Air Supply, Grease 2 Soundtrack + More Songwriter Royalties

A Billboard top twenty single from 1985 and a song from a cult 1982 Paramount musical carry this catalog, and both are still in active circulation more than forty years after they were written. "Just as I Am" reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 for Air Supply in 1985 and remains in the duo's live set today, generating concert royalties alongside its streaming income. "Do It for Our Country" appeared in Grease 2, and the film's long afterlife on subscription and ad-supported video has made a forty-four-year-old movie song the catalog's fastest-growing song.

The catalog includes the writer’s share of public performance royalties, collected through both ASCAP and BMI. Royalties arrive when these songs are streamed, broadcast, played in a film or television program, or performed live. Streaming is the largest single source at 44% of the last twelve months, with video streaming adding another 11% as the placements in Grease 2 travel with the film. Live performance contributes 15%, unique for a catalog of this age, because it is tied to an act that continues to tour. 

With a dollar age over 40 years, these songs have outlived vinyl, radio, CD and downloads, and are compounding at 7.7% a year over the last five years. For a buyer, that is the whole case: a catalog that has already survived every format it was born into, and is still picking up new audiences.

These songs were written for a run of major label projects between 1978 and 1985, and three of them found recording artists whose work is still in circulation today.

Air Supply are one of the most commercially successful soft rock acts of the 1980s, a British Australian duo whose run of adult contemporary ballads made them a fixture of the decade's charts and who continue to tour internationally more than forty years on. "Just as I Am" was the lead single from their self-titled 1985 album on Arista, released in May 1985. It reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the duo's last major chart entry there; the album itself was certified gold and peaked at number 26 on the Billboard 200. The song had a life before that version: Rob Hegel wrote it with Alice Cooper guitarist Dick Wagner in 1982 and recorded it himself first, three years before Air Supply.

Peter Frechette recorded "Do It for Our Country" for Grease 2, the 1982 Paramount sequel directed and choreographed by Patricia Birch and starring Maxwell Caulfield and Michelle Pfeiffer. Frechette performed the number as Louis DiMucci in the film's fallout shelter scene, and it appears on the original motion picture soundtrack released 11 June 1982. 

Sarah Dash was a founding member of Labelle and a longtime vocalist and touring collaborator with the Rolling Stones and Keith Richards. "Sinner Man" was the lead single from her 1978 self-titled debut, reaching number 9 on Billboard's dance and disco chart across thirteen weeks and number 71 on the Hot 100. It remains her best known solo recording. "We're Lovers After All" appeared on the same album.

David Morales & Elle Cato brought "Sinner Man" back to the dance floor in 2022. Morales is a Grammy winning producer and DJ and one of the defining figures of American house music. "Holding Me Touching Me," released 16 September 2022, is a new version of the 1978 composition.

Earnings Note. The Earnings by Period chart below reflects royalty payments based on two distinct statement sets from different payors. The Last 12 Months include:

BMI Statements: 2Q2025 through 1Q2026 (Quarterly)
ASCAP Statements, domestic: 3Q2025 through 2Q2026 (Quarterly)
ASCAP Statements, international: 4Q2025 through 3Q2026 (Quarterly)

BMI licenses US royalties for the songs. International royalties should flow through ASCAP on all songs but any that are paid via BMI will also be included.