Song of the Day 8/19: Phil Collins, “In the Air Tonight”

There are many examples of old hit songs re-entering the charts after being featured on soundtracks or in commercials, but we have entered a new age — one in which songs become hits again after being used in viral videos. That’s the case for this classic rock staple, which hit No. 2 on the iTunes download chart last week.

Phil Collins released “In the Air Tonight” in 1981 as the first single from his first solo album. It became an immediate hit, boosted by the newly launched MTV video channel. Its method of recording the drums, known as “gated reverb,” became the template for virtually every drum track in ’80s pop. The video won awards, too.

The song’s place in pop-culture history was cemented in 1984, when producer/director Michael Mann used it as a tension-building device in the first episode of “Miami Vice.” Oddly, the scene doesn’t highlight the drum break.

So why is is suddenly popular again? Two viral videos, that’s why. The first is a “reaction” video, a genre on YouTube in which a listener, often a young black person, records his reaction when hearing an old song for the first time. In this case, 22-year-old twins Tim and Fred Williams spin the tune, unaware of the drum break two-thirds of the way through the track. It comes just before the 5-minute mark on the video, which has been viewed 6.4 milion times so far.

The other viral video that might have boosted the song only includes the snippet just before the drum break. You might have already seen it; it’s been viewed almost 8 million times on Twitter.

And, of course, the urban legend that grew around the song — about the lyrics telling a true story of Collins witnessing a drowning — isn’t true, but it’s been so widely repeated that Emimem recounts it in his song “Stan.”