Bat out of Hell
Encyclopedia
Bat Out of Hell is the second album by American rock music
ian Meat Loaf
, and his first collaboration with composer Jim Steinman
, released in October 1977 on Cleveland International/Epic Records #PE-34974. Selling approximately 200,000 copies per year as of 2010, it is the fifth best-selling album worldwide, having sold 43 million copies worldwide. Rolling Stone
magazine ranked it at number 343 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003. Its musical style is influenced by Steinman's appreciation of Richard Wagner
, Phil Spector
, Bruce Springsteen
and The Who
. Bat Out of Hell has been certified
by the Recording Industry Association of America
as a platinum album, fourteen times over.
This album's title also became the title for two more Meat Loaf albums. Steinman produced the 1993 album, Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell
. Desmond Child
produced the 2006 album, Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose
.
, which Steinman wrote for a workshop in 1974, and performed at the Kennedy Center Music Theatre Lab in 1977. Steinman and Meat Loaf, who were touring with the National Lampoon
show, felt that three songs were "exceptional" and Steinman began to develop them as part of a seven-song set they wanted to record as an album. The three songs were "Bat Out of Hell", "Heaven Can Wait" and "The Formation of the Pack", which was later retitled "All Revved Up with No Place to Go".
Bat Out of Hell is often compared to the music of Bruce Springsteen
, particularly the Born to Run
album. Steinman says that he finds that "puzzling, musically", although they share influences; "Springsteen was more an inspiration than an influence." A BBC article added, "that Max Weinberg
and Roy Bittan
from Springsteen's E Street Band
played on the album only helped reinforce the comparison."
Steinman and Meat Loaf had immense difficulty finding a record company willing to sign them. According to Meat Loaf's autobiography, the band spent most of 1975 writing and recording material, and two and a half years auditioning the record and being rejected. Manager David Sonenberg
jokes that they were creating record companies just so they could be rejected. They performed the album live in 1976, with Steinman on piano, Meat Loaf singing, and sometimes Ellen Foley
joining them for "Paradise". Steinman says that it was a "medley of the most brutal rejections you could imagine." Meat Loaf "almost cracked" when CBS
executive Clive Davis
rejected the project. The singer recounts the incident in his autobiography. Not only did Davis, according to Meat Loaf, say that "actors don't make records", the executive challenged Steinman's writing abilities and knowledge of rock music:
Meat Loaf asserts "Jim, at the time, knew every record ever made. [He] is a walking rock encyclopedia." Although Steinman laughed off the insults, the singer screamed "Fuck you, Clive!" from the street up to his building.
Todd Rundgren
, however, found the album hilarious. The singer quotes him as saying: "I've got to do this album. It's just so out there." They told the producer that they had previously been signed to RCA
. In one 1989 interview with Classic Rock magazine, Steinman labeled him "the only genuine genius I've ever worked with." In a 1989 interview with Redbeard for the In the Studio with Redbeard
episode on the making of the album, Meat Loaf revealed that Jimmy Iovine
and Andy Johns
were potential candidates for producing Bat Out of Hell before being rejected by Meat and Steinman in favor of Rundgren, who Meat initially found cocky but grew to like.
, Woodstock, NY
. Roy Bittan
and Max Weinberg
, the pianist and drummer from Bruce Springsteen
's E Street Band
played on the album, in addition to members of Rundgren's group Utopia: Kasim Sulton
, Roger Powell and Willie Wilcox. Edgar Winter
played the saxophone
on "All Revved Up". Rundgren himself played guitar, including the "motorcycle solo" on "Bat Out of Hell". Both Steinman and Rundgren were influenced by Phil Spector
and his "wall of sound
". According to Meat Loaf, Rundgren put all the arrangements together because although "Jim could hear all the instruments" in his head, Steinman hummed rather than orchestrating.
When Rundgren discovered that the deal with RCA did not actually exist, Albert Grossman
, who had been Bob Dylan
's manager, offered to put it on his Bearsville label
but needed more money. Rundgren had essentially paid for the album himself. Mo Ostin at Warner Bros.
was impressed, but other senior people rejected them after they performed live. Steinman had offended them a few years earlier by auditioning with a song named "Who Needs the Young", which contains the lyric "Is there anyone left who can fuck? Screw 'em!"
Another E Street Band member, Steve Van Zandt, and Sonenberg arranged to contact Cleveland International Records
, a subsidiary of Epic Records
. After listening to the spoken word intro to "You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth
" ("Hot Summer Night"), founder Steve Popovich
accepted the album for Cleveland.
Rundgren mixed
the record in one night. However, the mixes were not suitable to the extent that Meat Loaf did not want "Paradise" on the album. Jimmy Iovine
, who had mixed Springsteen's Born to Run
, remixed some of the tracks. After several attempts by several people, John Jansen mixed the version of "Paradise" that is on the album. According to Meat Loaf, he, Jansen and Steinman mixed the title track.
Phil Rizzuto
's baseball play-by-play call for "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" was recorded in 1976 at The Hit Factory in NYC by Rundgren, Meat Loaf and Steinman. As an Italian Catholic, Rizzuto publicly maintained he was unaware that his contribution would be equated with sex in the finished song. However, Meat Loaf asserts that Rizzuto only claimed ignorance to stifle some criticism from a priest and was fully aware of the context of what he was recording.
. According to manager David Sonenberg, "Jim would always come up with these great titles and then he would write a song that would try to justify the greatness of the title."
The album opens with its title track, "Bat Out of Hell
," taken from Steinman's Neverland musical. It is the result of Steinman's desire to write the "most extreme crash song of all time." It features a boy who is riding so fast and ecstatically that he is unable to see an obstruction until it is "way too late." The next track, "You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth
," opens with spoken word, performed by Steinman and Marcia McClain, that was also taken from the Neverland musical, as were the next two tracks.
"All Revved Up with No Place to Go" describes the beginning of a relationship and also the taking of the girl's virginity:
Side two opens with "Two out of Three Ain't Bad
," which was written near the end of the album's production. The song documents the break-up of two relationships: first where the singer says he is not in love with his partner, and the second where he recalls when the "only girl ... [he'd] ever love" left him. In the Classic Albums
documentary, Rundgren identifies how the song was influenced by the Eagles, who were successful at the time. The producer also highlights the "underlying humor in the lyrics," citing the line "There ain't no Coupe de Ville hiding at the bottom of a Cracker Jack
box." He says you could only "get away" with that lyric "in a Meat Loaf song."
The sixth track, "Paradise by the Dashboard Light
", is an epic story about teen romance and sex. A duet between Meat Loaf and Ellen Foley
, the couple reminisce about driving to a secluded spot, at which he plans to have sex. They "make out" heavily in the middle instrumental section, described in metaphor in a baseball commentary by New York Yankees
announcer Phil Rizzuto
. However, she stops him just before they have sex, insisting that he first proclaim that he will "love her forever." He swears to love her until the end of time. The final part of the song displays the couple in an acrimonious relationship, in which they are "praying for the end of time" because "if I got to spend another minute with you I don't think that I can really survive." Whereas the title track is the "ultimate car crash song," this, according to the writer, is the "ultimate car sex song." It epitomizes the album's, as Ellen Foley
describes, "pre-pubescent sexual mentality."
The seventh and final track, "For Crying Out Loud", is a more sedate love song. It recounts the positive changes that a girl has made to the singer's life, which had "reached the bottom". The song also incorporates some sexual innuendo with the line "And can't you see my faded Levi's
bursting apart."
Comparing the album to Steinman's late-60s musical The Dream Engine, Classic Rock
magazine says that Steinman's imagery is "revved up and testosterone-fueled. Songs like "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," "Two out of Three Ain't Bad" and "For Crying Out Loud" echoed the textbook teenage view of sex and life: irrepressible physical urges and unrealistic romantic longing."
Steinman's songs for Bat Out of Hell are personal but not autobiographical:
For example, citing the narrative of "Paradise," Rundgren jokes that he can't imagine Steinman being at a lakeside with the most beautiful girl in school, but he can imagine Steinman imagining it.
. The cover depicts a motorcycle, ridden by a long-haired man, bursting out of the ground in a graveyard. In the background, a large bat perches atop a mausoleum that towers above the rest of the tombstones. In 2001, Q
magazine listed the cover as number 71 in its list of "The Hundred Best Record Covers of All Time."
Steinman had wanted equal billing with Meat Loaf on the album's title. He wanted it to be called "Jim Steinman presents..." or "Jim and Meat," or vice versa. For marketing reasons, the record company wished to make 'Meat Loaf' the recognizable name. As a compromise, the words "Songs by Jim Steinman" appear relatively prominently on the cover. The singer believes that this was probably the beginning of their "ambivalent relationship."
playwright Aristophanes
' 414 BC work entitled The Birds
. In it is what is believed to be the first reference to a bat out of Hell
:
Steinman registered "Bat Out of Hell" as a trademark in 1995, and sought to prevent Meat Loaf from using the title. In 2006, however, the singer sought to cancel Steinman's trademark and use the title for Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose
.
, where almost everyone hated it. Steve Popovich, the head of Cleveland International Records, was relentless in his efforts to get Epic and all of CBS Records and radio onboard. In 1993, Steinman reflected that the album is "timeless in that it didn't fit into any trend. It's never been a part of what's going on. You could release that record at any time and it would be out of place."
Response to the album was slow. Steinman asserts that it was "underpromoted", having a reputation of being "damaged goods because it had been walked around to so many places." Due to the enthusiastic response to the music videos from the record Australia and England were the first to develop interest. The BBC television
programme Old Grey Whistle Test
aired a clip of the live band performing the nine-minute title track. According to Classic Rock, response was so overwhelming, that they screened it again the following week. They later invited the band to perform "Paradise" live. "As a result, in the UK Bat became an unfashionable, uncool, non-radio record that became a 'must-have' for everyone who heard it, whether they 'got' Steinman's unique perspective or not."
The album was not an immediate hit; it was more of a growing one. Bat Out of Hell still sells about 200,000 copies per year and has sold an estimated 43 million copies worldwide, 14 million in the United States alone, over 1.5 million (22 times platinum) albums in Australia (even re-entering charts on June 2007, at #34 on the ARIAs) becoming the second best-selling album there behind John Farnham
's Whispering Jack
, 24x Platinum. It stayed on the United Kingdom charts for 474 weeks, a feat surpassed only by the 478 weeks of Fleetwood Mac
's Rumours
. In 1989, Kerrang!
magazine listed the album at No. 38 among the "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time". In 2003, the album was ranked number 343 on Rolling Stone
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2006 it was voted number nine in a poll
conducted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
to discover Australia's most popular album. In November 2007, Meat Loaf was awarded the Classic Album award in Classic Rock
s Classic Rock Roll Of Honour.
Reviews were initially mixed, but have since become much more positive. Rolling Stone
calls the songs "swell, but... entirely mannered and derivative." The arrangements "aren't bad", although the musicians are commended. The review ends with the assertion that the "principals have some growing to do." Contemporary reviews are more positive, however. Allmusic declares "this is Grand Guignol
pop—epic, gothic, operatic, and silly, and it's appealing because of all of this." They acknowledge that Steinman is "a composer without peer, simply because nobody else wanted to make mini-epics like this." Rundgren's production is applauded, as is the wit in the music and lyrics. "It may elevate adolescent passion to operatic dimensions, and that's certainly silly, but it's hard not to marvel at the skill behind this grandly silly, irresistible album."
Also, Meat Loaf revealed on In the Studio with Redbeard that he was not well received early on in the tour when he was opening for Cheap Trick
. In the same interview, Meat Loaf revealed that when he played at a CBS Records convention in 1978, record executives and superstar Billy Joel
(who was in the audience) gave Meat Loaf a standing ovation for his performance after a haunting performance of the closing track "For Crying Out Loud" was the turning point in the album's success in the US.
for unpaid royalties from sales of the album. Under the terms of the 1998 settlement agreement ending the suit, Sony agreed to include the Cleveland International logo on all future releases of the album. In 2002, Stephen Popovich, founder of Cleveland International and the owner of the rights to its name, sued Sony, alleging that Sony had failed to include the Cleveland International logo on some copies of the album and on some compilations Sony released that included songs from the album. On May 31, 2005, the federal district court
in Cleveland, Ohio
, entered judgment against Sony pursuant to a jury verdict in favor of Popovich and awarded Popovich more than US$5,000,000 in damages for Sony's breach of the 1998 settlement agreement. On November 21, 2007, the federal appellate court
in Cincinnati, Ohio
, affirmed the judgment of the trial court.
version, a twenty-fifth anniversary edition (2001 – Epic/Legacy #62171) with two bonus tracks ("Great Boléros of Fire (live intro)" [3:54] and "Bat Out of Hell (live)" [11:10], and a Bat Out of Hell: Revamped release (1993) featuring the bonus song "Dead Ringer for Love
".
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
ian Meat Loaf
Meat Loaf
Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...
, and his first collaboration with composer Jim Steinman
Jim Steinman
James Richard "Jim" Steinman is an American composer, lyricist, and Grammy Award-winning record producer responsible for several hit songs. He has also worked as an arranger, pianist, and singer...
, released in October 1977 on Cleveland International/Epic Records #PE-34974. Selling approximately 200,000 copies per year as of 2010, it is the fifth best-selling album worldwide, having sold 43 million copies worldwide. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine ranked it at number 343 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003. Its musical style is influenced by Steinman's appreciation of Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
, Phil Spector
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
, Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
and The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
. Bat Out of Hell has been certified
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
as a platinum album, fourteen times over.
This album's title also became the title for two more Meat Loaf albums. Steinman produced the 1993 album, Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell
Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell
Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell is a 1993 studio album by Meat Loaf and was written and produced by Jim Steinman. It was released sixteen years after Meat Loaf's second solo album Bat Out of Hell. It reached #1 in the US, the UK and Australia...
. Desmond Child
Desmond Child
Desmond Child is an American musician, songwriter, and producer. He is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.-Career:...
produced the 2006 album, Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose
Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose
Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose is an album by Meat Loaf, the third and last in the Bat Out of Hell series. It was released in October 2006, 29 years after Bat Out of Hell , and 13 years after Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell .Produced by Desmond Child, it is the only Bat album not...
.
Pre-production
The album developed from a musical, Neverland, a sci-fi update of Peter PanPeter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
, which Steinman wrote for a workshop in 1974, and performed at the Kennedy Center Music Theatre Lab in 1977. Steinman and Meat Loaf, who were touring with the National Lampoon
National Lampoon Inc
National Lampoon, Incorporated is a company formed in 2002 in order to use the brand name "National Lampoon" in comedy and entertainment. In the words of its prospectus, the role of the company is to "develop, produce, provide creative services and distribute National Lampoon branded comedic...
show, felt that three songs were "exceptional" and Steinman began to develop them as part of a seven-song set they wanted to record as an album. The three songs were "Bat Out of Hell", "Heaven Can Wait" and "The Formation of the Pack", which was later retitled "All Revved Up with No Place to Go".
Bat Out of Hell is often compared to the music of Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
, particularly the Born to Run
Born to Run
The album's release was accompanied by a $250,000 promotional campaign by Columbia directed at both consumers and the music industry, making good use of Landau's "I saw rock 'n' roll's future—and its name is Bruce Springsteen" quote. With much publicity, Born to Run vaulted into the top 10 in its...
album. Steinman says that he finds that "puzzling, musically", although they share influences; "Springsteen was more an inspiration than an influence." A BBC article added, "that Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.Weinberg grew up in suburban New Jersey...
and Roy Bittan
Roy Bittan
Roy Bittan is an American keyboardist, best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, which he joined on August 23, 1974...
from Springsteen's E Street Band
E Street Band
The E Street Band has been rock musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972.The band has also recorded with a wide range of other artists including Bob Dylan, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Nicks, Tom Morello, Sting, Ian...
played on the album only helped reinforce the comparison."
Steinman and Meat Loaf had immense difficulty finding a record company willing to sign them. According to Meat Loaf's autobiography, the band spent most of 1975 writing and recording material, and two and a half years auditioning the record and being rejected. Manager David Sonenberg
David Sonenberg
David Sonenberg is known for being the founder of the music management label DAS Communications. Sonenberg also dabbled in the film industry as the producer of the Academy Award winning film When We Were Kings....
jokes that they were creating record companies just so they could be rejected. They performed the album live in 1976, with Steinman on piano, Meat Loaf singing, and sometimes Ellen Foley
Ellen Foley
Ellen Foley is an American singer and actress, who has appeared on Broadway and television, where she co-starred in the sitcom Night Court. In music, she has released three solo albums but is best known for her collaborations with the singer Meat Loaf.- Early life and career :Foley was born in St....
joining them for "Paradise". Steinman says that it was a "medley of the most brutal rejections you could imagine." Meat Loaf "almost cracked" when CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
executive Clive Davis
Clive Davis
Clive Davis is an American record producer and music industry executive. He has won five Grammy Awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. From 1967 to 1973 he was the President of Columbia Records. He was the founder and president of Arista Records from 1975...
rejected the project. The singer recounts the incident in his autobiography. Not only did Davis, according to Meat Loaf, say that "actors don't make records", the executive challenged Steinman's writing abilities and knowledge of rock music:
Do you know how to write a song? Do you know anything about writing? If you're going to write for records, it goes like this: A, B, C, B, C, C. I don't know what you're doing. You're doing A, D, F, G, B, D, C. You don't know how to write a song... Have you ever listened to pop music? Have you ever heard any rock-and-roll music... You should go downstairs when you leave here... and buy some rock-and-roll records.
Meat Loaf asserts "Jim, at the time, knew every record ever made. [He] is a walking rock encyclopedia." Although Steinman laughed off the insults, the singer screamed "Fuck you, Clive!" from the street up to his building.
Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
, however, found the album hilarious. The singer quotes him as saying: "I've got to do this album. It's just so out there." They told the producer that they had previously been signed to RCA
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
. In one 1989 interview with Classic Rock magazine, Steinman labeled him "the only genuine genius I've ever worked with." In a 1989 interview with Redbeard for the In the Studio with Redbeard
In the Studio with Redbeard
In the Studio with Redbeard is a North American radio program, produced and hosted by Dallas, Texas based rock and roll disc jockey Redbeard....
episode on the making of the album, Meat Loaf revealed that Jimmy Iovine
Jimmy Iovine
James "Jimmy" Iovine is an American music producer, entrepreneur and chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M.-Biography:...
and Andy Johns
Andy Johns
Andy Johns is an engineer and producer who worked on well-known rock albums such as Led Zeppelin's IV and The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street. His sound is exemplified by Free's album Highway, which he engineered and produced....
were potential candidates for producing Bat Out of Hell before being rejected by Meat and Steinman in favor of Rundgren, who Meat initially found cocky but grew to like.
Production
Recording started in late 1975 in Bearsville StudiosBearsville Studios
Bearsville Studios was a recording studio at Bearsville, New York just west of Woodstock, New York.The studio was opened in 1969 by Albert Grossman, manager of Bob Dylan, The Band, Janis Joplin and Todd Rundgren....
, Woodstock, NY
Woodstock, New York
Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 at the 2000 census.The Town of Woodstock is in the northern part of the county...
. Roy Bittan
Roy Bittan
Roy Bittan is an American keyboardist, best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, which he joined on August 23, 1974...
and Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.Weinberg grew up in suburban New Jersey...
, the pianist and drummer from Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
's E Street Band
E Street Band
The E Street Band has been rock musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972.The band has also recorded with a wide range of other artists including Bob Dylan, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Nicks, Tom Morello, Sting, Ian...
played on the album, in addition to members of Rundgren's group Utopia: Kasim Sulton
Kasim Sulton
Kasim Sulton is an American bass guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist. Best known for his work with Utopia, Sulton sang lead on 1980's "Set Me Free," Utopia's only top 40 hit in the United States...
, Roger Powell and Willie Wilcox. Edgar Winter
Edgar Winter
Edgar Holland Winter is an American musician. He is famous for being a multi-instrumentalist. He is a highly skilled keyboardist, saxophonist and percussionist. He often plays an instrument while singing. He was most successful in the 1970s with his band, The Edgar Winter Group, notably with their...
played the saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
on "All Revved Up". Rundgren himself played guitar, including the "motorcycle solo" on "Bat Out of Hell". Both Steinman and Rundgren were influenced by Phil Spector
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
and his "wall of sound
Wall of Sound
The Wall of Sound is a music production technique for pop and rock music recordings developed by record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, California, during the early 1960s...
". According to Meat Loaf, Rundgren put all the arrangements together because although "Jim could hear all the instruments" in his head, Steinman hummed rather than orchestrating.
When Rundgren discovered that the deal with RCA did not actually exist, Albert Grossman
Albert Grossman
Albert Bernard Grossman was an American entrepreneur and manager in the American folk music scene and rock and roll. He was most famous as the manager of Bob Dylan between 1962 and 1970.-Biography:...
, who had been Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's manager, offered to put it on his Bearsville label
Bearsville Records
Bearsville Records was founded in 1970 by Albert Grossman. Artists included Todd Rundgren, Elizabeth Barraclough, Foghat, Halfnelson/Sparks, Bobby Charles, Randy VanWarmer, Paul Butterfield's Better Days, Lazarus, Jesse Winchester, and NRBQ. The label closed in 1984, two years before Grossman's...
but needed more money. Rundgren had essentially paid for the album himself. Mo Ostin at Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
was impressed, but other senior people rejected them after they performed live. Steinman had offended them a few years earlier by auditioning with a song named "Who Needs the Young", which contains the lyric "Is there anyone left who can fuck? Screw 'em!"
Another E Street Band member, Steve Van Zandt, and Sonenberg arranged to contact Cleveland International Records
Cleveland International Records
Cleveland International Records is an independent record label formed in 1977 by Steve Popovich. One of the first albums the label released was 1977's Bat Out of Hell by Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf which has sold over 40 million copies worldwide. They have also released recordings by B.J...
, a subsidiary of Epic Records
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
. After listening to the spoken word intro to "You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth
You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth
"You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth" is the first single by the American musician Meat Loaf in his solo career. It is a track off his 1977 album Bat out of Hell, written by Jim Steinman.The album version includes a spoken word intro by Steinman and Marcia McClain...
" ("Hot Summer Night"), founder Steve Popovich
Steve Popovich
Steve Popovich , was an American record company executive.Popovich was born in Nemacolin, Pennsylvania, and in 1962 started in the warehouse at Columbia Records Cleveland...
accepted the album for Cleveland.
Rundgren mixed
Audio mixing (recorded music)
In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
the record in one night. However, the mixes were not suitable to the extent that Meat Loaf did not want "Paradise" on the album. Jimmy Iovine
Jimmy Iovine
James "Jimmy" Iovine is an American music producer, entrepreneur and chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M.-Biography:...
, who had mixed Springsteen's Born to Run
Born to Run
The album's release was accompanied by a $250,000 promotional campaign by Columbia directed at both consumers and the music industry, making good use of Landau's "I saw rock 'n' roll's future—and its name is Bruce Springsteen" quote. With much publicity, Born to Run vaulted into the top 10 in its...
, remixed some of the tracks. After several attempts by several people, John Jansen mixed the version of "Paradise" that is on the album. According to Meat Loaf, he, Jansen and Steinman mixed the title track.
Phil Rizzuto
Phil Rizzuto
Philip Francis Rizzuto , nicknamed "The Scooter", was an American Major League Baseball shortstop. He spent his entire 13-year baseball career for the New York Yankees...
's baseball play-by-play call for "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" was recorded in 1976 at The Hit Factory in NYC by Rundgren, Meat Loaf and Steinman. As an Italian Catholic, Rizzuto publicly maintained he was unaware that his contribution would be equated with sex in the finished song. However, Meat Loaf asserts that Rizzuto only claimed ignorance to stifle some criticism from a priest and was fully aware of the context of what he was recording.
Compositions
Todd Rundgren acknowledges that Steinman was highly influenced by the "rural suburban teenage angst" of Bruce SpringsteenBruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
. According to manager David Sonenberg, "Jim would always come up with these great titles and then he would write a song that would try to justify the greatness of the title."
The album opens with its title track, "Bat Out of Hell
Bat out of Hell (song)
"Bat Out of Hell" is a song written by Jim Steinman, for the 1977 album Bat Out of Hell. It was released as a single in 1979, and again in 1993...
," taken from Steinman's Neverland musical. It is the result of Steinman's desire to write the "most extreme crash song of all time." It features a boy who is riding so fast and ecstatically that he is unable to see an obstruction until it is "way too late." The next track, "You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth
You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth
"You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth" is the first single by the American musician Meat Loaf in his solo career. It is a track off his 1977 album Bat out of Hell, written by Jim Steinman.The album version includes a spoken word intro by Steinman and Marcia McClain...
," opens with spoken word, performed by Steinman and Marcia McClain, that was also taken from the Neverland musical, as were the next two tracks.
"All Revved Up with No Place to Go" describes the beginning of a relationship and also the taking of the girl's virginity:
You and me 'round about midnight
Someone's got to draw first blood [...]
Oooh I got to draw first blood.
Side two opens with "Two out of Three Ain't Bad
Two out of Three Ain't Bad
"Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" is a love song by the American musician Meat Loaf in his solo career, preceded by "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth" and followed by "Paradise by the Dashboard Light". It is a track off his 1977 album Bat out of Hell, written by Jim Steinman. It reached #11 on...
," which was written near the end of the album's production. The song documents the break-up of two relationships: first where the singer says he is not in love with his partner, and the second where he recalls when the "only girl ... [he'd] ever love" left him. In the Classic Albums
Classic Albums
Classic Albums is a documentary series about pop and rock albums that are considered the best or most distinctive of a well-known band or musician or that exemplify a stage in the history of music.-Format:...
documentary, Rundgren identifies how the song was influenced by the Eagles, who were successful at the time. The producer also highlights the "underlying humor in the lyrics," citing the line "There ain't no Coupe de Ville hiding at the bottom of a Cracker Jack
Cracker Jack
Cracker Jack is a U.S. brand of snack consisting of strong molasses flavored candy-coated popcorn and peanuts, well known for being packaged with a prize of nominal value inside. Some food historians consider it the first junk food...
box." He says you could only "get away" with that lyric "in a Meat Loaf song."
The sixth track, "Paradise by the Dashboard Light
Paradise by the Dashboard Light
"Paradise by the Dashboard Light" is a song written by Jim Steinman. It was first released in 1977 on the album Bat Out of Hell, with vocals by the American musician Meat Loaf alongside Ellen Foley...
", is an epic story about teen romance and sex. A duet between Meat Loaf and Ellen Foley
Ellen Foley
Ellen Foley is an American singer and actress, who has appeared on Broadway and television, where she co-starred in the sitcom Night Court. In music, she has released three solo albums but is best known for her collaborations with the singer Meat Loaf.- Early life and career :Foley was born in St....
, the couple reminisce about driving to a secluded spot, at which he plans to have sex. They "make out" heavily in the middle instrumental section, described in metaphor in a baseball commentary by New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
announcer Phil Rizzuto
Phil Rizzuto
Philip Francis Rizzuto , nicknamed "The Scooter", was an American Major League Baseball shortstop. He spent his entire 13-year baseball career for the New York Yankees...
. However, she stops him just before they have sex, insisting that he first proclaim that he will "love her forever." He swears to love her until the end of time. The final part of the song displays the couple in an acrimonious relationship, in which they are "praying for the end of time" because "if I got to spend another minute with you I don't think that I can really survive." Whereas the title track is the "ultimate car crash song," this, according to the writer, is the "ultimate car sex song." It epitomizes the album's, as Ellen Foley
Ellen Foley
Ellen Foley is an American singer and actress, who has appeared on Broadway and television, where she co-starred in the sitcom Night Court. In music, she has released three solo albums but is best known for her collaborations with the singer Meat Loaf.- Early life and career :Foley was born in St....
describes, "pre-pubescent sexual mentality."
The seventh and final track, "For Crying Out Loud", is a more sedate love song. It recounts the positive changes that a girl has made to the singer's life, which had "reached the bottom". The song also incorporates some sexual innuendo with the line "And can't you see my faded Levi's
Levi Strauss & Co.
Levi Strauss & Co. is a privately held American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's brand of denim jeans. It was founded in 1853 when Levi Strauss came from Buttenheim, Franconia, to San Francisco, California to open a west coast branch of his brothers' New York dry goods business...
bursting apart."
Comparing the album to Steinman's late-60s musical The Dream Engine, Classic Rock
Classic Rock (magazine)
Classic Rock is a British magazine dedicated to the radio format of classic rock, published by Future Publishing, who are also responsible for its "sister" publication Metal Hammer. Although firmly focusing on key bands from the 1960s through early 1990s, it also includes articles and reviews of...
magazine says that Steinman's imagery is "revved up and testosterone-fueled. Songs like "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," "Two out of Three Ain't Bad" and "For Crying Out Loud" echoed the textbook teenage view of sex and life: irrepressible physical urges and unrealistic romantic longing."
Steinman's songs for Bat Out of Hell are personal but not autobiographical:
I never thought of them as personal songs in terms of my own life but they were personality songs. They were all about my obsessions and images. None of them takes place in a normal world. They all take play in extreme world. Very operatic ... they were all heightened. They don't take place in normal reality.
For example, citing the narrative of "Paradise," Rundgren jokes that he can't imagine Steinman being at a lakeside with the most beautiful girl in school, but he can imagine Steinman imagining it.
Cover
Steinman is credited with the album cover concept, which was illustrated by Richard CorbenRichard Corben
Richard Corben is an American illustrator and comic book artist best known for his comics featured in Heavy Metal magazine...
. The cover depicts a motorcycle, ridden by a long-haired man, bursting out of the ground in a graveyard. In the background, a large bat perches atop a mausoleum that towers above the rest of the tombstones. In 2001, Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
magazine listed the cover as number 71 in its list of "The Hundred Best Record Covers of All Time."
Steinman had wanted equal billing with Meat Loaf on the album's title. He wanted it to be called "Jim Steinman presents..." or "Jim and Meat," or vice versa. For marketing reasons, the record company wished to make 'Meat Loaf' the recognizable name. As a compromise, the words "Songs by Jim Steinman" appear relatively prominently on the cover. The singer believes that this was probably the beginning of their "ambivalent relationship."
Title
The phrase "Bat Out of Hell" can be traced back to the GreekGreeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
playwright Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
' 414 BC work entitled The Birds
The Birds (play)
The Birds is a comedy by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed in 414 BCE at the City Dionysia where it won second prize. It has been acclaimed by modern critics as a perfectly realized fantasy remarkable for its mimicry of birds and for the gaiety of its songs...
. In it is what is believed to be the first reference to a bat out of Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
:
Steinman registered "Bat Out of Hell" as a trademark in 1995, and sought to prevent Meat Loaf from using the title. In 2006, however, the singer sought to cancel Steinman's trademark and use the title for Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose
Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose
Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose is an album by Meat Loaf, the third and last in the Bat Out of Hell series. It was released in October 2006, 29 years after Bat Out of Hell , and 13 years after Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell .Produced by Desmond Child, it is the only Bat album not...
.
Reception
Bat Out of Hell was released by Cleveland International on October 21, 1977. Cleveland International's parent label was Epic RecordsEpic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
, where almost everyone hated it. Steve Popovich, the head of Cleveland International Records, was relentless in his efforts to get Epic and all of CBS Records and radio onboard. In 1993, Steinman reflected that the album is "timeless in that it didn't fit into any trend. It's never been a part of what's going on. You could release that record at any time and it would be out of place."
Response to the album was slow. Steinman asserts that it was "underpromoted", having a reputation of being "damaged goods because it had been walked around to so many places." Due to the enthusiastic response to the music videos from the record Australia and England were the first to develop interest. The BBC television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
programme Old Grey Whistle Test
Old Grey Whistle Test
The Old Grey Whistle Test was an influential BBC2 television music show that ran from 1971 to 1987. It took over the BBC2 late night slot from "Disco Two", which had been running since January 1970, while continuing to feature non-chart music. It was devised by BBC producer Rowan Ayers...
aired a clip of the live band performing the nine-minute title track. According to Classic Rock, response was so overwhelming, that they screened it again the following week. They later invited the band to perform "Paradise" live. "As a result, in the UK Bat became an unfashionable, uncool, non-radio record that became a 'must-have' for everyone who heard it, whether they 'got' Steinman's unique perspective or not."
The album was not an immediate hit; it was more of a growing one. Bat Out of Hell still sells about 200,000 copies per year and has sold an estimated 43 million copies worldwide, 14 million in the United States alone, over 1.5 million (22 times platinum) albums in Australia (even re-entering charts on June 2007, at #34 on the ARIAs) becoming the second best-selling album there behind John Farnham
John Farnham
John Peter Farnham, AO, formerly billed as Johnny Farnham , is an English-born Australian pop singer. He was a teen pop idol from 1964 to 1979, and has since forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. His career has mostly been as a solo artist although he briefly replaced Glenn Shorrock as...
's Whispering Jack
Whispering Jack
Whispering Jack is the twelfth studio album by Australian adult contemporary pop singer John Farnham. It was produced by Ross Fraser, and released on 20 October 1986, which peaked at #1 on the Australian Kent Music Report Album Charts...
, 24x Platinum. It stayed on the United Kingdom charts for 474 weeks, a feat surpassed only by the 478 weeks of Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
's Rumours
Rumours
Rumours is the eleventh studio album by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac. Largely recorded in California during 1976, it was produced by the band with Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut and was released on 4 February 1977 by Warner Bros. Records. The record peaked at the top of both the...
. In 1989, Kerrang!
Kerrang!
Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...
magazine listed the album at No. 38 among the "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time". In 2003, the album was ranked number 343 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2006 it was voted number nine in a poll
My Favourite Album
My Favourite Album was a nation-wide poll conducted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to discover Australia's most popular album. Voting was by phone, SMS or over the ABC's website between 20 September 2006 to midnight on 18 October 2006. Much of the poll's promotion was through the ABC's...
conducted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
to discover Australia's most popular album. In November 2007, Meat Loaf was awarded the Classic Album award in Classic Rock
Classic Rock (magazine)
Classic Rock is a British magazine dedicated to the radio format of classic rock, published by Future Publishing, who are also responsible for its "sister" publication Metal Hammer. Although firmly focusing on key bands from the 1960s through early 1990s, it also includes articles and reviews of...
s Classic Rock Roll Of Honour.
Reviews were initially mixed, but have since become much more positive. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
calls the songs "swell, but... entirely mannered and derivative." The arrangements "aren't bad", although the musicians are commended. The review ends with the assertion that the "principals have some growing to do." Contemporary reviews are more positive, however. Allmusic declares "this is Grand Guignol
Grand Guignol
Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol — known as the Grand Guignol — was a theatre in the Pigalle area of Paris . From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962 it specialized in naturalistic horror shows...
pop—epic, gothic, operatic, and silly, and it's appealing because of all of this." They acknowledge that Steinman is "a composer without peer, simply because nobody else wanted to make mini-epics like this." Rundgren's production is applauded, as is the wit in the music and lyrics. "It may elevate adolescent passion to operatic dimensions, and that's certainly silly, but it's hard not to marvel at the skill behind this grandly silly, irresistible album."
Also, Meat Loaf revealed on In the Studio with Redbeard that he was not well received early on in the tour when he was opening for Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick is an American rock band from Rockford, Illinois, formed in 1973. The band consists of members Robin Zander , Rick Nielsen , Tom Petersson , and Bun E...
. In the same interview, Meat Loaf revealed that when he played at a CBS Records convention in 1978, record executives and superstar Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
(who was in the audience) gave Meat Loaf a standing ovation for his performance after a haunting performance of the closing track "For Crying Out Loud" was the turning point in the album's success in the US.
Dispute between Cleveland International and Sony Records
In 1995, Cleveland International sued SonySony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
for unpaid royalties from sales of the album. Under the terms of the 1998 settlement agreement ending the suit, Sony agreed to include the Cleveland International logo on all future releases of the album. In 2002, Stephen Popovich, founder of Cleveland International and the owner of the rights to its name, sued Sony, alleging that Sony had failed to include the Cleveland International logo on some copies of the album and on some compilations Sony released that included songs from the album. On May 31, 2005, the federal district court
United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio is the federal trial court for the northern half of Ohio...
in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, entered judgment against Sony pursuant to a jury verdict in favor of Popovich and awarded Popovich more than US$5,000,000 in damages for Sony's breach of the 1998 settlement agreement. On November 21, 2007, the federal appellate court
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Kentucky* Western District of Kentucky...
in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
, affirmed the judgment of the trial court.
Track listing
Versions
The album also exists in numerous other formats and rereleases, including a Super Audio CDSuper Audio CD
Super Audio CD is a high-resolution, read-only optical disc for audio storage. Sony and Philips Electronics jointly developed the technology, and publicized it in 1999. It is designated as the Scarlet Book standard. Sony and Philips previously collaborated to define the Compact Disc standard...
version, a twenty-fifth anniversary edition (2001 – Epic/Legacy #62171) with two bonus tracks ("Great Boléros of Fire (live intro)" [3:54] and "Bat Out of Hell (live)" [11:10], and a Bat Out of Hell: Revamped release (1993) featuring the bonus song "Dead Ringer for Love
Dead Ringer for Love
"Dead Ringer for Love" is a rock song performed by American rock singer Meat Loaf and American singer-actress Cher from Meat Loaf's third studio album, Dead Ringer...
".
Certification
| Country | Sales | Certification |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | 1,680,000+ | 24× Platinum |
| Canada | 2,000,000+ | Double Diamond |
| Germany | 500,000+ | Platinum |
| United Kingdom | 2,942,717+ | 9× Platinum |
| United States | 14,000,000+ | 14× Platinum |
Personnel
- Track numbers indicate that a musician only plays the instrument so noted on that specific track.
Arrangements
- Ken AscherKenneth AscherKenneth "Kenny" Lee Ascher , is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger who is active in jazz, rock, classical, and musical theater genres — in live venues, recording studios, and cinema production. He is widely known for co-writing, with Paul Williams, The Rainbow Connection...
– string arrangements (tracks 3, 5) - Steve Margoshes – orchestra arrangement (track 7)
Band
- Meat LoafMeat LoafMichael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...
– lead vocals, backing vocals (track 6), percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
(track 2) - Todd RundgrenTodd RundgrenTodd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
(tracks 1, 2, 4–6), percussion (tracks 1, 2), keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
(track 1), backing vocals (tracks 1–3, 5, 6) - Kasim SultonKasim SultonKasim Sulton is an American bass guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist. Best known for his work with Utopia, Sulton sang lead on 1980's "Set Me Free," Utopia's only top 40 hit in the United States...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
(tracks 1, 2, 4–7), backing vocals (track 1) - Roy BittanRoy BittanRoy Bittan is an American keyboardist, best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, which he joined on August 23, 1974...
– pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, keyboards (tracks 1, 2, 6) - Steve Margoshes – piano (track 7)
- Cheryl Hardwick – piano (track 7)
- Jim SteinmanJim SteinmanJames Richard "Jim" Steinman is an American composer, lyricist, and Grammy Award-winning record producer responsible for several hit songs. He has also worked as an arranger, pianist, and singer...
– keyboards (tracks 1, 2, 6), percussion (tracks 1, 2), "lascivious effects" (track 6), dialogue intro (track 2) - Roger Powell – synthesizerSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
(tracks 1, 2, 5, 6) - Edgar WinterEdgar WinterEdgar Holland Winter is an American musician. He is famous for being a multi-instrumentalist. He is a highly skilled keyboardist, saxophonist and percussionist. He often plays an instrument while singing. He was most successful in the 1970s with his band, The Edgar Winter Group, notably with their...
– saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
(tracks 2, 4, 6) - Max WeinbergMax WeinbergMax Weinberg is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.Weinberg grew up in suburban New Jersey...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
(tracks 1, 2, 6) - John Wilcox – drums (tracks 4, 5, 7)
- Marcia McClain – dialogue intro (track 2)
- Phil "Scooter" RizzutoPhil RizzutoPhilip Francis Rizzuto , nicknamed "The Scooter", was an American Major League Baseball shortstop. He spent his entire 13-year baseball career for the New York Yankees...
– play-by-play (track 6) - Ellen FoleyEllen FoleyEllen Foley is an American singer and actress, who has appeared on Broadway and television, where she co-starred in the sitcom Night Court. In music, she has released three solo albums but is best known for her collaborations with the singer Meat Loaf.- Early life and career :Foley was born in St....
– featured vocal (track 6), backing vocals (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6) - Rory DoddRory DoddRory Dodd is a Canadian rock vocalist who has performed many songs written by Jim Steinman. He is probably best known for singing the "Turn around, bright eyes" lyrics on Bonnie Tyler's version of "Total Eclipse of the Heart."...
– backing vocals (all except track 4) - Gene Orloff – concert master (track 7)
- Members of New York PhilharmonicNew York PhilharmonicThe New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
and Philadelphia OrchestraPhiladelphia OrchestraThe Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
– orchestra (track 7)