Against All Odds - Music

Frogtoon Music - Song Info: Against All Odds

Phil-Collins - Love Songs: A Compilation... Old And New

"Against All Odds Take A Look At Me Now " Also Simply Titled "Against All Odds" Is A Song By British Singer Phil Collins Recorded For 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" While Considering It Worth Trying. The Single While It Reached Number Two In The United Kingdom Peaked At Number One On The US Billboard Hot 100 The First For Collins. "Against All Odds" Won The Grammy Award For Best Male Pop Vocal Performance In 1985 And It Was Also Nominated For The Academy Award For Best Original Song. Collins Was The Only Nominee In The Category Not Invited To Sing His Song On Stage And Sat In The Audience As Ann Reinking Performed It. After Its Release "Against All Odds" Peaked At Number Two As A Single In 1984 And Became Collins' Third Top-Ten Single In The United Kingdom. In The United States It Peaked At Number One On The Billboard Hot 100 For Three Weeks In The Spring Of 1984. It Is The First Of Six Songs By Collins Written Specifically For A Film Soundtrack That Would Appear On The Hot 100. It Also Became Collins' Only Number 1 Single On The Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart As A Solo Artist Although He Would Achieve Two Other Number Ones On This Chart With His Band Genesis. The Single's Music Video Was Directed By Taylor Hackford And Produced By Jeffrey Abelson. Hackford Was Paid US$20 000 For A Complete Collins Clip. The Music Was Released Alongside The Single On The Last Week Of February 1984. A Number One MTV Video For Several Weeks MTV Ranked It As Number 4 In Its 1984 Year-End Top 20 Video Countdown. The Music Video Is An Early Example Of A Highly Conceptual Approach To Creating Hybrid Movie/music-Videos That Producer Abelson Pioneered. Echoing The Love Triangle Theme Of The Film Collins Is Seen Performing In Front Of A Wall Of Rainwater That Is Alternately Lit Red Blue And Green—each Colour Representing One Of The Three Main Characters In The Film. It Is This Colour Schematic That Is Used As An Organic Segue To And From Character-Specific Scenes In The Movie. The Final Scene Pulls Back From Collins To Reveal Him Standing In The Middle Of A Water-Filled Triangle Formed From Neon Tubes In The Same Three Colours—completing The Visual Concept As The Three Main Characters Are Superimposed Around The Neon Triangle's Three Sides. 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. Citation