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Track List
01) Bat Out of Hell
02) You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Ho 
03) Heaven Can Wait
04) All Revved Up With No Place to Go
05) Two Out of Three Ain't Bad
06) Paradise by the Dashboard Light
07) For Crying Out Loud
01) Bat Out of Hell
02) You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Ho
03) Heaven Can Wait
04) All Revved Up With No Place to Go
05) Two Out of Three Ain't Bad
06) Paradise by the Dashboard Light
07) For Crying Out Loud
9:52
5:05
4:41
4:21
5:26
8:29
8:45
Data Complete
100%
Total Rating
100%Total Rating
(4 users)
Back Cover
CD Art
3D Case
3D Thumb
3D Flat
3D Face
3D Spine
First Released
1977
Hard Rock
Bittersweet
Rock/Pop
---
Medium
Album
43,000,000 copies
Album Description
Available in:
Bat Out of Hell is the second album and major-label debut by American rock musician Meat Loaf, as well as being his first collaboration with composer Jim Steinman, released in October 1977 on Cleveland International/Epic Records #PE-34974. It is one of the best-selling albums in the history of recorded music, having sold over 40 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.
The album developed from a musical, Neverland, a sci-fi update of Peter Pan, 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:
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. 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, thinking that it was a parody of Springsteen. 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.
User Album Review
In 1976, when Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman were recording the seven epic songs with Todd Rundgren that would eventually turn out to be the Bat Out Of Hell album, they toyed with the notion of using an orchestra to bring the songs to life. Due to budget and sceduling constraints, however, the idea never came to fruition and they had to make do with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.
When the finished album hit the shelves in 1977 the impact was immense. Spending a massive 395 weeks in the UK chart alone and shifting an unbelievable 30 million units worldwide it would have seemed as though recording the album with an orchestra was only around the corner.
Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, that corner turned out to be 27 years large. In fact, in Meat's more than thirty year recording career it seems unfathomable that he never actually recorded with any orchestra. Thankfully though, earlier this year he put that ghost to rest and hooked up with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and recorded Bat Out Of Hell in its full entirety under the guidance of conductor Keith Levenson.
From the opening sequence of the title track you can just see Meat throwing bricks at his head, for these songs just scream out orchestral accompaniment. And from the off the 'tra are cookin' with their highlights being the disco break of 'Paradise by The Dashboard Light' and the beautiful arrangement of 'For Crying Out Loud'.
The 'rock band' too are in great shape. The bass playing on 'All Revved Up With No Place To Go' must have turned a fair few of the virtuosos' heads. But the stealer of the show has to be the main man himself. The Loaf's singing is awesome throughout.
So you can forget your Tommy's and your Rocky Horror's. This is proper Rock Opera and Meat is a real character who is almost larger than life, but with the extra tracks I can't help but wonder, 'What Meat? You'd do anything for love but what? What is it you won't do?'
Cormac Heron
External Album Reviews
None...
User Comments
Available in:
Bat Out of Hell is the second album and major-label debut by American rock musician Meat Loaf, as well as being his first collaboration with composer Jim Steinman, released in October 1977 on Cleveland International/Epic Records #PE-34974. It is one of the best-selling albums in the history of recorded music, having sold over 40 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.
The album developed from a musical, Neverland, a sci-fi update of Peter Pan, 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:
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. 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, thinking that it was a parody of Springsteen. 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.
User Album Review
In 1976, when Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman were recording the seven epic songs with Todd Rundgren that would eventually turn out to be the Bat Out Of Hell album, they toyed with the notion of using an orchestra to bring the songs to life. Due to budget and sceduling constraints, however, the idea never came to fruition and they had to make do with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.
When the finished album hit the shelves in 1977 the impact was immense. Spending a massive 395 weeks in the UK chart alone and shifting an unbelievable 30 million units worldwide it would have seemed as though recording the album with an orchestra was only around the corner.
Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, that corner turned out to be 27 years large. In fact, in Meat's more than thirty year recording career it seems unfathomable that he never actually recorded with any orchestra. Thankfully though, earlier this year he put that ghost to rest and hooked up with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and recorded Bat Out Of Hell in its full entirety under the guidance of conductor Keith Levenson.
From the opening sequence of the title track you can just see Meat throwing bricks at his head, for these songs just scream out orchestral accompaniment. And from the off the 'tra are cookin' with their highlights being the disco break of 'Paradise by The Dashboard Light' and the beautiful arrangement of 'For Crying Out Loud'.
The 'rock band' too are in great shape. The bass playing on 'All Revved Up With No Place To Go' must have turned a fair few of the virtuosos' heads. But the stealer of the show has to be the main man himself. The Loaf's singing is awesome throughout.
So you can forget your Tommy's and your Rocky Horror's. This is proper Rock Opera and Meat is a real character who is almost larger than life, but with the extra tracks I can't help but wonder, 'What Meat? You'd do anything for love but what? What is it you won't do?'
Cormac Heron
External Album Reviews
None...
User Comments
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