Hold on my heart
Throw me a lifeline
I’ll keep a place for you
somewhere deep inside
Hold on my heart
Please tell her to be patient
‘Cause there has never been a time
that I wanted something more…
– Singers/Songwriters: Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Michael Rutherford a.k.a. Genesis
IT WAS ONE of those afternoons sitting by the window in front of my laptop watching the world go by contemplating on whether to write this column, get drunk or get high. Probably all three will do just fine.
The usual stupidity is happening all around us but then again, should we be surprised? We’d be more surprised if it does not. The latest is that the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) wants to regulate Netflix – and that is stupidity at par with Noynoy Aquino saying what good will windmills be if there is no wind, or Leni Robredo’s “I have three daughters and they’re all girls.”
But we won’t talk about MTCRB’s latest faux pas on Netflix. We’ll reserve that in another column. For now, it’s all about music.
And we segue back to Moi sitting by the window checking out music videos on YouTube, suitable for the afternoon’s melancholic mood. From that free online encyclopedia a.k.a. the internet:
‘Hold on My Heart’ is a ballad by English rock band Genesis from their 14th studio album, ‘We Can’t Dance (1991)’. It was released as the album’s third single on April 6, 1992. The song was successful in North America, reaching No. 1 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart, the RPM Adult Contemporary chart, and the US Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, as well as No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Although this a band composition it has always been a Phil Collins signature, this poignant song records the thoughts of someone who is hesitant but open to the possibility of loving again after losing someone very dear: “Don’t let her see you crying.” We’re never told what happened to the previous love, but it seems very likely she has died or at the very least is now far away: “She’ll always be with me.”
For the uninformed:
Genesis is an English rock band formed at Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey in 1967. The most commercially successful and longest-lasting line-up consists of keyboardist Tony Banks, bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford and drummer/singer Phil Collins. Other former members were original lead singer Peter Gabriel, and guitarists Anthony Phillips and Steve Hackett.
The band moved from folk music to progressive rock in the 1970s, before moving towards pop at the end of the decade.
And of course, Philip David Charles Collins is an English drummer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and actor best known as the drummer/singer of the rock band Genesis and for his solo career.
Between 1982 and 1990, Collins scored three UK and seven US No. 1 singles in his solo career. When his work with Genesis, his work with other artists, as well as his solo career is totalled, he had more US Top 40 singles than any other artist during the 1980s.
It is a well-known fact in the music world that the transition of Genesis from progressive rock to adult contemporary pop music was where they made a lot of success, particularly on the commercial aspect and much of their successful songs were in fact because of Phil Collins, with his signature mellow romantic ballads i.e. Hold on My Heart, Against All Odds and Separate Lives.
Phil Collins’ voice and the emotions evoked in his style of singing these ballads somehow stamped his identity on these hit songs that most people never even noticed that Genesis is a band and Phil Collins is just one of its members. Most people think that it is Phil Collins and his backup band.
I have to admit that I, too, made that assumption and saved myself from further embarrassment by doing research about the music of Phil Collins and the band Genesis.
But then again, I’m not really a fan of all the music of Phil Collins and the band Genesis; I just happen to like and identify with the songs Against All Odds, Separate Lives and most particularly Hold on My Heart as they happen to be the soundtrack of some episodes in my life.
Let me leave you with some excerpts from our featured song Hold on My Heart and you’ll see why it holds a place deep inside my heart (pun intended):
If I can recall this feeling
And I know there’s a chance
Oh I will be there
Yes I will be there
Be there for you
Whenever you want me to
Whenever you call I will be there
Yes I will be there…/PN
