By the start of 1978, the ‘classic’ line-up of Genesis had lost two members – Peter Gabriel left in 1975 after The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Steve Hackett quit after 1977’s Wind & Wuthering – but they could take some comfort in the knowledge that the band now had a wider fan base. And that was largely due to one song: the pop-savvy Follow You Follow Me, with its simple betrothal of love and sing‑song chorus.
There had been songs with a more accessible flavour on previous Genesis albums, such as Ripples from 1976’s A Trick Of The Tail, and Your Own Special Way from Wind & Wuthering. But for follow-up And Then There Were Three, and specifically the one that became its first single, Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford set out with the express intention to write something that would attract a broader range of fans, specifically more females. They wanted to help shift the perception that Genesis only made long, complex, instrumentally elaborate rock for hirsute proggers allergic to melodic succinctness.
