If Leaving Me Is Easy

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"If Leaving Me Is Easy"
Single by Phil Collins
from the album Face Value
B-side	"In the Air Tonight" "I Missed Again" "If Leaving Me Is Easy" (demo)
Released	May 1981 [1]
Recorded	1980
Genre	Soul R&B
Length	4:56
Label	Virgin (UK) Atlantic (International)
Songwriter(s)	Phil Collins
Producer(s)	Phil Collins, Hugh Padgham
Phil Collins singles chronology
"I Missed Again" (1981) "If Leaving Me Is Easy" (1981) "Thru These Walls" (1982)
Audio
"Phil Collins - If Leaving Me Is Easy (2016 Remaster)" on YouTube

"If Leaving Me Is Easy" is a song by

Involvement of Eric Clapton

This was the first of two Phil Collins singles that featured Eric Clapton. The other single was "I Wish It Would Rain Down" from Collins' final album of the 1980s, ...But Seriously. He also recorded some dobro for "The Roof Is Leaking", which was not used on the final recording.

Live versions

Collins revealed on the "Making of Face Value" episode of Classic Albums that he decided to stop performing this song live on stage following his 1985 No Jacket Required tour because he disliked the audience yelling and screaming instead of being quiet while he performed this song. According to SongFacts.com,^[2] Collins performed the song on the BBC music show Top of the Pops with a bucket of paint and paintbrush on top of his electric piano, a reference to his first wife's affair with a painter and decorator.

Charts

Personnel

• Prophet 5
• Eric Clapton: guitar
• Daryl Stuermer: guitar
• Alphonso Johnson: bass guitar
• Don Myrick: alto sax
• Rahmlee Michael Davis and Michael Harris:
  flugelhorns
• Strings arranged by Arif Mardin
• Gavin Cochrane: Photography

References