A new long read from "Rolling Stone," part of their "Unknown Legends" series, is on Marilyn Martin. It's behind their subscription wall, but there are some quotes in there about Phil Collins. Interestingly, I happened to be in the audience for the show she references towards the end of the quotes, and after I heard that she was there that night, I had wondered why she didn't come out on stage to do the duet.
Marilyn Martin Scored a Number One Hit. Then Her Life Took Some Very Unexpected Turns
QuoteDisplay MoreTell me how “Separate Lives” happened.
We were recording Rock a Little. The head of Atlantic, Doug Morris, came in quite often to visit Stevie. One time we were on a break and he came over since he’d head me sing with Stevie. He said, “Do you sing any songs on your own? Do you write?” I said, “Oh, sure. I’ve got all kinds.”
What I had was a cassette of ideas. I mean, literally it was just a chorus idea or a verse idea. I didn’t tell him that. I said, “I’ve got tapes.” He said, “Send them to me.”
And I did. [Laughs.] How naive! People go to studios and record their songs to have the best demos in the world. But I sent him this stupid, little cassette. He must have thought, “Well, if she has the nerve to do this, I need to sign her.”
He signed me. And before we finished the Stevie album, Doug had…I don’t know how this came about. But he was friends with [director] Taylor Hackford, who was working on [the film] White Knights. I guess Taylor might have said, “I need a song for this.”
In the meantime, Phil Collins had turned in his No Jacket Required album to Doug. He said, “There’s a song that didn’t fit with this album, but it’s a great song. Maybe you can find a home for it.” It was “Separate Lives.” And so when Taylor Hackford wanted a song for the soundtrack, Doug, in his brilliance, said, “Let’s make this a duet with Phil Collins and this new girl I just signed. What a great setup for a new career.”
Before I even finished Stevie’s album, I was being flown to London to put my parts down. We used Phil’s original recording and just took out his vocals on the second verse and put me in. Then I sang some harmonies. I’ve never gotten to sing it with him live. I only sang it with him in the recording process.
Was he there?
He was. That was nerve-racking, but incredible. It was the first time I met him, probably just to make sure I could do it. Arif Mardin was the producer. [Sighs.] He was incredible. He would come in wearing a suit, so classy. Just so amazing. He walks in and it’s like, “This is serious.”
How many takes did it take before you got it?
That’s another story. It took a couple of days because I was giving it my all. Like I said, I’m from Kentucky. I found out many years later that Arif had called up Doug Morris and went, “I don’t know if it’s going to work. She sounds very country.” Apparently Doug said, “You gotta keep at it. It’ll kill her if she loses this.”
I remember being a little confused because Arif would have me straighten out a lot of lines that I thought were just killer. But what he did made a lot of sense.
Tell me about making the video.
I flew back to London and just showed up. I wish I had a stylist or someone at that point. I just wore what I showed up in. I thought somebody would have something for me to put on, some options. But no. I just showed up and we did it. The only difficult thing was the director told me not to look at Phil. It’s tough since I’m playing to Phil. I’m singing the song to him. He’d stop and go, “Don’t look at Phil.” [Laughs.] That was hard.
I was amazed that every time we took a break from the video taping, Phil would be over here doing a photo shoot or an interview. He just never stopped.
The song shot to Number One.
For a week. “Broken Wings” knocked us out in the second week, but we got there for a week.
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It’s so much pressure. Even when you have a hit, everyone just starts focusing on finding the next one and keeping the gravy train going.
Yeah. And this is an interesting story: Atlantic didn’t actually drop me. I asked to get off the label because I decided not to renew my contract with my manager, Tony Smith, who was also Phil’s manager. I needed more hands to help with different aspects. They worked fabulously with Phil, but that’s because he doesn’t need much. He’s Phil Collins. He does his thing, and that’s it.
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You don’t have regrets? You don’t think, “Gee, if I’d gone in a slightly different direction after ‘Separate Lives’ I could have been a solo star?'”
It wasn’t meant to happen. I do have one regret. When “Separate Lives” was nominated for an Academy Award, they asked Phil to sing it. He said no. I don’t know why. It might have been since the year before, they asked Ann Reinking to dance to “Against All Odds.” And then [“Separate Lives” songwriter] Stephen Bishop said to me, “Why don’t you sing it with me at the Academy Awards?” I was like, “I’m there! OK!”
But my manager, who was also Phil’s manager, said, “If you do this, we have a real problem.” That’s because Phil was there. And if I was onstage and he was in the audience, people might question Phil. It would have looked bad. I said, “OK.” And now I think, “What an idiot! Why didn’t I say, ‘It’s the Academy Awards, for Pete’s sake. Why hold me down when your other artist doesn’t want to?” That’s my one regret. I still think of it with some pain.
How do you feel now if you hear “Separate Lives” on the radio or in the grocery store or something?
Grateful. [Laughs.] Just grateful. I love it. I’m proud of it. I’m grateful to have been a part of it.
Phil has sung it in concert with so many different background singers. It’s crazy he hasn’t once called you up to do it.
No. Never. I even went to go see him in concert a few years ago. We went backstage and he was very kind. He stood there for about half an hour. We talked the whole time. By that point, he was on his cane. He shouldn’t have been standing for that long. I was very touched that he did. But he never said, “Hey, why don’t you come out and sing it?” But I understand. When you’ve got a show, you can’t just throw in a monkey wrench like that.