Phil Collins has revealed that his iconic 1981 hit "In the Air Tonight" was largely improvised, rather than painstakingly crafted. Speaking on BBC Radio 2's Tracks of My Years, the musician said the song was "80 percent improvised," offering rare insight into the spontaneous creative process behind one of his most recognisable and enduring tracks.

Collins explained that he was alone in his bedroom studio, experimenting with chords and watching the meters on his console, when he programmed a drum machine pattern and played along with it. He then sang over the music simply to fill the space with a voice, and the words that emerged in that first verse were largely unplanned. He joked that "an extra whiskey at lunchtime" might explain his luck, and noted the approach became his standard songwriting method for much of his 1981 debut album, Face Value.