BAT OUT OF HELL - Meat Loaf

YEAR: 1977

LABEL: Epic

TRACK LISTING: 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

IMPRESSIONS: One of the most famous and ubiquitous albums of the rock era, it still holds up today and both Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman have been dwelling under its shadow ever since. Wonderfully bombastic and operatic, one can see how Richard Wagner has been cited as an influence. Producer Todd Rundgren said he agreed to do the album because he found it hilarious. Meat Loaf quotes Rundgren as saying: "I've got to do this album. It's just so out there!" There has also been a tendency to drunken sing (or bellow) the song "For Crying Out Loud" at parties.

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: Bat Out of Hell, You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night), Heaven Can Wait, Two Out of Three Ain't Bad, Paradise By the Dashboard Light, For Crying Out Loud

GUEST ARTISTS: Jim Steinman (composer, keyboards, percussion), Todd Rundgren (producer, guitar, percussion, keyboards, backing vocals), Roger Powell (synthesizer), Edgar Winter (saxophone), Phil Rizzuto (play-by-play on "Paradise By the Dashboard Light"), Ellen Foley (vocal on "Paradise By the Dashboard Light", backing vocals), members of the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra (orchestra on "For Crying Out Loud")

FACT SHEET: BAT OUT OF HELL is Meat Loaf's second album and the first in collaboration with composer Jim Steinman. At 43 million units, it is the fifth best-selling album of all-time selling approximately 200,000 copies each year. The album has gone 14 times platinum. The album derived from a Jim Steinman's musical called "NEVERLAND" which was a science fiction version of PETER PAN. While touring with the National Lampoon, Steinman and Meat Loaf decided the songs were "exceptional" and converted them into an album. Steinman's musical influences on BAT OUT OF HELL have been attributed to Richard Wagner, Phil Spector, The Who and Bruce Springsteen (although Steinman himself is bewildered by the Springsteen comparison). Meat Loaf and Steinman spent two and a half years auditioning the album and being rejected (including by Clive Davis). Even when picked up by their label, almost everyone at Epic hated the album. The famous cover painting is by comic book illustrator Richard Corben.