MCA 10699
Producer: Jim Steinman
Track listing: I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) / Life Is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back / Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through / It Just Won’t Quit / Out of the Frying Pan (and into the Fire) / Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are / Wasted Youth / Everything Louder Than Everything Else / Good GirlsGo to Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere) / Back into Hell / Lost Boys and Golden Girls
October 30, 1993
1week
In the late ’60s and early ’70s, before Meat Loaf became more than just a ground beef casserole, the singer who adopted the moniker had a fairly impressive resume: One of his early bands had opened for The Who and Iggy Pop; he had appeared in several Broadway productions, including Hair, and also in The Rocky Horror Picture Show; and he had contributed vocals on Ted Nugent’s Free For All album. However, Meat Loaf didn’t truly make his mark until 1977 with Bat Out of Hell.
That album, released on the Cleveland International label in conjunction with CBS Records, teamed the hefty singer with fellow Broadway alumnus and songwriter Jim Steinman. With the overheated rock of such songs as “Paradise By the Dashboard Light,” “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad,” and “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth,” Bat Out of Hell peaked at number 14 and went on to sell more than 25 million copies worldwide.
Yet, Meat Loaf (whose real name is Marvin Lee Aday) had a hard time digesting his newfound fame. “When we had the success with Bat Out of Hell, I didn’t know how to deal with it,” he says. “I went into self-inflicted exile. I said, ‘I don’t want to do this, because I don’t like this.'”
As a result, Steinman recorded Bad for Good as a solo effort. The album was originally intended as the follow-up to Bat Out of Hell, but Meat Loaf lost his voice and will to record. Bad for Good, as well as Meat Loaf’s subsequent albums, were major commercial disappointments. Although he continued to draw healthy crowds on tour, Meat Loaf could no longer be counted on to sell records. He was dropped from Cleveland International and later from Arista as well.
But Meat Loaf’s fortunes began to change in the late ’80s, when he and Steinman agreed to work together again. The reunion sparked the interest of record executive Al Teller, who had relocated from CBS Records to MCA. In 1989, Teller signed Meat Loaf to MCA and the singer and Steinman went to work on a sequel to Bat Out of Hell.
The pair worked in secrecy at Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles and the Power Station in New York, but the results didn’t come quickly. “Jim and I work great together, but physically we are very different, not only in size but in appearance. He works at night, while I sleep and I work in the day, while he sleeps. We meet to work at the end of my day, which is the beginning of his.”
The scheduling conflict was exacerbated by Steinman’s perfectionism and need to take breaks away from the project. “He spends more time out of the studio than in it, for long periods of time,” Meat Loaf explains. “It tends to drive people really loony.”
Yet the album, which was filled with songs with titles that read like bumper sticker slogans, was worth the wait. Todd Rundgren, who produced the original Bat, sang backing vocals on several tracks, while E Street pianist Roy Bittan and John Mellencamp drummer Kenny Aronoff lent instrumental support.
The album’s first single, “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” became Loaf’s first hit in 12 years. In its fifth week on the chart, Bat Out of Hell II flew to Number One, as the single topped the Hot 100.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of October 30, 1993
1. Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, Meat Loaf
2. In Pieces, Garth Brooks
3. In Utero, Nirvana
4. River of Dreams, Billy Joel
5. Music Box, Mariah Carey