The “piss-take” Genesis song from 1991 that has now been streamed 218,000,000 times

Genesis’ ‘I Can’t Dance’ began as a joke about jeans adverts, but Phil Collins later saw it as a sign that the band’s time together was nearing its end. The song’s unexpected longevity matters: it has become one of Genesis’ biggest hits and continues to find listeners more than three decades on.

Collins said the track grew from a Mike Rutherford guitar riff, with the band imitating Fine Young Cannibals singer Roland Gift and parodying adverts featuring men who looked good but struggled to speak. It reached number seven in the UK, charted internationally and earned a Grammy nomination; it has now amassed around 218 million Spotify streams. Genesis later recorded one studio album with singer Ray Wilson, then reunited with Collins for tours in 2007 and 2021.