Making Love Out of Nothing at All

"Making Love Out of Nothing At All" is a power ballad written and composed by Jim Steinman and first released by Australian soft rock band Air Supply for their 1983 compilation album Greatest Hits. It reached number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks (behind "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler, who would cover this song in 1995, giving Steinman a consecutive peak of two songs).

"Making Love Out of Nothing At All"
Single by Air Supply
from the album Greatest Hits
B-side"Late Again"
ReleasedJuly 1983
GenrePop rock,[1] soft rock[2]
Length5:43 (Album version)
4:29 (Single version)
5:38 (Video version)
LabelArista (U.S.)
Geffen (UK)
Songwriter(s)Jim Steinman
Producer(s)Jim Steinman
Air Supply singles chronology
"Two Less Lonely People in the World"
(1982)		 "Making Love Out of Nothing At All"
(1983)		 "I Can Wait Forever"
(1984)
Music video
"Making Love Out of Nothing At All" on YouTube

The song has been covered by many other artists, the most successful being that of Bonnie Tyler.

Background and recording

The song is a reworking of the main title theme from the 1980 film A Small Circle of Friends, for which Jim Steinman wrote the score.[3] It was first recorded by Air Supply, giving them a number two hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. for three weeks. It was held off from the top spot by another Steinman production, Bonnie Tyler's recording of "Total Eclipse of the Heart". This is the group's last Top Ten hit in the United States, but it only reached #45 in Australia and #80 in the UK.

The song was subsequently released as a new track from their 1983 greatest hits album. The B-side of the single was "Late Again".[4] They have included the song on their numerous greatest hits and live albums, and recorded an acoustic version for their 2005 album The Singer and the Song.[5]

Steinman offered the song, along with "Total Eclipse of the Heart", to Meat Loaf for his Midnight at the Lost and Found album; however, Meat Loaf's record company refused to pay Steinman for the material so Meat Loaf ended up writing compositions for the album himself. Steinman's songs were then offered to Bonnie Tyler and Air Supply.[6]

By 1983, Air Supply had changed much of its classic musician line-up, both in the recording studio and on tour. But Steinman, known for his lavish, rock-opera-ish type productions, used Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band members Roy Bittan on keyboards and Max Weinberg on drums, to musically underscore the recording with like energies. Rick Derringer, who was previously the guitarist for The McCoys and Johnny Winter, provided the electric guitar solo that made the sound of "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" stand so drastically apart from most other Air Supply songs.

Music video

Two videos for the Air Supply version exist.

The first version begins with a couple driving to an airport. The man (Graham Russell) is "leaving for a tour" and asks the woman (played by Graham Russell's real-life spouse, Jodi Russell) to join him, as he give her anything she wants.

House

Graham Russell: So, won't you reconsider?
Girlfriend: So, won't you?

Driving to the airport

Graham Russell: Come with me, I can give you anything.
Girlfriend: I've been there, all I want is you.

In front of the plane

Graham Russell: But it's just one more tour, then I'll be back.
Girlfriend: But I won't...I can't...

The remainder of the video intersperses Russel Hitchcock and Graham Russell onstage with various scenes of the man and woman's relationship. Graham and Russell, who comprise Air Supply, leave their dressing room for the stage. As they sing with the band, the female (Jodi Russell - Graham Russell's real-life wife) is shown packing and leaving their home, placing their photograph face down on the table in the process. Nevertheless, she changes her mind and does a u-turn on the freeway, and now drives to the airport. She meets him at the side of the stage near the end of the song and they embrace. The plane seen in the video is a Learjet 35.

Another version is set in 1960s New York City and involves a Marine and a young woman and the various challenges they encounter in their relationship, interspersed with scenes of the band singing the song.[7]

Chart history

Personnel

+ In initial releases of Air Supply's 1983 Greatest Hits album, Steve Buslowe was not included as the bass guitarist in the album credits.[16] However, this error was corrected in future pressings.[17]

Bonnie Tyler version
"Making Love (Out of Nothing At All)"
Single by Bonnie Tyler
from the album Free Spirit
Released1995
GenrePop rock
Length7:49
Songwriter(s)Jim Steinman
Producer(s)

The song was later covered by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler on her album Free Spirit. It opens with a wordless choral vocal followed by sounds of thunderclaps and a bell before the melody begins, played on piano. Over the piano section is an excerpt from "Un bel dì vedremo", the aria from Puccini's Madame Butterfly, sung by Tyler's mother Elsie Hopkins.[18]

Allmusic called this version "fantastic, clocking in at nearly eight minutes, and seems perfectly suited for her voice. [Air Supply's] version was already great, but hers is awesome."[19] It was produced by Steinman, with Steven Rinkoff as co-producer, at The Hit Factory, New York City.

Lyrics

These lines were changed for the Tyler version, and also for the subsequent Karine Hannah version, as well:

I can make you find your power
I can make you lose your fear
I can make your body do some very magical things
And make your inhibitions all disappear

Charts
Chart (1995–96) Peak
position
Eurocharts Border Breakers Airplay [20] 5
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[21] 12
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[22] 45

Rory Dodd demo version

A version from 1982 sung by Rory Dodd also exists. The only accompaniment is Steinman playing piano, and he includes several variations on the primary melody in the intro and bridge.[23]

Lyrics

After the bridge, there are two verses that appear before the final two verses of the Air Supply version. The verse from the Tyler version is not included.

I can make your money double
Or I can make you lose your shirt
I can make the old wounds start to heal
Or I can make the new ones hurt
I can make the music louder
Or I can make the songs all fade
I can make every girl just wanna get up and dance
And make the boys in the band start to play

In other media

Air Supply's version of the song is also featured in the 2005 film Mr. and Mrs. Smith during the car chase-gunfight scene, and is also featured on the film's soundtrack album. It was also used in the films Click and Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd. It was also used in the TV series "Claws" in the ending scene of episode 3 in season 2.

In 1983, Air Supply performed the song on stage, in "lip-sync" form with full back-up band for the popular early 1980s television program Solid Gold. Absent were many of the musicians that producer Jim Steinman used to record the original tracks. However, original Air Supply members Frank Esler-Smith on keys and Ralph Cooper on drums participated, and former Babys lead guitarist Wally Stocker "synced" so well, studio player Rick Derringer's guitar solo, without the slightest of glitch.

The song was used for a Wendy's commercial, where a "burger" is "singing" a part of the song, part of a promo being used in conjunction with online music service Rhapsody. The song was also used in the episode "Chuck Versus the Predator" of the American TV series Chuck.

A cover of the song by Mari Nallos is the theme song of the Tagalized (means "translated" in Tagalog) version of My Husband's Woman, an Asian series which is aired in the Philippines on GMA 7.

In 2012, this song, along with "Total Eclipse of the Heart", was a central plot point in "Unknown Subject", the twelfth episode of season seven of US TV series Criminal Minds. In the show, a bar piano player attempts to convince a victim that he isn't the one who attacked her. He claims she thought she heard him play "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (which the attacker had played during her attack), when he had actually played "Making Love Out of Nothing At All", and says they sound similar because they were composed by the same person.

The song is the theme song of the film Monga, covered by Nicky Lee.

The song was background music for much of the 2016–17 season finale of the ABC show The Goldbergs.

The song was also used during the final act of The Strangers: Prey at Night, where the character Kinsey is chased by the Man in the Mask who is driving a fire-covered car.

In 2019, Bang Chan, the leader of the Australian-Korean K-Pop boy group 'Stray Kids' under JYP Entertainment, mentioned this song during a live broadcast on the website 'V LIVE', which was titled '찬이의 "방"'. Bang Chan named this song as one of his song recommendations.[24]

In 2019, during Episode 6 of Netflix's "Daybreak", a character performs the song in a performance where his life is at stake.

gollark: I need reds in vast quantities for my AP egg grabbing addiction.
gollark: ~~not if I can get the reds before you can get the magis~~
gollark: You don't take their beloved children, you take the bad ones they don't want.
gollark: This is a copy of it if anyone wants it.
gollark: Why do people *keep* misinterpreting my avatar as subliminal pizza advertising?

References
  1. "Making Love Out of Nothing at All - Air Supply - Song Info - AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  2. "VH1's 40 Most Softsational Soft-Rock Songs". Stereogum. SpinMedia. 31 May 2007. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  3. "A SMALL CIRCLE OF FRIENDS Main Title Theme".
  4. "Special Sub-Topic: 'Making Love Out Of Nothing At All'". FunTrivia.com. Archived from the original on 7 March 2007. Retrieved 9 December 2006.
  5. "Air Supply: The Singer And The Song". CD Baby. Retrieved 2006-10-22.
  6. Adams, Cameron (26 October 2006). "Meat Loaf's a Hell raiser". Herald Sun. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
  7. AirSupplyVEVO (23 March 2011). "Air Supply - Making Love Out Of Nothing At All". Retrieved 26 July 2017 – via YouTube.
  8. Canada, Library and Archives (17 July 2013). "Image : RPM Weekly". BAC-LAC.gc.ca. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  9. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Making Love Out of Nothing at All". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  10. Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 17.
  11. "Cash Box Top 100 10/29/83". TropicalGlen.com. Archived from the original on 3 June 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  12. "Top 100 Singles of 1983 – Volume 39, No. 17, December 24 1983". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  13. "Top 100 Hits of 1983/Top 100 Songs of 1983". www.MusicOutfitters.com. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  14. "Cash Box YE Pop Singles - 1983". TropicalGlen.com. Archived from the original on 16 May 2019. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  15. Air Supply - Making Love Out of Nothing at All -- The (Almost) Complete Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman Lyric Archive Retrieved 3-16-2014.
  16. Air Supply - Greatest Hits @Discogs.com. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  17. Air Supply- Greatest Hits (1983) liner notes (lists Steve Buslowe's name and contribution at the end). Accessed on 22 August 2013.
  18. Free Spirit (booklet). Bonnie Tyler. East West Records. 1995. 0630-12108-2.CS1 maint: others (link)
  19. "Bonnie Tyler: Free Spirit". Allmusic. Retrieved 2006-10-22.
  20. "M & M Charts Airplay" (PDF). Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  21. "Nederlandse Top 40 – Bonnie Tyler" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  22. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  23. "Phantom of the Paradise - The (Almost) Complete Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman Lyric Archive". mljs.EvilNickname.org. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  24. https://www.vlive.tv/video/107284?channelCode=D7A4F1
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