In the Air Tonight

Momentum

This song has not appeared on a Rotation chart, so it has no score and no receipts. The rank history below is the ledger; a score is only published once the momentum run puts it on a chart.

Why it's here

The song's famous drum break, called 'the sleekest, most melodramatic drum break in history' by critics, became a defining moment in 1980s music production. [1] Collins wrote the song's lyrics spontaneously while grieving his 1980 divorce, giving the track its unusually raw and improvised emotional tension. [2] The track's gated reverb drum sound was praised by musicians like Ozzy Osbourne, who called the drum fill 'the best ever,' and it set a template for 1980s drum production according to critic Stuart Maconie. [3]

In culture

Every place this record has lived. A solid chip states a fact and carries the citation that earns it; a dashed one is a connection somebody drew, and carries their name instead.

• Sampled by 2Pac featuring Outlawz, Staring Through My Rear Viewsource
• Covered Anthony Vincentsource
• Covered Bertie Blackmansource
• Sampled by DMX, I Can Feel Itsource
• Covered Eric Claptonsource
• Covered Giorgio Gee & NALYROsource
• Sampled by Girl Talk, What It’s All Aboutsource
• Covered Glennis Gracesource
• Covered Gregoriansource
• Sampled by Johnny Go Mental, I Can Feel Itsource
• Sampled by Le$, In the Airsource
• Sampled by Nas, One Micsource
• Sampled by Neil Cicierega, Annoyed Gruntsource
• Remixed by Nora en Pure & Lika Morgan, In the Air Tonight (Sons of Maria remix)source
• Sampled by owl starlight, cruel musicsource
• Written by Phil Collinssource
• Remixed by Phil Collins, In the Air Tonight (’88 remix)source
• Covered Ray Wilsonsource
• Covered Royal Philharmonic Orchestrasource
• Sampled by Sean Kingston, I Can Feel Itsource
• Covered State Azure feat. Syberlillysource
• Covered State Azuresource
• Covered Still Collinssource
• Covered Tigeroarsource

Across markets · earliest pickup first

Every date here is the date the source chart covers, never the date we fetched it. Sources publish on different lags: the Spotify mirror runs about two days behind, TurnTable publishes weekly.

1. MarketFirst seenLatestDaysPeakRank path
2. Greecegr · shazam2026-07-202026-10-02#18213#13
   #182
3. United Statesus · shazam · 2 cities2026-07-202026-10-02#7162#18
   #71
4. Canadaca · shazam2026-07-202026-09-20#9619#57
   #96
5. Italyit · shazam2026-08-012026-09-17#9815#67
   #98
6. Solomon Islandssb · applemusic2026-08-032026-08-03#881#88
   —
7. Chilecl · shazam2026-08-072026-09-02#11812#118
   #118
8. Finlandfi · shazam2026-08-072026-08-08#1742#174
   #174
9. Germanyde · shazam2026-08-092026-10-02#8320#64
   #83
10. Show all 29 markets

Worldwide feeds · not markets

A source's own worldwide chart. These are feeds, not places, so they are kept out of the market count above.

1. MarketFirst seenLatestDaysPeakRank path
2. World feedworld · shazam2026-07-202026-10-02#11960#74
   #119

City pickups

City charts record their parent country as the market, so these do not add to the market count above. One line per country: how many of its rooms picked the song up, and the best of them.

1. us 2 cities · best #18 cincinnati
2. mx 1 city · best #43 tijuana

Listen

Editions

No published edition carries this song yet. Every edition it appears in will be listed here and stay listed: an edition is immutable, so a citation to one never rots.