"Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" (also simply titled "Against All Odds") is a song originally written and recorded by British singer Phil Collins. The song was the main theme for the 1984 film of the same name, and first appeared on its soundtrack. It is a ballad in which its protagonist implores his/her ex-lover to "take a look at me now," knowing that reconciliation is "against all odds" but worth a try. It has been covered by several artists.

Originally titled "How Can You Just Sit There?", the song was initially from the sessions for Collins' debut solo album Face Value(1981), and it was one of about a dozen written for his first wife, who left him. Phil Collins released the song on the soundtrack to the film Against All Odds, and it was produced by Arif Mardin. Rob Mounsey played piano and keyboard bass, Collins sang and played the drums with his (and Hugh Padgham's) trademark gated reverb sound, and a string arrangement by Mardin completed the production.

According to Collins in a 1985 interview with Dan Neer; "We recorded the song in two days: One day in New York, the other in Los Angeles. The mixes were done by phone and the song went to Number 1. I couldn't believe it." It peaked at number 2 in the UK upon its release as a single] in 1984 and became Collins' third top ten single there, and it peaked at number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, from 15 April to 5 May 1984. It replaced "Footloose" by Kenny Loggins, and was replaced by Lionel Richie's "Hello." It is the first of six songs by Collins written specifically for a film soundtrack to 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.

"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. His perceived negative reaction shown on the telecast is considered to be one of the most awkward moments in the history of the ceremony, and has been a favourite reference for Dennis Miller to relate someone reacting in a horrified fashion.

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 if the Stephen Bishop written song were to win the award.

Collins lost to the Stevie Wonder song "I Just Called to Say I Love You." 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. The live version was recorded in 1990 on the B-side of the single "Do You Remember?."

The song's music video, directed by Taylor Hackford, and produced by Jeffrey Abelson, was 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 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.

A number 1 MTV video for several weeks, MTV ranked it as number 4 in its 1984 year-end top 20 video countdown.

Collins discussed the song in a phone interview as an example for break-up songs in act one of This American Life, episode 339 "Break-Up" on 24 August 2007.

American pop/R&B singer Mariah Carey co-produced her version of the song with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for her sixth studio album Rainbow.

Carey co-produced the single edit of the song with Steve Mac. The song was released as the third single from Rainbow. Although the song was promoted as part of Carey's Rainbowin the United States, it was not released as a commercial or radio single there. It was initially released in some markets in early 2000.

The song received moderate success only, although it reached Top 20 in several countries. The highest peak of the song was #2 in Norway.

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The video for the Carey version of the song, directed by Paul Misbehoven, consists of a montage of clips of Carey singing the song from her various Rainbow World Tour stops to cullings from her Homecomingspecial.

Mariah Carey later re-recorded "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" as a duet with Irish boyband Westlife. This version was released as the first single from Westlife's second album Coast to Coast. The song was released in September 2000, a few months after Carey's solo version.

Carey did not re-record her vocals for the duet however, the instrumental track was reproduced with a more organic sound complete with violins. The single was more successful than the original in the UK and Ireland where it peaked at number 1, giving Westlife their sixth consecutive number 1 entry in the UK charts. It also gave Carey her second number 1 single in the UK; however, to date she has only managed one solo UK number 1, "Without You".

The song has received a silver sales certification in the UK for 200,000 copies shipped. The song was also the 28th best selling of 2000 in the UK.

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The video of this version was more popular than the video of Mariah Carey solo version. The video shows Carey and Westlife recording the song and exploring the island of Capri by boat.

American indietronica band The Postal Service covered "Against All Odds" for the soundtrack to the 2004 film Wicker Park. The cover was later named as one of the best cover songs of all time by the New York Post.

A music video was aired on MTV containing scenes from the movie and odds disappearing in a room.

Against All Odds is the debut single by British X Factorwinner Steve Brookstein. It was released in 2004 by Syco Records. The single charted at number 1 in the UK and number 11 in Ireland.

In 2004, Steve Brookstein won the televised UK talent competition The X Factor, and recorded a cover of "Against All Odds" as his debut single. It entered the UK Singles Chart at number 1, a position it held for one week from 2 January 2005 to 8 January 2005. It replaced "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid 20, and was replaced by Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock." It was later included on Brookstein's debut album Heart and Soul.

The music video for the song shows Steve's highlights from the show through to the moment he was announced X Factor winner, in a similar manner to other winner's videos from both The X Factor and Pop Idol. No original footage was recorded for the video.

Seattle music columnist, Megan Seling began an experiment on Monday, 6 July 2009 wherein she vowed to listen to Collins' "Against All Odds" at least once every hour that she was awake for an entire week and chronicled the journey here.

I've done dumber things. - Megan Seling

This song is on the video game Karaoke Revolution Volume 3. It is also downloadable content for the game Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore.

Brian McFadden • Simon Cowell • Louis Walsh • Ronan Keating • Steve Mac • Wayne Hector, Cecelia Ahern • Jodi Albert • Kevin McDaid • Kerry Katona