You wouldn’t think you could draw a straight line from Bruce Springsteen through Meat Loaf to Air Supply, and yet you can, courtesy of Mighty Max and The Professor.
It’s well-known that Weinberg and Bittan are all over Meat Loaf’s immortal 1977 Bat Out of Hell album.
It’s less-known that for years after Bat Out of Hell, composer/producer Jim Steinman continued to tap Max and Roy for studio sessions.
That led to Max and Roy appearing on Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in 1982, giving the E Streeters a claim that their Boss couldn’t match: performing on a #1 hit single.
And in 1983, six years after their first collaboration on Bat Out of Hell, Steinman drafted Weinberg and Bittan for yet another session–this time for a new track for Australian duo Air Supply’s upcoming Greatest Hits album.
The track was called “Making Love Out of Nothing at All,” and like “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and every track on Bat Out of Hell, it was written and composed by Steinman.
Like “Total Eclipse of the Heart” before it, “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” became a smash hit, kept from the top spot on the Billboard Top 100 by Tyler’s hit, which means that for three weeks in 1983, Steinman’s songs commanded both the #1 and #2 slots.
So perhaps we have Steinman to thank (or blame) for Air Supply’s cover of “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” which graced their second eponymous album in 1985.
Because while Air Supply may have recorded a few songs written by others, they generally were not a cover band. So it’s curious to see Sandy pop up on one of their albums, let alone the very next one following their collaboration with The Professor and The Mighty One.
We can only speculate (since I’ve never seen any reporting on it either way) that the duo was either introduced to Bruce’s music by Max and Roy or inspired by them to check it out. Either way, they apparently were as enamored of Sandy as we all are.
It’s just too bad it didn’t translate into a better performance.
It’s not an exaggeration to say they butchered Bruce’s lyrics, excising the middle couplet of each verse and leading off with an extra chorus. And as for the backing track… well, I suppose it conjure a sort of beachy vibe, but it’s definitely not the Jersey Shore sound.
But hey, like I always say: if you’re gonna cover Bruce, do it better or do it different.
This is different.
Update 3/17/21: Reader Joe Lewin reminded me that The Hollies’ cover of “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” (released a decade prior to Air Supply’s) featured the same lyrical surgery, so it was very likely an influence as well.
