"Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" (also titled "Against All Odds") is a song by English drummer, singer and songwriter Phil Collins. It was recorded for the soundtrack to the 1984 film of the same name. It is a power ballad in which its protagonist implores an ex-lover to "take a look at me now", knowing that reconciliation is "against all odds", but worth the gamble. The single reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, the first of seven US No. 1s for Collins in his solo career.[4] "Against All Odds (Take a Look At Me Now)" also topped the charts in Canada, Ireland, and Norway, while peaking at No. 2 in the United Kingdom.
The song has been covered by several singers, some versions of which have been successful in both the US and UK markets. The song has twice reached No. 1 in the UK singles chart: the pairing of Mariah Carey and boyband Westlife, in September 2000,[5] and then again by Steve Brookstein, the first winner of The X Factor, in January 2005.[6] In 2022, an Italian version called "Impossibile" was released by German singer and TV-personality Giovanni Zarrella.
Background and development
Collins was approached to write the title song to the film Against All Odds while it was still in its preliminary "rough cut form".[7] At the time the soundtrack was being completed, Collins was on tour with Genesis. Director Taylor Hackford flew into Chicago to see one of the band's concerts. Collins watched the movie on a videocassette recorder in his hotel room and agreed to appear on the soundtrack.[8]
Originally titled "How Can You Just Sit There?", the song's music was written by Collins during sessions for his debut solo album Face Value (1981), but it fell by the wayside as it was his least favourite of the several ballads he wrote at the time.[9][10] Nor was it included on Hello, I Must Be Going!, as many newer songs were written for it. Eventually, Collins presented the demo to Taylor Hackford when approached to write a song for the Against All Odds movie, which he loved. Then Collins penned the lyrics, which were for the film.[10] Due to lack of time available (as he was on tour with Genesis), he had arrangerArif Mardin produce it, and they worked on it over two days.[10] The piano performance is by New York musician Rob Mounsey. Piano, keyboard bass and a string section arranged and conducted by Mardin were recorded at RCA Studios, New York, while Collins recorded vocals and drums in Los Angeles.[11]
On episode 339 of This American Life, "Break Up", Collins relays that the song was inspired and written shortly after the breakup between him and his first wife. In the interview he says that the divorce transformed him from being a musician into also being a lyricist.
The song was first included on a Collins album on the 1998 compilation Hits, and it also appeared on his compilation Love Songs: A Compilation... Old and New (2004). A live performance of the song also appears on the Serious Hits... Live! album. In 2015, Collins released the original demo recording from the Face Value sessions as part of his Take A Look At Me Now project.
Use and association with the film
"Against All Odds" was created explicitly for the movie,[11] although it was based on an earlier unreleased song Collins had written in 1981. Hackford, who previously used a song for the 1982 American drama film An Officer and a Gentleman, planned the same for the neo-noir 1984 film Against All Odds,[11] which is a remake of Out of the Past. When he signed with Atlantic Records, he was provided with a roster of artists, among whom Collins was chosen to render the film's theme song based on the quality of his voice.[11] Hackford said that it was a "textbook case of designing a song to reflect what the film is".[11] The song appears in the movie as background music during the closing credits.[12]
Writing for the soundtrack's review, Allmusic editor Heather Phares claimed that the film is best remembered for the inclusion of Collins' "classic theme song".[13] Phares added that the song "remains not only one of Collins' definitive singles, but one of the 1980s' best love songs".[13] Director Hackford also had the same view, stating that it "decidedly" helped the film: people identified the song with the film and came to watch it.[11] When the single reached the top five, it contributed to the increased box office sales of the movie.[11]
When another song Collins performed for a movie, "Separate Lives", was being nominated for an Academy Award, in interviews about the original snub by the academy for "Against All Odds", Collins would jokingly say "the hell with him – I'm going up too", referring to what he would do if the Stephen Bishop-written song were to win the award.[17] Collins lost to the Stevie Wonder song "I Just Called to Say I Love You".
"Against All Odds" became Collins' third top-ten single in the UK, peaking at #2 for three weeks in 1984. It was kept from the top spot by Lionel Richie's "Hello" for the first of these three weeks, and Duran Duran's "The Reflex" for the next two. It was ranked 14th in the year-end best-seller chart. In the U.S. and Canada, it peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for three weeks in the spring of 1984 and four weeks on the Canadian RPM charts.[8]Billboard ranked it as the No. 5 song for 1984 and RPM ranked it at No. 2.[21]
Music video
The single's music video was directed by Taylor Hackford, produced by Jeffrey Abelson through Parallax Productions and cinematographed by Daniel Pearl.[22] Hackford was paid US$20,000 (out of a total budget of US$45,000)[23] for a complete Collins clip. The music video was released in February 1984.[11] A No. 1 MTV video for several weeks, MTV ranked it as No. 4 four in its 1984 year-end top 20 video countdown.[24] Gary LeMel, music supervisor at Columbia, felt the music video on MTV increased Against All Odds' box office takings by at least US$5 million.[23]
The concept for the video was created by Keith Williams, a Welsh-born writer who had already worked with Abelson on the video for "Dancin' With Myself" (Billy Idol), and who would go on to also create concepts for "Holding Out for a Hero" (Bonnie Tyler) and "Ghostbusters" (Ray Parker Jr.) for the same producer as well as "Say You Say Me" (Lionel Richie) from White Nights, which Taylor Hackford also directed.[25]
American singer Mariah Carey recorded and co-produced her version of the song with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for her seventh studio album Rainbow (1999). It was released on 29 May 2000, as the fourth single from the album, by Columbia Records.[67] Carey later released a new version of the song, featuring new vocals by Irish pop group Westlife, which served as the first single from the band's second album, Coast to Coast (2000).
English singer and The X Factor winner Steve Brookstein included "Against All Odds" on his debut studio album, Heart and Soul (2005). It was released as his debut single on 20 December 2004 by Sony BMG proceeds went to the Asian Tsunami Fund.[68]
Background
In 2004, Brookstein won the televised UK talent competition The X Factor, and recorded a cover of the Phil Collins 1984 hit "Against All Odds" as his debut single. It entered the UK Singles Chart at number two behind "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid 20, and then climbed to number one, where it stayed for one week from 2 January 2005 to 8 January 2005 and was replaced by Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock". "Against All Odds" was later included on Brookstein's debut album Heart and Soul.
Chart performance
"Against All Odds" debuted at number two in the United Kingdom, behind Band Aid 20's version of "Do They Know It's Christmas?", and at number 11 in Ireland. It charted at number one in the UK the following week. "Against All Odds" sold 127,701 copies in its first week in the UK, the lowest first-week sales for an X Factor winner's single until 2015.[69] Brookstein's version has sold 204,000 copies in the UK to date, making it the lowest-selling X Factor winner's single.[70] It has sold fewer than half the copies of Leon Jackson's "When You Believe" and Little Mix's "Cannonball", a third of Joe McElderry's "The Climb", a quarter of Leona Lewis's "A Moment Like This", and a fifth of those of Matt Cardle's "When We Collide", Shayne Ward's "That's My Goal", James Arthur's "Impossible" and Alexandra Burke's "Hallelujah". The next fewest sales from a winner's song was Sam Bailey's version of "Skyscraper", which had first-week sales of 149,000 copies, 26,000 more than "Against All Odds".[70] However, Louisa Johnson, Matt Terry and Rak Su would all have lower first week sales in later years.
The song is featured in the 2024 action comedy film The Fall Guy during the scene where Jody Moreno thinks her ex-boyfriend, Colt Seavers, stood her up. She sings the song at a karaoke bar.
Radio
The song also features heavily in the first act of the This American Life episode "Break Up". The segment featured an interview with Collins, as well as narration from a woman who listened to the song to get over a break-up and vowed to write her own break-up song.[75]
^Daniel Pearl. "Resumé". Archived from the original on 18 September 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
^ abDenisoff, R. Serge; Romanowski, William D. (1990). "Synergy in 1980s Film and Music: Formula for Success or Industry Mythology?". Film History. 4 (3): 257–276, here p. 259. JSTOR3815137.
^Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (Illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 71. ISBN0-646-11917-6. N.B. The Kent Report chart was licensed by ARIA between 1983 and 19 June 1988.
