Some music critics have suggested that the song sounds very similar to
Prince's 1982 song "
1999". Collins does not deny the similarity between the two songs; he stated that he is a fan of Prince's work and remembers listening to "1999" frequently while he was on tour with
Genesis. Tom Breihan of
Stereogum commented in 2020 that "in making
funky
dance-pop, Collins committed the same sin as almost everyone else who made funky dance-pop in the mid-'80s: he bit Prince." According to Breihan, "if something like that happened today, Collins would've at least had to give Prince a songwriting credit." Breihan acknowledged that "even if one
groove is a distinct copy of another, everything else is different." Michael R. Smith of
The Daily Vault believed that "Sussudio" was the best track on the album, calling it a "monster track"; he also added that: Other reviewers have criticised the song.
David Fricke of
Rolling Stone said that songs like "Sussudio", with the heavy use of a horn section, were "beginning to wear thin." In 2001, the chief rock and pop critic of
The Guardian,
Alexis Petridis, called the song a "vapid funk workout". In 2013,
Tom Service, also of
The Guardian, wrote: "Sussudio brings me out in a cold sweat; the production, the drum machine, the inane sincerity of the lyrics; there's no colder or more superficial sound in popular music, precisely because it takes itself so seriously." "Sussudio" was the first track released as a single in the UK and the second to be released in the US. In the UK, the song reached number 12. In the US, the song entered frequent rotation on
MTV in May and, by 6 July, both the single and the album had reached No. 1 on their respective US
Billboard charts. A version of the song appeared on Collins' remix album
12″ers (1987). == Track listings ==