In which Westlife, the regional champions of power balladry, come up against the reigning world champion. A contest for the ages…
Against All Odds, by Mariah Carey (her 2nd of three #1s) ft. Westlife (their 6th of fourteen #1s)
2 weeks, from 24th September – 8th October 2000
And at first, Westlife give a good account of themselves. They’re clearly pumped up for this duet, with lead singer Shane coming out all guns blazing for the opening verse. When Mariah takes over, meanwhile, she’s struggling to get out of second gear. She’s either warming up slowly, or can’t be arsed, and doing that husky, breathy voice that she does when she can’t, or won’t, reach the high notes.
Second verse comes along, and Mark takes over for Westlife, again singing as if his life depended on it, while his bandmates gamely back him up. It’s actually looking like Westlife might be about to take the title from Mariah, in one of the biggest upsets in power-ballad history. Until Mariah wakes up for chorus number two, and puts the lads right back in their place with some eyewatering over-singing, reaching notes that even Brian McFadden’s dog couldn’t hope to match. By the end, Westlife are essentially backing singers, and order has been restored.
Sadly my imagined scenario is not quite the truth, however, as this record was made by tacking Westlife’s vocals onto an already recorded solo version by Mariah. Which means the video, with Mariah and her adoring backing band in a recording studio, must be fake. I’m imagining an unfortunate lackey suggesting to Mariah that she might want to re-record her vocals, a lackey who never worked in music again and who still suffers PTSD from la Carey’s death-ray stare.
Musically this duet makes sense. But commercially, I’m not so sure. Westlife were at the peak of their powers, and whatever they released as the lead single from their second album was going to be massive. Mariah, though, despite her huge success in America, had never hit the same heights in the UK: fifteen US #1s to two UK #1s by 2000 bears this out. Plus, this was the very end of her imperious phase, with the infamous ‘Glitter’ less than a year away. Maybe she needed this duet more than Westlife…?
Interestingly, this record didn’t chart in the States. But in Britain, of course, things were different. It was big enough to spend two weeks at number one – no mean feat in 2000. It also adds to our growing list of classic #2s belatedly making #1, Phil Collins’ original having made runners-up spot in 1984. And it’s not the last time a version of ‘Against All Odds’ will feature at the top the charts, either. Take that as fair warning…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
I was never that fond of the original in the first place, and it’s a bit of an injustice that Carey’s number ones in the UK were with dreadful records. The Xmas classic topped my charts, so I feel justified with getting that one in 25 years early in both the UK and USA, and Dream Lover and Fantasy almost did, her next best tracks. This though? No thanks!
Yes! Whenever she broke away from the ballads the results were usually pretty good.
Oh, for once the Americans had good taste, it seems. Shame it couldn’t have lasted until after the presidential election…And such is my diminishing interest in most 2000s chart-toppers that I can’t even think who was the third act to get more success than they deserved with this song, and can barely even be arsed to look it up. Meanwhile I’ll continue to chuckle for the rest of this afternoon at thoughts of the balloon going up after that lackey was too honest for his own good.
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The next hit version of the song will be by the legendary Steve Brookstein, winner of the first series of the X Factor. Who of course went on to have a long and decorated pop career… Oh no, wait…
Thanks. Another of Cowell’s hapless nine-day wonders?
You know, while it is surprising Mariah only had three UK No. 1s, she does have a whopping 24 Top 10 hits and 40 Top 40 hits. She was a superstar in the UK too, just not the behemoth she was in the US.
I like this version. It’s not a patch on the original, but it’s solid. Westlife don’t embarass themselves (they do sound like they’re trying their hardest), and Mariah does a good job. Smart move from both parties to record this duet. Westlife probably hoped it’d be a US crossover hit, but Mariah probably benefited from this the most though as it gave her a big hit in the UK and a decent chunk of continental Europe.
I’m surprised it has it’s own Wikipedia article. Usually info on cover versions are placed in the original version’s wiki page, but it has it’s own Wikipedia artlcle.
I absolutely love the original and think Phil’s vocal performance on it is unbelievably good.
Yeah that’s true. She was almost an ever present on the charts throughout the 90s, so it would be wrong to suggest she wasn’t a success in the UK.
Mariah…when I think of her…I think of that Christmas album that is played…and played….and played. Great voice though…I have to admit that.
Her Christmas song is one of those songs I would like to encase in lead and bury 100 feet beneath the ground. I enjoyed it, for a while, twenty years ago…
LOL love that answer!
A list to which I’d add ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ and ‘Sweet Caroline’, among others…
I couldn’t agree more!