Bat out of Hell is the extremely successful second album of singer Meat Loaf (Marvin Lee Aday), released in 1977 (see 1977 in music).
The album featured music of a bombastic and wagnerian style quite different from the most Seventies popular music. When Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf starting proposing it to music companies they had a lot of trouble finding someone willing to produce it. But when guitarist Todd Rundgren heard it, he immediately decided he wanted to produce the album. They still needed a label and it took them some more time before they finally settled with Cleveland International Records.
The album was not an immediate hit; it was more of a growing one. It soon became the best-selling debut album of all time, and it remained so until the release of Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill in 1995. Bat out of Hell still sells about 200,000 copies per year and has sold an estimated 34 million copies worldwide, 16 million in the US alone, becoming one of the top five biggest selling albums of all time. It remained 474 weeks in the UK charts, a feat only beaten by the 477 weeks of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours.
The famous song "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" is about a boy who wants sexual intercourse with a girl. She agrees on the condition that he will love her forever. He reluctantly agrees. Afterwards he regrets his promise but does not want to break it: he prays for the end of time, so he can end his time with her. The song includes a famous interlude in which legendary New York Yankees announcer Phil Rizzuto broadcasts a portion of a baseball game that serves as a metaphor for the boy's attempts at intercourse.
Track listing
- "Bat Out Of Hell" - 9:51
- "You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)" - 5:04
- "Heaven Can Wait" - 4:41
- "All Revved Up With No Place To Go" - 4:20
- "Two out of Three Ain't Bad" - 5:25
- "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" - 8:28
- "For Crying Out Loud" - 8:44
All music by Jim Steinman.
The album also exists in numerous other formats and rereleases; including a 25th anniversary edition which includes a bonus DVD, and a "Bat Out Of Hell: Revamped" release which adds the Cher duet "Dead Ringer For Love".
Personnel
- Meat Loaf - lead vocals
- Jim Steinman (keyboard, percussion, effects)
- Todd Rundgren (guitar, keyboard, percussion, background vocal)
- Max Weinberg (drums)
- Roy Bittan - piano, keyboards
- Phil Rizzuto - spoken vocal
- Ken Ascher - string arrangement
- Rory Dodd - background vocal
- Ellen Foley - lead and background vocals
- Cheryl Hardwick - piano
- Marvin Lee - percussion, background vocals
- Steve Margoshes - piano
- Gene Orloff - concert master New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra )
- Roger Powell - synthesizer
- Kasim Sultan - bass, background vocal
- John Wilcox - drums
- Edgar Winter - saxophone
