Sussudio

Harmonically, 'Sussudio' runs on the leanest possible framework — diatonic major chords with no tension chords, no borrowed harmony, no chromatic movement. That restraint is the point. By offloading all musical interest onto David Frank's synth bass groove and Collins' rhythm programming, the song operates in the same structural register as Prince's '1999': groove over harmony. Critics who flagged the resemblance between the two tracks were pointing to exactly this priority. The hook and the feel do the work; the chord changes simply hold the door open.

Collins was playing around with a drum machine when the syllables 'su-sussudio' came out of his mouth. He spent time searching for a real word with the same rhythmic scan — something that fit the groove the same way — and found nothing that worked. He returned to the nonsense syllable and built the song around it. He later described the lyrics as the story of a schoolboy with a crush on a girl at school.

Released as the lead UK single from No Jacket Required in January 1985, 'Sussudio' reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 that July and became the defining sound of Collins' commercial peak. David Frank of synth-pop duo the System handled all synthesizer programming and synth bass, producing a funk-pop groove that drew immediate comparisons to Prince's '1999' — a similarity Collins freely acknowledged. The hook-first, harmony-second approach made it one of the most radio- and MTV-friendly records of the mid-80s.