No Jacket Required - Production

Production

Some of the songs from the album were works that were originally improvised by Collins, including "Sussudio". Collins was just playing around with a drum machine, and the lyric "sus-sussudio" was what came out of his mouth. "So I kinda knew I had to find something else for that word, then I went back and tried to find another word that scanned as well as 'sussudio', and I couldn't find one, so I went back to 'sussudio'", he said. According to the musician, the lyrics are about a schoolboy crush on a girl at school. Collins' older daughter has a horse named "Sussudio".

The music video for the song was filmed at a pub owned by Richard Branson in London. The accompanying music video features Collins, as well as long-time collaborators Daryl Stuermer and Chester Thompson. It begins with an outdoor shot of a pub, then cuts to Collins and his band playing for an uninterested crowd. The crowd slowly migrates toward the band as the song progresses, leaving them cheering at the end. Lee Sklar appears in the video playing a Steinberger headless bass, but neither Sklar nor Thompson played on the actual studio recording.

Another song developed partly through improvisation is "One More Night." Collins was playing around with his drum machine when he started saying the chorus of the song. He later recalled that "The rest of the song was written very quickly." The video, which features Collins playing the piano in a downtown bar, was filmed at a pub owned by Richard Branson in London, the same pub as in the music video for "Sussudio". On Collins's 1989 video release "The Singles Collection", the "Sussudio" video fades from color to sepia tone as the crowd slowly leaves, the pub closes, and Daryl Stuermer says good night to Phil, and the song "One More Night" begins. In the song's fade-out, Phil puts on his coat, thanks the bartender, and waves goodnight to the last musician left, Don Myrick playing the closing saxophone solo.

Another song that Collins created mostly through improvisation was "Don't Lose My Number". Collins has said that he actually wrote most of the song during the recordings for his very first album, Face Value, and that he does not fully understand what the lyrics mean. Stephen Holden of The New York Times agreed that the lyrics were very "vague, sketching the outlines of a melodrama but withholding the full story." Collins had difficulty conceptualising a plot for the corresponding music video. He decided to create a gag video based on this difficulty. In the video, he talks to clients and directors, all giving him crazy conceptual ideas. Collins parodies several other videos, including those by Michael Jackson, David Lee Roth, Elton John, The Cars, and The Police. The singer also filmed parodies of movies such as Mad Max, western films, and samurai movies.

Other songs were written with a more personal message. "Long Long Way to Go", considered one of his more popular songs not released as a single, was at that point in his career, his most political song. Sting, former lead singer of The Police, provided back-up vocals for the song. Sting and Collins first met through Band Aid, and became friends after performing together in Live Aid. Collins was working on a song, and thought that Sting, having played at Band Aid, would relate to it very easily. Collins asked Sting to help him provide vocals for this song, and Sting accepted.

"You know, I was very happily married to Jill, my present wife, when I wrote it, but I had been divorced, my manager was getting divorced, a couple of good friends were getting divorced, and I thought, What's going on? Doesn't anybody stay together any more? The song came from that."

"Doesn't Anybody Stay Together Anymore" is another song in which Collins was making a personal message. The song was made in response to everyone around him getting a divorce, including his manager, friends and himself years before. Collins later said that he sang this at Charles, Prince of Wales' 40th birthday party, not knowing that the Prince's divorce from his wife, Diana, Princess of Wales, would happen a short time later. The Phil Collins Big Band played this on tour. In later years, Collins performed a re-arranged version of the song as a ballad as part of his Serious Hits… Live! tour, differing considerably from the original up-beat album version.

"Take Me Home" is another song in which the meaning was originally very vague. At first listening, it appears that the song is about going home, but this is not true. Collins has stated that the song lyrics refer to a patient in a mental institution, and that it is very much based on the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Peter Gabriel, Helen Terry, and Sting all provide backing vocals. While recording "Long Long Way to Go", Collins asked Sting to provide backing vocals for this song. The music video(shot during the NJR tour) features the singer in multiple cities around the world, including London, New York, Tokyo, Moscow, Sydney, Paris, St. Louis, Los Angeles (Hollywood), San Francisco, and Memphis (Graceland). At the end of the video, Collins arrives home and hears a woman(presumably his wife) from inside the house asking him where he has been. He replies by saying he has been to some of the cities mentioned above. The woman replies "You've been down at the pub, haven't you?", as Phil grins at the camera.

"We Said Hello Goodbye" appeared as a B-side to "Take Me Home" and "Don't Lose My Number" originally, and as an "extra track" on the CD release of the album. Producer Arif Mardin composed the beginning portion of the song. A remix of the song with additional guitars and without an orchestra was released the following year (1986) on the soundtrack for the movie, Playing for Keeps. This remixed version received some radio airplay around the time of the soundtrack's release (which of course coincided with the No Jacket Required "era"), though it did not chart. Collins has mused that the song is unfairly classed as a "second class citizen," stating that the song would've been looked at differently if it were added to the album. According to The New York Times reviewer Caryn James, the song is "a straightforward comment on leaving home".

"The Man with the Horn" was originally recorded during sessions for Collins' second album Hello, I Must Be Going! in 1982. However, the song was not released until it appeared as the B-side to "Sussudio" in the UK, and as the B-side to "One More Night" in the United States. Collins has said he has "no emotional attachment" to the song. Music by The Jackson 5 inspired Phil to write the song, "I Like the Way", which also did not appear on the album, originally appearing as the B-side to "One More Night" in the UK and "Sussudio" in the US. He called the song "dodgy" and has cited it among his least favourite songs.