It took four years of determination and graft before it finally got a release. Almost every record label that Meta Loaf and Steinman approached virtually laughed in their faces, telling them Bat Out Of Hell would never come to fruition. Together they plotted their own masterpiece, although baffled critics and general music business indifference did their best to thwart the process. ![]() When Steinman got a job in the National Lampoon road show, he managed to get his new partner a role as understudy to John Belushi. Steinman and Meat Loaf first met at a New York theatre in 1973 when the singer auditioned for his musical More Than You Deserve. At Amherst College he wrote a musical version of a futuristic rock take on Peter Pan, The Dream Engine, which laid the foundation for much of his later work, including Bat Out Of Hell and Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 hit Total Eclipse Of The Heart. Of Jewish ancestry, James Richard Steinman was born in New York City in 1947. Steinman once described his songs as walking “the tightrope of being thrilling and silly”. But he will forever be associated with Meat Loaf and Bat Out Of Hell, the original album now having sold more than 50 million copies. ![]() The self-styled ‘Little Richard Wagner Of Rock’, Steinman was behind massively bombastic hits for and collaborations with Bonnie Tyler, Celine Dion, Air Supply, Barry Manilow, Sisters Of Mercy, Ian Hunter, Boyzone and more.
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