Phil Collins is generally thought to have written Against All Odds for the 1984 movie of the same name. In fact, it was written three years earlier with the title How Can You Just Sit There. No wonder it didn’t make it onto his debut solo album Face Value.
Since then, though, renamed, reshaped and the title song to a big Hollywood movie, it has come good. Collins’ own version was a number one in the US and the UK, won a Grammy and was nominated for an Oscar. Then there are the cover versions by the likes of Mariah Carey and Westlife. But none carries the emotional charge of the song as delivered by Collins himself at the London Live Aid concert for Ethiopia in 1985, with the odd bum note only adding to the authenticity of the occasion.
By then, Collins had already lived through several artistic lives. As an actor, he was good enough to star as the Artful Dodger in a West End Production of the musical Oliver. As a drummer – and he was very good indeed: he became the driving force behind the rock band Genesis, and eventually its lead singer.
His solo career has eclipsed all that, at least financially, and Against All Odds is now perhaps the highlight of his songbook. To give it the ultimate accolade, you can elect it to the Timeless 50.