<P> Ahmet came down to the final mix in the cutting room in New York (...) The drums don't come in until the end but Ahmet didn't know that at this point, because on the demo the drums hadn't come in at all; it was only drum machine all the way . And he was saying, "Where's the down beat, where's the backbeat?" I said, "The drums come in in a minute ." "Yeah, you know that and I know that, but the kids don't know that; you've got to put the drums on earlier ." So we added some drums to the mix and put it out as a single . </P> <P> Speaking about the song's rapid ascension in the music charts, Collins wrote the following in 2007: </P> <P> It was a surprise . The single came in at No. 36, I did Top of the Pops with Dave Lee Travis, and in one of the down moments he said, "This record is going to be a top three ." I didn't believe him, because it had been made so haphazardly, but the next week, there it was at No. 3 . And then Mark Chapman shot John Lennon and that was that . </P> <P> An urban legend has arisen around "In the Air Tonight", according to which the lyrics are based on a drowning incident in which someone who was close enough to save the victim did not help them, while Collins, who was too far away to help, looked on . Increasingly embellished variations on the legend emerged over time, with the stories often culminating in Collins singling out the guilty party while singing the song at a concert . Collins has denied all such stories; he commented on the legends about the song in a BBC World Service interview: </P>

Who plays the drums in in the air tonight