"Making Love Out Of Nothing At All"

I can make the runner stumble
I can make the final block
And I can make every tackle at the sound of the whistle
And I can make all the stadiums rock

Of all the crazy things kids do in college, singing "Making Love Out Of Nothing At All" to annoy your roommates is probably the lamest. Nobody remembers exactly who started it or why, but we all remember that it became our room's unofficial theme song, we sang it so much. We even once called in a song request to a local adult contemporary radio station (STAR 104.5). Remember kids that this was in the days before you could steal any song you'd like over the internet. If the local record store didn't have what you wanted to hear, you'd have to hope you could get through to the local radio station and have a deejay take pity on you. Because we sure as heck weren't going to ask our friends if they had this song so we could tape it from them.

The deejay at STAR 104.5 did take pity on us - well, he was quite cool about it. He laughed at our unusual request and said he'd be willing to play it, but he'd have to check with the manager. When we called back a half-hour later, the deejay gave us the manager's response: "Are you *kidding* me?" So no song for us - the station was pretty soft, but apparently not that soft.

So I do have a soft spot for this song, as it reminds me of my wild college days. Some may describe the song as creepy and pathetic, but there are some pretty, if melodramatic (what Jim Steinman song isn't?), lyrics in there. The ones I quote above aren't those.

Certainly, I have no issue with the guys from Air Supply playing football (or presumably, Australian Rules football). One can sing sappy ballads without being a total wimp (see also James Blunt). I'm not on board with their stadium-rocking ability, however. It doesn't seem like their forte.

The song was originally written for Meat Loaf (as was "Total Eclipse of the Heart", by the way) - you can totally see him singing it, right? - so the lyric would make a little more sense coming from him. Not coming from a band who was deemed too soft to play on STAR 104.5.