There have probably been thousands of soft-rock songs about pain and loss, and Air Supply’s contribution to this much-maligned genre was an enormous worldwide hit in 1980.

The Australian band had been together for five years and were established at home, but it took the release of a string-drizzled ode to a lost love with an unshakeable chorus to secure them the international recognition that they craved.

Formulaic as a love song but not to its detriment at all, All Out Of Love began with a simple acoustic guitar and piano backing, while Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell shared the vocals from verse to chorus, with no change in key or tempo in between. Eventually, the huge orchestral arrangement by Clive Davis takes over, and it’s a big deal, too, transforming what could have been a production-line love song into an epic.

A reflective middle eight: (“What are you thinking of?”) links back into a chorus repeated to a crescendo, with extra harmony added each time. On careful listening, it is clear Davis did a lot with an intentionally simple song.

All Out Of Love made No.11 in 1980 but the best chart position in the UK the duo managed afterwards was No.44. In the US, they were huge during the early 80s, with eight Top Five hits. Hitchcock and Russell continue as a duo to this day.

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