Writers: Albert Hammond, Mike Hazlewood

Publisher(s):

Copyright ?1972 Landers-Roberts Music & April Music, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with writer Albert Hammond's personal permission. For personal use only.

US #6, UK #2 for The Hollies in 1974
UK #6 for Simply red in 1998

The same melody was used for Necesito poder respirar and Manchmal braucht der Mensch einfach mehr (The air that I breathe is the original).

Albert Hammond (writer, recording artist): When you listen to the song, you'd think this is a show stopper, and lyricially, you?d think I wrote it probably for the most beautiful woman that ever existed in the world. And in fact, The air that I breathe was written for quite an ugly person actually, I mean ugly outside, physically outside. She wasn't a great looking girl, but she was a terrific person inside. She was warm and kind and... This person was the person who gave me shelter in Los Angeles, when I didn't have any place to stay. I had no money, I had no Green Card, I couldn't work, I could have been a homeless. I sat down with Mike Hazlewood, and I said "Mike, this is what's happened to me, and this is the person." And I think Mike came up with [the line] "the air that I breathe". More than my story, it was because we lived in L.A., and for the first time in our lives, we were introduced by smog. And everytime we woke up, we'd look at the Hollywood Hills, and there was like a yellow monster up there. And I think that was his reason for coming up with [the line] "the air that I breathe". My reason was a love story, his was ecology or whatever you want to call it, you know. But it worked. (1992 interview on BBC Radio programs. Thank you to Peter)