• Writer: Phil Collins
• Producer: David Hentschel and Genesis
• Recorded: Late 1979 at Polar Sound Studios in Stockholm, Sweden
• Released: March 1980
• Players:
  Phil Collins — vocals, drums
  Tony Banks — keyboards
  Mike Rutherford — guitar, bass
• Album: Duke (Atlantic, 1980)
• Also On:
  Three Sides Live (Atlantic, 1982)
  Turn It On Again: The Hits (Atlantic, 1999)
  Platinum Collection (EMI, 2004)
• “Misunderstanding” was the second big hit for Genesis in America.
• Written while singer-drummer Phil Collins was recovering from a broken marriage, “Misunderstanding” — a straightforward pop song with soul underpinnings — is about a missed liaison with an implied friend and/or romantic interest.
• The Duke album came two years after …And Then There Were Three, mostly owing to Collins’s decision to move briefly to Vancouver, British Columbia, to try to reconcile with his wife.
• During the break, keyboardist Tony Banks and guitarist-bassist Mike Rutherford both released solo albums, while Collins wrote a number of songs, some of which were used for Duke and others of which appeared on his first solo album, Face Value.
• Genesis had been one of the bands attacked by the punk rock movement in Britain, but Banks said the group had no problem weathering the criticisms: “We had been through the punk era and everyone had predicted our downfall, and yet …And Then There Were Three was by far our biggest selling album. More people listened to us than ever before…We never considered NOT carrying on. Fashions come and go, you know?”
• Duke peaked at Number 11 on the Billboard 200 and was the first Genesis album to hit Number One in the U.K.
• The profits from Duke allowed Genesis to build their own studio, The Farm, in Surrey, England.

FAST FORWARD:

• After a second divorce and with his solo career booming, Collins announced his decision to leave Genesis in 1996. He later remarried and moved to Switzerland, though that union has also come apart, and he’s now living primarily in New York City. Banks and guitarist-bassist Rutherford carried on with new singer Ray Wilson, but the trio’s first album, 1997’s Calling All Stations, bombed, forcing the group to cancel a North American tour.
• Collins won an Oscar for his work on Disney’s animated feature Tarzan.
• Collins’s music career almost came to an end in 2000 when he suddenly lost his hearing. During a business meeting, Collins was struck with Sudden Deafness, which is a stroke in the ears. The condition also affected his sense of balance, although his brain was able to compensate for the disturbance and he was able to walk after a while. His hearing has since returned.
• Collins was inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 2003.