Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)

The song's harmonic intelligence lies in deferral: the tonic Ab major is withheld through the entire verse, which runs instead through the relative minor and a descending bass line that implies instability. The chorus then delivers the home key with minimal decoration — I, IV, V — so that harmonic resolution and emotional climax arrive together. Arif Mardin's string writing and Rob Mounsey's piano fill the texture without adding chord complexity; the emotional weight is carried by voice-leading and linear motion rather than by dense or chromatic harmony.

Collins wrote the music around 1980–1981 during sessions for his debut solo album Face Value, under the working title 'How Can You Just Sit There?'. He considered it his least favourite of the several ballads written at the time and left it off both Face Value (1981) and Hello, I Must Be Going! (1982). When director Taylor Hackford approached him to write the theme for Against All Odds, Collins played the old demo. Hackford immediately agreed to use it, and Collins then wrote the film-specific lyrics — the only entirely new element. Because Collins was mid-tour with Genesis at the time, he had arranger Arif Mardin produce the track, and the entire production was completed in two days.

Composed from a discarded melody dating to the Face Value sessions, 'Against All Odds' became the closing-credits theme for director Taylor Hackford's 1984 film. Produced by Arif Mardin in two days and built around Rob Mounsey's piano and a string section, it topped the Billboard Hot 100, won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male, and has since reached number one in the UK twice via two separate cover versions.