1978 Soft Rock Hit, Written in 10 Minutes About a Bandmate's Wife, Became a Defining Love Ballad
By the late 1970's, the English rock band Genesis was already on their ninth studio album. Hoping to cater to another demographic of fans, they released a love ballad that did the job of cementing their status as a worldwide pop sensation.
"Follow You Follow Me" wasn't originally intended to be released as a single in February of 1978. What started as a guitar riff quickly molded itself into a track the perfect length to be released as the lead for their new album. While Genesis had released love ballads before, like "More Fool Me" and "Your Own Special Way," "Follow You Follow Me" became the first to make them worldwide stars.
The track was written by bassist and guitarist Mike Rutherford in an effort to shift the band's image from instrumentally elaborate rock tracks to having melodic hits. According to Louder Sound, Genesis felt their fanbase was predominantly male and wanted to create a track that female fans could resonate with and make them want to attend their shows.
"Until Follow You Follow Me our audience was very strongly male," Rutherford said. "After it, all the guys were able to say to their girlfriends: ‘Here's that song you like.' So they'd come along [to gigs], and of course they'd enjoy the whole evening. It changed our audience ratio and we got more women after that."
Rutherford and even Phil Collins felt the track was great rhythmically, but "was not intended to be a hit single." "Follow You Follow Me" was, in fact, the band's most successful single, spending four weeks on the UK chart and peaking at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The track captured fan interest as a love ballad, also due to its inspiration. Rutherford admitted that its lyrics were largely inspired by his wife. He had written it in roughly ten minutes, with the guitarist explaining they were simple words from the heart.
"Not quite ten minutes," he said. "It was the first time I'd written such simple words. They were inspired by my wife [Angie]. We were away a lot on tour, and I wasn't seeing her an awful lot, as happens with bands in the early days. So I thought of her. It was such a simple sentiment, unlike, you know, all our other words at the time. And so you write it from the heart, quickly."
"I thought, ‘God, this can't be any good,'" he adds, laughing. "Normally lyrics take agonising over and developing. But then you look at [FYFM] and realise that's the charm."
Having largely focused on album releases, "Follow You Follow Me" was a deviation from their prior work and their first to gain radio attention. Rutherford admitted it was nice to get attention from fans who didn't like them before.
Related: 1965 Rock Classic, Originally a Major Flop, Became a No. 1 Hit 61 Years Ago
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This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 7:34 AM.