Killer Ballads: Songs That Can’t Be Killed

What IS it about Air Supply’s song Just As I Am?

“You say you love me
Just as I am
You always treat me
The best that you can
You say you want me, need me,
Love me, baby
Just as I am,
Just as I am.”

Remember it now?

Last Sunday while driving home, I heard it on the radio. Then just this morning while station-surfing, I heard it twice within an hour. And this isn’t the first time I’ve heard it played; every week I’d hear it on-air at least once.

It’s an old song; if I remember it correctly, it didn’t even scratch the American Top 40 (Daniel/la, pls. help me out on this one.) But it obviously had more success in this country, especially among jukeboxes and karaoke bars.

It’s a zombie kind of song; it refuses to die. It’s on par with The Bangle’s Eternal Flame, REO Speedwagon’s I Can’t Fight This Feeling Any Longer, Roxette’s It Must Have Been Love (But It’s Over Now) and almost all power ballads of Bon Jovi.

(Come to think of it, almost all Air Supply songs are still played once in a while on mellow radio stations. Bon Jovi, on the other hand, is a staple among gay bars; his hard-hitting, drum-heavy ballads with masculine guitar riffs are a favorite among gyrating men in g-strings. And once I saw a guy writhing erotically to the tune of Joan Osborne’s “What If God Was One Of Us.” Very surreal.)

I wonder what current hit will eventually attain that kind of jukebox/mellow touch/strip show status? Will it be Hoobastank’s The Reason? Nominate your own song.