The Knighted One-Hit Wonder: John Paul Young
Looking into the career of John Paul Young OAM is a fascinating case study—it proves that for an artist or band, having a single hit can change everything.
Sure, he’s often labelled a one-hit wonder, but I’m sure he’d rather take that than be remembered for no hit at all. This becomes especially clear when you examine his career before and after Love Is In The Air.
Before the breakthrough, Young released three albums in 1975, 1976, and 1977. None charted particularly high or made much international noise, although they did help lay the groundwork for what was to come.
He found some regional success—Yesterday’s Hero and I Hate The Music both reached #1 in South Africa. In his native Australia, those same two tracks, along with The Love Game and I Wanna Do It With You, cracked the top 10. Standing in the Rain even made it to #4 in Germany and #3 in Holland.
During this time, he also made regular appearances on Countdown, Australia’s answer to Top of the Pops, which kept him in the public eye.
Still, it wasn’t quite enough to make him a household name—or, as he might put it, worthy of a Queen’s honour. That all changed once Love Is In The Air hit the airwaves.
Love Is In The Air: The Accidental Global Smash
At this point in his career, John Paul Young and his team—his producers, songwriters, manager, and anyone else with a say—looked at what they had. One promising lead was the unexpected success of Standing in the Rain reaching #4 in Germany. Germany’s a solid market, so the plan became: let’s write something specifically for them.
What they came up with was Love Is In The Air. But instead of being just a follow-up single to keep German momentum going, the song exploded—reaching the top 10 in thirteen countries and hitting #1 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart.
This tune quite literally changed John Paul Young’s life. Without it, he would have remained a regional pop act. No knighthood from the Queen, no Olympic performance in 2000, no invites to charity galas—Love Is In The Air opened every door.
Ironically, after this huge success, nothing he released charted again. His follow-up singles performed even worse than his earlier work. And yet, this is when his career truly took off—he became a global star.
Imagine what he, his songwriters, and producers would give to understand what made that one song a hit so they could do it again. Maybe the answer lies in studying the chords, lyrics, and arrangement.
Maybe it’s an Australian curse—think of Jet’s Are You Gonna Be My Girl or Men At Work’s Down Under. Iconic, unforgettable, but never repeated.
In 2012, John Paul Young was awarded the OAM (Order of Australia) for his services to the performing arts. They might as well have just said: “For singing Love Is In The Air!”
John Paul Young Tunes | Related Pages
Love Is In The Air | Chords + TAB
You can learn how to play Love Is In The Air by John Paul Young using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| C | C C6 | Fmaj7 | Fmaj7 |
Love is in the air, everywhere I look around…
Check out the full TAB lesson here: Love Is In The Air (John Paul Young) Guitar Lesson with TAB.
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