Air Supply · 1983 · Behind the Songs
Making Love Out of Nothing at All, released by Air Supply in July 1983, is a power ballad written and produced by Jim Steinman, and first released by the duo for their 1983 compilation album Greatest Hits. It was recorded in August 1982. Steinman had reworked the main title theme from the 1980 film A Small Circle of Friends, for which he wrote the score, into a full song, and Air Supply gave that song a new, larger life.
The recording is bigger than Air Supply’s earlier ballads. It begins with piano and vocal, then grows through keyboards, guitar, and drums into a dramatic, theatrical climax. Russell Hitchcock sings lead, with Graham Russell on backing vocals, and the arrangement, with electric guitar by Rick Derringer and keyboards by Roy Bittan, gives the song a rock edge that the duo’s softer work did not have. The effect is intentional: a song about making something from nothing needs a sound that itself seems to grow from a single note into a full band.
In the duo’s career, Making Love Out of Nothing at All marked a shift. It showed that Air Supply could carry a song written outside their usual partnership, and could do so without losing their identity. Hitchcock’s voice, clear even at full power, holds the center while Steinman’s arrangement expands around it.
Listening now, the song feels like a bridge between soft rock and rock theater. It is grand, but it is also tender, and that combination is why it remains one of Air Supply’s most recognizable recordings.