Hollies – The Air That I Breathe

I was around 7 years old when this was released. I remember being in a tire swing in my Aunt’s front yard when I heard this song on a radio that was playing from a car that someone was working on. I still remember the grass and smell from the day I heard this song.

This song would be way up in my favorite songs ever. Graham Nash had left by this time and the band turned a corner when he had gone. They went from a pop sixties band to more of a rock/pop band with hits like Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress, He Ain’t Heavy (He’s My Brother), and finally this song which was their last top ten hit in the US and Canada. In the UK they would have one more hit…a rerelease of He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother.

This Hollies song was released in 1974 and it made it to #6 in the US Billboard Charts and #2 in the UK. The band did not write the song. It was written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood. Hammond was the first to record this – it appeared on his 1972 album It Never Rains In Southern California. Phil Everly recorded it in 1973 on his album Star Spangled Banner.

I was seven when the song came out and it was one song I remember because of that dream-like guitar intro by the underrated lead guitar player for the Hollies…Tony Hicks.

Thom Yorke of Radiohead based the song “Creep” on this song.  After “Creep” was released, Radiohead agreed to share the songwriting royalties, so this is credited to Yorke, Hammond, and Hazlewood.

Allan Clarke lead singer of the Hollies: ‘The Air That I Breathe’, another song just like ‘He Ain’t Heavy’. A classic song and again that’s where Phil Everly came back into my life. I went to that same office where I wrote ‘Long Cool Woman’ in one day. The secretary of Ron Richards said that she’d just listened to a Phil Everly album and there was one song on it which was beautiful. She thought that I should do that song, obviously, she meant with The Hollies. I listened to it and obviously felt that I wasn’t going to be able to do it as well as Phil. So they said ‘You gotta try. Do it the way Phil would sing it’. And that’s what I did when we recorded it.’ It’s a beautiful song to sing, ‘Harmony-wise, Terry did a great job on that. To me, that’s again a classic that will go on, and on again.’

The Air That I Breathe

If I could make a wishI think I’d passCan’t think of anythin’ I needNo cigarettes, no sleep, no light, no soundNothing to eat, no books to read

Making love with youHas left me peaceful, warm, and tiredWhat more could I askThere’s nothing left to be desiredPeace came upon me and it leaves me weakSo sleep, silent angelGo to sleep

Sometimes, all I need is the air that I breatheAnd to love youAll I need is the air that I breatheYes, to love youAll I need is the air that I breathe

Peace came upon meAnd it leaves me weakSo sleep, silent angelGo to sleep

Sometimes, all I need is the air that I breatheAnd to love youAll I need is the air that I breatheYes, to love youAll I need is the air that I breathe

Sometimes, all I need is the air that I breatheAnd to love youAll I need is the air that I breatheYes, to love youAll I need is the air that I breatheAnd to love you

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball fan, old movie and tv show fan... and a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

68 thoughts on “Hollies – The Air That I Breathe”

  2. This has been one of my all time favorites as well. It’s another of the songs I began searching Youtube for as soon as the service came into existence. The slightly embellished live version in your video is nice. I’m getting a kick out of the audience, sitting calmly in chairs carefully spaced in rows, as if watching a lecture.

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    1. It has a mood to it that not many songs have. Very few songs “transports” me to a place and time (summer 1974)..and this does. It’s a song I’ve never got tired of…
      Thats a great way to describe the audience! I don’t think they knew what to do.

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      1. PS I’ve always thought Alan’s stylist, or style helped undermine their continued cred as a rock band. He looks like a 70s lounge singer trying to ‘rock’ a love song adult contemporary-style, instead of a bona fide member of the British Invasion. If he was following the advice of a stylist, I say it was awful advice.

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      2. I 100 percent agree with you. I guess he was catching the latest style at the time but it didnt’ fit with a rock band as they were changing in the 70s….he did look a little like a Holiday Inn singer in the 70s.

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      3. Yeah, this style was proliferating, and it’s probably fair to say most of the British stars were indulging in some form of it (Jagger, Daltrey, Townshend, etc.), but Alan took it a big step farther than necessary. He went the full Tom Jones.

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    1. Well buddy you are right there with me lol…hey Deke…what songs do you remember as a kid? You usually mention when you first got into music…but how about when you were a kid?

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      1. I do remember driving in the family car with my parents as it was AM radio here in town. Brandi was one of the first one’s I remember along with Bad Bad Leroy and being in Canada it was also a lot of Lightfoot as well.
        Guess were both old lol

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      2. Oh ok…some AM gold hits….that is me also. My sister had the Lightfoot single The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald…if I spelled that right… yea Brandy is a good song.

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  7. Great song! I remember when it came out, I thought ‘weird, it doesn’t sound a thing like ‘Long Cool Woman” but I loved both…two of my favorite tunes of the early-’70s in fact. It seems to me, looking back, in 1974 the songs that were absolutely everywhere where I was were ‘Bennie & the Jets’, ‘Band on the Run’, and ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet’. As Deke says, in Canada we also did get a lot of Gordon Lightfoot, which was good… I think ‘sundown’ was from that year too.

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    2. Yea 74 was a great year for singles. I do love this song to death….I mean it’s way up there on my top twenty list of singles. That intro just produces something special.

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      4. Tony Hicks was great friends (and neighbors) with Harrison…and both of their kids Dhani and Hicks kid worked together on music projects.

        Sorry for the useless trivia lol

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  8. This song is a bit of a standout, perhaps why so many of us like it so much. Was not aware of the Everly connection. There was a lawsuit filled but as you noted Radiohead were very cooperative. Some may recall that Lana Del Ray was caught up with copyright issues involving Creep.

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  9. We saw them way out here, sometime in the late 70s maybe early 80s- they were far far away, tiny figures on a big big stage. One of those concerts where your ears are deafened by a rough mix and your eyes are strained by long distances. At that stage they were (I think) going through the old set with true old stagers determined professionalism, if not wild enthusiasm; to be fair it was hard to see.

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    1. One thing they had was those voices…the three part harmony worked well for them.
      Obbverse…when I’ve gone to see the Stones it was much like you described… except now at least there are big screens…Hooray! Pay 80 bucks to see them on a video screen lol.

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  11. Max you called it, one of the most beautifully sung songs of all times. It ranks right up there with Unchained Melody. The Hollies sure knew how to crank out the ear candy. Those harmonies are sheer ecstasy. This one goes beyond, deep into the yearning of the soul. I’m not sure if I like Nash better with them or with CS and Y.

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    1. Yea they changed after Nash left…to be fair he tried to talk them into changing but they would not until it turned into the seventies… yea their voices are just awesome…

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  12. The Hollies had some great songs. “He Aint Heavy, He’s my Brother,” had a profound impact on me in early my adolescence. During challenging times in my 30 years as a substance abuse counselor, I would sing it to myself when I needed motivation to keep working.

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    1. Oh I can’t imagine that job…My dad had 70 kidney stones starting in the early 70s and he took sometihng to wake up, have fun, and go to sleep.
      It took him years to clean out.

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      1. 70 kidney stones! I had many clients who started out taking legitimate prescriptions for real pain. It can be a very slippery slope. While I’m very thankful to have never had kidney stone pain, I’ve had doctors prescribe way more pain meds than needed for me and family members after minor surgeries. I’m sorry your dad had to go through that.

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      2. Yes 70…when he passed away he had one in each kidney…so they never let up.
        I threw my back out in the late 90s and recieved 180 loratabs….not at once but with refills. I was lucky I didn’t crave them afterwards so yea I see why it happens.

        The flip side now…is well I only had one kidney stone and it was the worse pain I ever had…but the doctor only prescribed like 4 for a entire week. I get they want to be careful don’t get me wrong.

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  13. I loved that tune from the very first time I heard it, which must have been on my favorite mainstream FM radio station back in Germany in the 70s. I didn’t know Albert Hammond co-wrote and recorded it for his debut album “It Never Rains in Southern California”. To me, that album’s title track really sounds like California. When listening to it, I can easily picture myself driving in a convertible on coastal Highway 1.

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    1. Yea I like that song from Albert Hammond a lot.
      This song it was the same for me…I just can’t get tired of it.

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  14. This is a classic, and for my money better than their other classic ballad, which we mentioned earlier (thanks for the link btw!). But, I still enjoy their snappy sixties pop hits a little more than either.

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    1. I did the post because of your post of He Ain’t Heavy… I totally get why you would like that more…but yea this one is special…the tone and the atmosphere.

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  15. Hicks never got the attention that Harrison and Clapton did, but he was a great one. I saw the 1960s Hollies with Nash in the band, again in Memphis TN with a Dick Clark Caravan of Stars show. An awsome live band.

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    1. This is why I like to live through you sometimes…I would have loved to see many of the bands you saw…and mostly eating ice cream with some of the Lovin’ Spoonful.

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      1. Mad, I was just plain lucky being a teenager in those times. Being in a popular rock band opened a lot of doors and got me some special treatment, but I loved music and saw every act I could. It seemed Memphis was a hotbed for tours back then, then maybe Dallas and Houston. Best group I ever saw live, hands down the original lineup of Chicago with Terry Kath on guitar. Most entertaining, Sly and the Family Stone and the worst, Sonny and Cher and maybe The Monkee’s. Good or bad, I was driven to see them all.

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      2. Chicago with Terry Kath! Wow…that is the Chicago that I really like. I did get to see the Monkees in 1986 but of course that wasn’t the same.
        Yes Phil…you did grow up in the ultimate time and place really…for music. By the time I started to play (80s) it wasn’t as open anymore.

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      3. Yeah, I was forced to take my little sis to see the Monkee’s. My mother sprung for the $6.00 tickets and I drove her to Memorial Colosium in downtown Dallas. The place was crawling mothers and their preteen daughters, and I with my sister felt sufficiently out of place. The girls screamed like these guys were the Beatles when they came on stage. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t good either. Sort of like a garage band that got a good paying gig and some new equipment. Nesmith lost the tuning on his Gretsch 12 string and took too long to tune her up, almost 15 minuets. The others talked to the crowd and acted fools but they lost the show at least for me. The kids didn’t seem to know, or care, after all they were thee to see The Monkee’s and the darn guitar could have been completely out of tune and no one would have cared except for me. Sister outgrew them as the years went by and gave me her three Monkee albums that are still in excellent shape. I also have a Sonny and Cher Greatest Hits that’s never had a needle touch it.

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      4. Yea I didn’t figure they would be too good but it’s good that they werent too bad either. Being thrown into that with really only two of them bonafide musicians…and one of the two couldn’t tune!
        I have to credit them for getting me into pop/.rock music but a year later when I was 8 in 1975 I found the Beatles and all was over…nothing could beat those 4 Liverpudlians and I never looked back.

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      5. As soon as I recieve my new turntable, hopefully by Friday, I will start spinning my old disk. I found their first album Chicago Transit Authority and their other two in one of my record storage boxes. When my wife and I saw them at the Texas International Pop Fesitval in 69, she was about to become my girlfriend and we sat and listened to them when they lit the place up around 10 PM that night. By then the temperature was slightly under 100 so it was a balmy evening. Everytime she hears Color My World, she cries like a child, then it gets me going and we start talking about those times and all the bands we saw and the music we shared, and we still share all these years later.

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      6. Yea that had to be a special time and it’s great you shared those memories with your now wife. That is the festival that Joplin and Led Zeppelin played I believe. Phil I can’t imagine how great that would have been.

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  18. Pingback: Hollies – The Air That I Breathe – Joe Stilez Music

      1. They still did pop, but it had kind of an edge to it. I’m thinking specifically “Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress.” One of my favorites from the ’60’s is “Look Through Any Window,” with that great guitar lick and and the modulation at the end.

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      2. I really like Tony Hicks…a heck of a guitar player…I guess their big 3 of the seventies was this one, Long Cool Woman, and He Aint Heavy unless that was 69?

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  21. Pingback: Hollies – The Air That I Breathe – MobsterTiger

  22. Brilliant record brilliant guitar intro. I was 16 when this came out and i had loved The Hollies for a decade so it was a bit odd realising this was their final big new hit. Nash with the hollies anyday for me. Much as i like csn i will take The Hollies back catalogue anyday. And csn harmonies are basically Hollies harmonies.

    Re livebands seen never did see the hollies – without alan clarke i wasnt too fussed – but have seen Albert Hammond do this. Saw Cher she was ill and not at her best. Saw The Monkees 3 times, one time all 4 of them on their final tour together and they were fab. Tears in my eyes! Also saw Sky and the family stone on their very last British tour about 10 or 15 years back and it was memorable for all the wrong reasons. It was like a slow car crash. The audience was booing and then demanding money back. Everything about it was a total disaster. Sad but also what a way to finish your touring career!!

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    1. I only got to see the Monkees once and it was only 3 of them in 1986.
      Sly and the Family Stone doesn’t surprise me…he has really been messed up for years and I’m not sure if he is doing alright now.

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