Phil Collins returns with Motown covers set, tour dates

Phil Collins

It's weird to say, but Peter Gabriel won't be the only former Genesis frontman to release a covers album this year.

Phil Collins will be tackling Motown and soul songs of the '60s on "Going Back" (Atlantic) due in September, marking the rocker and solo artist's first studio recordings in eight years.

Featured are three songs each from Stevie Wonder tracks, Martha and the Vandellas and The Four Tops. Songs by The Temptations, Goffin-King/Dusty Springfield, Curtis Mayfield, The Ronettes, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Supremes and Kim Weston are also included. Below is a complete tracklist.

Already jumping on the promotion bandwagon, Collins has announced four shows at New York's Roseland Ballroom, with contributions from some of the musicians that helped put the album in order: the surviving members of the Funk Brothers. The backing band at these shows -- running June 22-25 -- will be 18 members strong, including former Collins collaborators Chester Thompson (drums), Daryl Stuermer (guitar), Brad Cole (keyboards).

Tickets for these shows go on Live Nation pre-sale Monday (April 19) while general onsale goes up on April 24.

“My idea, though, was not to bring anything ‘new’ to these already great records, but to try to recreate the sounds and feelings that I had when I first heard them.  My intention was to make an ‘old’ record, not a ‘new’ record," Collins says in a statement.

"Testify" from 2002 was the last studio release from Collins, 59.

The English songwriter has tackled covers songs before, like "You Can’t Hurry Love,” "Tomorrow Never Knows” and “True Colours,” but has never put out a covers-only set. Whereas Peter Gabriel's "Scratch My Back" album released earlier this year shouted out to an ecclectic group of artists -- from David Bowie to Bon Iver -- this era-specific, artist-specific set sounds eerily similar to other "songbook" approaches from other popular artists, like Rod Stewart and Barry Manilow.

Here are the tracks to be included on Phil Collins' "Going Back":

“Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue)" (The Temptations)
“Papa Was A Rolling Stone” (The Temptations)
“Going Back” (made popular by Dusty Springfield)
“Some Of Your Loving” (made popular by Dusty Springfield)
“Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” (Stevie Wonder)
“Blame It On The Sun” (Stevie Wonder)
“Never Dreamed You’d Leave In Summer” (Stevie Wonder)
“(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave” (Martha and the Vandellas)
“In My Lonely Room” (Martha and the Vandellas)
“Jimmy Mack” (Martha and the Vandellas)
“Standing In The Shadows Of Love” (the Four Tops)
“Something About You” (The Four Tops)
“Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever” (The Four Tops)
“Talking About My Baby” (Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions)
“Do I Love You?” (The Ronettes)
“Going To A Go-Go” (Smokey Robinson & The Miracles)
“Love Is Here” (The Supremes)
“Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While)” (Kim Weston)

Katie Hasty
Managing Editor

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After five years as a columnist and editor at Billboard, Katie Hasty joined HitFix in 2009 for music and film reporting out of New York. The Midwest native has worked as a writer, music promoter and in A&R since 1999 and performs with her band Numbers And Letters.