Jim Steinman wrote the musical "Neverland", a futuristic rock version of Peter Pan in 1974, and it was performed at the Kennedy Center Music Theatre Lab in 1977. Steinman and Meat Loaf (born as Marvin Lee Aday) were touring with the National Lampoon show where they decided to use three songs from the musical for an album. Those were "Bat Out of Hell", "Heaven Can Wait" and "The Formation of the Pack". That last song was retitled "All Revved Up with No Place to Go". It would become the debut album by Meat Loaf who already made a career in music with his band formed in L.A. called Meat Loaf Soul. Then Meat Loaf performed the L.A. Musical version of "Hair" where he also met Shaun "Stoney" Murphy.
Paradise By The Dashboard Light - single cover
Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad - single cover
In 1971 he released his first album together with Stoney titled "Stoney & Meatloaf". After that he appeared in a lot of musicals. In 1973 he appeared in the movie edition of the musical "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" which became his worldwide breaktrough. After that he decided to stop doing musicals and focus on starting a music career. It still took sometime to get record companies interested because they couldn't fit the music style in any music industry standard. Finally they interested Todd Rundgren to produce the album and recording started in 1975. They did a concert in 1976 to promote the unreleased album together with Ellen Foley which Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf also met at National Lampoon shows. Finally in 1977 the release was there.
Stoney and Meatloaf 1971 album cover
Jim was inspired by Bruce Springsteen and Richard Wagner for this album. He wrote all the songs and is the power behind the throne here. The opening track was Steinman's desire to write the most extreme crash song of all time. The song "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" was written in direct response to actress Mimi Kennedy asking Jim Steinman whether he could write a simple song like Elvis Presley's "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You". "For Crying Out Loud" was originally written for the 1975 New York Shakespeare Festival musical "Kid Champion". We all know the teenage romance story of "Paradise By The Dashboard Light".
In 1978 Jim decided to come up with the follow up to "Bat Out of Hell" titled "Renegade Angel" with Meat Loaf. Unfortunately that didn't happen. Meat Loaf lost his voice, lost his house, used drugs and was losing his mind. Jim used most of the songs from "Renegade Angel" for his 1981 album "Bad For Good" without Meat Loaf who released his second album that same year titled "Dead Ringer" with all the songs again written by Jim.
"Bat Out Of Hell" would be the best album of the career of Meat Loaf but also of Jim Steinman who is the architect behind the album.
Original album cover
Bat Out Of Hell
Bat Out Of Hell / You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night) / Heaven Can Wait / All Revved Up With No Place To Go / Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad / Paradise By The Dashboard Light / For Crying Out Loud
Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad
You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth
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