Phil Collins - "Both Sides Of The Story"

[Hervard]

A great song by Phil Collins, and might I add, one of his best. Over six minutes in length, the song talks about several timely issues, such as alcoholism, homelessness, domestic violence, and robbery, among other things.

This song, as I recall, came and went pretty quickly on the charts. Wasted no time hitting the Top Ten on the Pop charts, but fell fast, too. I'm surprised that it didn't get past #17 at AC, since it was pretty much a given that his songs hit the Top Ten back in the early 1990s. Must have been the subject matter of the song that hurt the song's performance on the charts.

[mst3k]

I remember someone on TV (Dennis Miller?) making a joke about it: "Both Sides... of this album suck." 

(edit: it was David Spade on SNL)

I didn't really like this song. In fact, other than "Dance Into The Light", I haven't cared for much of Phil's work since 1990.  :(

[reception]

I like it.

[JCMF3]

The song is just OK. Far from his best.

[Whi$tlin' Pete]

R&R Pop Chart run:
23-18-14-11-10-9-11-18-off. Yep, just a measly 8 week chart run. But it still hit the top 10.

Very surprising chart run, because although it occured before the changeover to monitored airplay, the charts were moving in a fairly slow fashion. I must say that the two week Christmas gap might have been the reason why the song fell off from number 18. It still seems funny because "Dreams" by Gabrielle only peaked at number 20 but spent 15 weeks on the chart. His follow-up hit "Everyday" had a normal chart run. 38-33-28-25-21-18-17-17-25-33-off. It spent 10 weeks on the chart, 2 more than BSOTS.

[johnnywest]

OK but nothing special.

Reminds me of college. This was one of the last mainstream songs my local Top 40 station played before it evolved into Alternative.

[billme]

There was a special remix of this song produced by a local radio that was broadcast on the citywide STOP THE VIOLENCE campaign as the city was facing a record number of muders that year.

I must say after hearing that version of the song.  I really liked the song, especially when two would-be robbers were shot to death by an off-duty police officer at the store that I always grabbed my lunch.  They used a news soundbite about that shooting in the remix.  It was very powerful & really hit home.

[cartman2002]

Both Sides Of The Story reached #25 in 1993

[joker]

jcmf3 said:

The song is just OK. Far from his best.

[Hervard]

ariens2172 said:

R&R Pop Chart run:
23-18-14-11-10-9-11-18-off. Yep, just a measly 8 week chart run. But it still hit the top 10.

Very surprising chart run, because although it occured before the changeover to monitored airplay, the charts were moving in a fairly slow fashion. I must say that the two week Christmas gap might have been the reason why the song fell off from number 18. It still seems funny because "Dreams" by Gabrielle only peaked at number 20 but spent 15 weeks on the chart. His follow-up hit "Everyday" had a normal chart run. 38-33-28-25-21-18-17-17-25-33-off. It spent 10 weeks on the chart, 2 more than BSOTS.

If not for the two-week break, "Both Sides Of The Story" would have most likely spent one more week on the chart (probably somewhere in the 30s), which would have still made it an unusually short run for a #8 hit.

"Everyday" was much more mellow (reminded me of Phil's 1990 hit "Do You Remember"), which caused it to do much better on the AC chart. In fact, I believe that song was #3 on the year-end AC chart, behind "Now And Forever" by Richard Marx and "You Mean The World To Me" by Toni Braxton. The former of the two cut short what would probably have been a lengthy run at #1 for "Everyday", as the song spent many weeks at #2 and kept its bullet for a few weeks after it fell from #1.

[tico]

I like most of Phil Collins' music. While it wasn't the attention-grabber as "Another Day In Paradise" was, I like the social issues behind it.

[Lozzy]

I love this song! The production is flawless.