Phil Collins - Don't Lose My Number

What this video is

Released in July 1985 as the third single from 'No Jacket Required,' 'Don't Lose My Number' arrived during Phil Collins' unparalleled commercial peak. The video is a direct product of — and commentary on — the MTV industrial complex at its mid-decade zenith. VH1 had launched just weeks after 'No Jacket Required' was released, and Collins was, as Rolling Stone described, its de facto patron saint. By parodying the…

Why it matters

A landmark in the 'meta-music video' sub-genre, 'Don't Lose My Number' is one of the earliest and most accomplished examples of a major pop artist explicitly foregrounding the artificiality of the video form. Its sketch-comedy structure and genre-parody vignettes influenced subsequent self-aware…

The director

James 'Jim' Yukich is an American television and film director who graduated from Purdue University's Brian Lamb School of Communication in 1978. He began his career in the mailroom at Capitol-EMI Records in Hollywood before rising to staff…