away" single. The same edit would be the b-side to the "In Too Deep" single in the UK. The full-length version of the tune would be released as part of the 2007 box set compilation Genesis 1983-1998.

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