“Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)” by Phil Collins

British singer Phil Collins originally wrote “Against All Odds” in the wake of his first divorce in 1980, in which his ex-wife also took the children. This song was created from a very-personal, emotional standpoint. And the track is centered mainly on Phil asking an estranged lover of his to give him another chance.

When originally penned in 1981, the name of this track was actually “How Can You Just Sit There”. The title eventually was changed to “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” due to it ultimately being featured in a 1984 film of the same name. And the subtitle of the song, “Take a Look at Me Now”, is based on Collins entreating his ex to observe how their breakup has transformed him into a shell of his former self and to have pity on him as a result.

Although Collins never specifies it is an estranged wife he is singing to on the track, you can still see that it was a very deep romance based on some of the things he says. For instance, they’ve shared “laughter”, “pain” and “tears”. But more specifically, he states that she was ‘the only one who really knew him at all’. Such a statement definitely alludes to a partner akin to a spouse, as in someone who for instance would know an individual better than even his own parents.

The song ends with Collins expressing that he is going ‘to stand here’ and wait for his love to come back to him. He knows that the chances of such actually transpiring is “against all odds”. But ultimately due to the overwhelming desire to get his woman back, he deems this as a risk he must take.

What Phil Collins said about “Against All Odds”

According to a 2015 interview with Mojo, Collins said he wrote the song out of a real life misery.