Retro Video of the Week: "Don't Lose My Number" by Phil Collins

Yesterday was the 35th anniversary of the release of Phil Collins's seminal third studio album, No Jacket Required.  It has sold over 25 million copies worldwide, including 12 million in the U.S. alone, making it not only Collins's best-selling album, but one of the top 40 best-ever-selling albums in the U.S. ever and one of the Top 50 worldwide.  No Jacket Required hit #1 on the album charts in the U.S., the UK, and at least seven other countries.  At the Grammy Awards in early 1986, Collins picked up Grammys for Album of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and Producer of the Year for No Jacket Required.

Collins released four singles from the album in the U.S. and three in the UK, all of which hit the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Top 20 on the UK pop charts:  "Sussudio" (#1 U.S., #12 UK), "One More Night" (#1 U.S., #4 UK), "Don't Lose My Number" (#4 U.S.), and "Take Me Home" (#7 U.S., #19 UK).  

For a brief time in my life in 1985, "Sussudio" was my favorite song ever.  I still love it, but since I've already done a Retro Video of the Week on that one, I'm going to go with my second-favorite song off the album, "Don't Lose My Number."  Collins has said that he improvised the lyrics and even he himself doesn't fully understand what they mean.  I have always taken the song at face value.  Billy spends the bulk of his life playing a high-stakes game of adult hide-and-seek.  Think Tag meets the Most Dangerous Game.  The thing is, Billy is perhaps the best hide-and-seek player ever known to man, and he's not the type to divulge his whereabouts, even to those he thinks he can trust.  The narrator, though a close friend and confidante of Billy, understands Billy's passion and predicament, so he gives Billy his phone number, along with a simply message:  don't lose it.  Because, you see, the narrator cannot locate Billy, as Billy is not anywhere the narrator can find him.  So he relies on the hope that Billy will contact him, when it is safe and when the time is right.

The video is very meta.  It's Collins figuring out the theme for the video, including parodies of other videos and movies. But notice: no Billy.