Once Upon a Time in the Top Spot: Phil Collins, “Against All Odds”

36 years ago this week, Phil Collins sat atop the Billboard Hot 100 with his theme song for the Jeff Bridges / Rachel Ward film about a retired (by his team) pro football player who gets hired to find the girlfriend of a disreputable nightclub owner.

Penned by Collins himself, the song came about when director Taylor Hackford flew to Chicago to see Genesis in concert and asked Collins if he’d write the tune, providing him with a rough cut of the film on videocassette to view ahead of time. In fact, the song was already partially written by then: the song evolved from a tune called “How Can You Just Sit There?” that was recorded during the sessions for Collins’ FACE VALUE album, having been inspired by the end of his marriage to his first wife. With the help of producer Arif Mardin, who arranged and conducted the string section, piano, keyboard, and bass, Collins transformed the unreleased song into an ‘80s radio staple and, yes, a #1 hit. (It went to #2 on the UK Singles chart, just in case you were curious.)

In closing, we have to at least touch on the fact that in addition to its status as a chart-topper, “Against All Odds” also resulted in an Oscar nomination for Collins, but while he was in attendance for the ceremony, he was not provided with the opportunity to sing the song.

It’s said that, when Collins’ management contacted the Academy to let them know that he would be available to perform the song, the Academy offered their apologies to “Phil Cooper” but said that there were no more spots available. This is because the task of singing Collins’ song had been given to dancer / choreographer Ann Reinking instead. It was a painful performance, one which was partially lip-synched so that Reinking could dance, but it’s fair to say that no one was nearly as pained as Collins himself, who had to fume at the proceedings in person. After the fact, he didn’t hold back with his opinion, saying outright, ‘It was awful.”