Sam had an excellent report at Parents' Evening. He's doing really well in school. He's also really good at sport and regularly scores goals in his football games.
Yet I've rarely been more proud of him than when he heard Air Supply singing Making Love Out Of Nothing At All on the car stereo and said to me, "this sounds like a Meat Loaf song, daddy".
Making Love... was written by Jim Steinman for inclusion on Meat Loaf's third album, Midnight At The Lost And Found. However, the record company refused to pay Jim's going rate, so the songs ended up going to other people. Meat would later record a lot of the tunes Steinman gave to other artists, but sadly never did a version of this one. It remains the best Meat Loaf song that Meat Loaf never sang. Bonnie Tyler did a pretty epic version though, which gives us some clue as to how it might have sounded on a Meat album. The original Steinman demo, with vocals by Rory Dodds, is also worth a listen, for completists.
As for Air Supply... well, their version sounds a bit beefier than their usual melodic soft rock fare. Probably because it's got two E Streeters, Roy Bittan (keyboards) and Max Weinberg (drums) on backing... not to mention a guitar solo from Rick Derringer, formerly of The McCoys, and a frequent collaborator with both Edgar and Johnny Winter. In 1983, Air Supply were held off the Number One position on the Billboard chart for 3 weeks by another Steinman composition some say was originally written for Meat Loaf (though Jim later denied this), Total Eclipse Of The Heart.
Sam might not know any of this just yet, but he was able to spot Jim Steinman's signature sound after only a couple of listens.
Sometimes pop stars can be proper daft. Here's ten daft things famous people do in pop songs. Don't try these at home... 10. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
I broke into the palace with a sponge and a rusty spanner
Take it from me, you don't want to do that, lads - Lego is bloody expensive! 4. Queen - Hammer To Fall
Lock your door
'Cos rain is falling
Through your window pane
Maybe shut the window before worrying about the door, Freddie? 3. Elton John - Your Song
I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss
Generally, a roof that's covered in moss is going to be pretty slippy. Look what happened to Rod Hull, Elton. Accident waiting to happen #1. 2. Van Morrison - Brown-Eyed Girl
Slipping and sliding, all along the waterfall with you
Accident waiting to happen #2, Van. Sir Thumbsaloft has some advice about that too. 1. Air Supply - All Out Of Love
I'm lying alone with my head on the phone
Thinking of you till it hurts
Well, stop lying with your head on the blinking phone then! Particularly because, back when you muppets recorded this song, telephones looked like this...
Well, I think I actually won a couple this week. There were some stinkers though, so congrats for getting the ones you did...
As usual, I highly recommend giving the songs a listen if you don't know them. They're chosen because they're good ones!
10. Hatless, eyeless Mitchell, could be a Beach Boy... insists on keeping the central heating off.
Yes, as Lynchie points out, it does look a bit like "the late, great John Martyn after he's had a long weekend on the booze" (most weekends, then?) but it's not...
Hatless = Hats off... to Larry
Eyeless Mitchell = Joni without the i (well done, C)
Beach Boys = Wilson
Keeping the central heating on...?
Charity Chic got there in the end (with a little help from C), as I knew he would.
The one nobody got, which is a shame... but hardly surprising. The clues were pretty easy if you knew the band / track. But not many people do. More on that tomorrow...
Apologies to the Donny Osmond fans out there who might have been expecting his saccharine 70s Number One version of this song... but really, I have to draw the line somewhere. Wasn't Air Supply enough for you?
You ever find a song in your record collection that you're not sure you've ever listened to before... yet it's really quite marvellous? Where did I put that Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly album?
A new discovery. I only got this record a couple of weeks ago, it was only released last year... yet it could well have been a lost classic from 1986... in fact, this band wouldn't have sounded out of place on the original C86 tape.
