# In 1988, Phil Collins accidentally sold 3,000,000 copies of a song he wanted nobody to hear. He has refused to sing it for 36 years

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/in-1988-phil-collins-accidentally-sold-3000000-copies-of-a-song-he-wanted-nobody-to-hear-he-has-refused-to-sing-it-for-36-years/
- Published: 2026-10-28T20:31:05+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-07T03:09:50+00:00
- Original publisher: Far Out
- Original article: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/1988-phil-collins-accidentally-sold-3000000-copies-of-a-song-he-wanted-nobody-to-hear/
- Topics: Entertainment, Music

## Key points

- A guide recording became a chart-topping single.
- The song sold more than three million copies.
- Collins had not planned to release his version.

## Summary

Phil Collins’s 1988 cover of ‘A Groovy Kind of Love’ became a major hit, although he had not expected or intended his recording to be released. The song was made for the film *Buster* as a temporary guide track, but producers used Collins’s version in the film, turning an incidental recording into one of his best-selling singles.

Written by Carole Bayer Sager and Toni Wine in 1966, the song had previously been recorded by the Mindbenders. Collins later made a proper studio version after seeing how the track fitted the film, despite initially wanting nothing to do with its soundtrack. The single sold more than three million copies and topped the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

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