Musical Monday - Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) by Phil Collins

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: April 21, 1984 through May 5, 1984.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: April 21, 1984 through May 5, 1984.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

This is yet another song associated with a movie, in this case, the movie Against All Odds. Oddly, while most of the other movies that have appeared on this list have been considered fairly slight: Xanadu, Fame, and Flashdance are all regarded as pop culture fluff, and even the one with the most studio muscle behind it - Footloose - is kind of a goofy trashy movie, this movie was definitely intended to be taken seriously. It starred Jeff Bridges, a prominent actor who had already garnered two Academy Award nominations (and who would garner another one in the same year this movie was released for his performance in Starman). Appearing alongside Bridges was Rachel Ward, who was coming off of an award-winning performance in the critically acclaimed miniseries The Thorn Birds. Cast as the villain was James Woods, who had already had a notable career before he showed up in this movie. The movie was a remake, loosely based upon the 1947 film noir movie Out of the Past, considered one of the greatest examples of that genre. In a bit of stunt casting, the ingenue from Out of the Past was cast as Rachel Ward's mother.

Despite all of that, I suspect that far fewer people continue to watch this movie than watch Flashdance or Fame or any of the other movies that have thus far had musical hits on this list. Lots of people are familiar with Footloose, especially the final dance scene. Lots of people know routines from Flashdance, especially, once again, the final dance. A fair number of people are familiar with iconic scenes from Fame. But I figure very few people would be able to even give a rough synopsis of the plot to Against All Odds without looking it up first. That isn't to say that Against All Odds is a bad movie - it is well acted and has a fundamentally strong story. It just hasn't had the staying power in popular culture that the other "lesser" movies that had his songs associated with them have had.

Previous Musical Monday: Footloose by Kenny Loggins

Subsequent Musical Monday: The Reflex by Duran Duran

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Footloose by Kenny Loggins

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Hello by Lionel Richie

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Footloose by Kenny Loggins

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Hello by Lionel Richie

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

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