October 21, 1977: Meat Loaf Releases "Bat Out of Hell"

October 21, 1977: Bat Out of Hell is released by Cleveland International Records. It is the debut album for singer Meat Loaf (sometimes written as the single word "Meatloaf"), with songs written by Jim Steinman.

Marvin Lee Aday was born on September 27, 1947 in Dallas. Like many Southern boys, he was often called by his initials, but when he got to school, and was already fat, another kid decided that "M.L." stood for "Meat Loaf." When he was 16, he shook hands with President John F. Kennedy at the Dallas airport, Love Field. Within an hour, JFK was assassinated, and Marvin and a friend when to Parkland Hospital, and saw Jacqueline Kennedy get out of the car in her bloodstained pink suit.

His mother, a gospel singer, supported his theatrical aspirations. His father, an abusive alcoholic cop, did not. She died when he was 19, and he used his inheritance to get away from his father, and move to Los Angeles.

He alternated between acting and singing with various bands, always having just enough success to keep the dream alive, but not enough to achieve it, including appearing in the musical Hair, first in the Los Angeles production, then in the original production that was still going in New York. For once, being fat helped him: He failed his physical exam for the U.S. Army draft.

In 1973, he auditioned for the musical More Than You Deserve in New York. So did Jim Steinman, beginning a long, on-again-off-again partnership. In 1973, he was cast as Eddie in the original Los Angeles production of The Rocky Horror Show, which led to him being cast in the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. That was when he and Steinman started work on Bat Out of Hell.

James Richard Steinman was born on November 1, 1947 in Hewlett, Long Island, New York. He was born almost at the same time as Meat Loaf, but in a different part of the country, with 2 supportive parents, and got a college degree, from Amherst College in Massachusetts.

He soon began working with Joseph Papp at the Public Theatre in New York. This included the musical More Than You Deserve, which is where he met Meat Loaf. They hit it off immediately, and in 1974, Steinman began working on Neverland, a futuristic version of Peter Pan with rock and roll music. The musical never happened, but Meat and Jim agreed that 3 of the songs had to survive: "Bat Out of Hell," "Heaven Can Wait," and "All Revved Up With No Place to Go."

Getting signed proved tough. But by early 1976, the success of Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run and Queen's A Night at the Opera suggested that a similar effort could make it, and Cleveland International Records signed them. Epic Records bought Cleveland International out, largely due to the success of this album.

They recorded in 1976 and early 1977, mostly in Bearsville, New York, outside Woodstock, with Todd Rundgren producing and playing lead guitar. From Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, Roy Bittan played keyboards along with Steinman, and Max Weinberg played drums. This led to suggestions that the album was influenced by Springsteen, but Steinman said, "Springsteen was more of an inspiration than an influence." There is a difference. The album Bat Out of Hell sounded like so much that had been made before, but, as a total piece, it sounded like nothing that had been made before.

Jim (left) and Meat

There are only 7 songs on the album, but the shortest was 4 minutes and 19 seconds, so that the total length is 46 minutes and 25 seconds. The longest is the leadoff song, the 9:48 title track, "Bat Out of Hell." Steinman said he wanted to write "the ultimate crash song," insisting that it had to be a motorcycle, like in "Leader of the Pack," not a car, like in "Last Kiss" or "Dead Man's Curve."

This was followed by "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth" (with the follow-up line, "It must have been while you were kissing me"), which became the 1st single, a minor hit. This was followed by "Heaven Can Wait" (this was a few months before the Warren Beatty film of the same title) and "All Revved Up with No Place to Go."

Side Two began with the 2nd single, the biggest hit off the album (Number 11), and what remained Meat Loaf's best-known song: "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad." The term "power ballad" hadn't yet originated, but this remains the power ballad of all time.

Next was "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," a duet between Meat and Ellen Foley, with whom he'd acted before, and would play the original public defender on the sitcom Night Court before being replaced by Markie Post. They play a couple making out in a car, and they got New York Yankees broadcaster and former shortstop Phil Rizzuto to pretend he was announcing a game, to fit the old metaphor of "getting to first base," and so on. ("The Scooter," already nearly 60 years old, and with his musical tastes having not progressed beyond the Frank Sinatra era, asked, "Do I have to be high to understand this song?" He was told he didn't have to be.)

But as the runner was breaking for the plate, and Rizzuto said, "Holy cow, I think he's gonna make it!" Ellen yells, "Stop right there! I gotta know right now... " If "We're gonna go all the way tonight," she wants to know, "Do you love me? Will you love me forever... " and so on. Meat isn't sure: "Lemme sleep on it. Baby, baby, lemme sleep on it. Lemme sleep on it. I'll give you an answer in the morning." She keeps pushing the question, and, overcome with lust, he says, "I swore I would love you 'til the end of time!"

That was the past. Fast-forward to the present: "So now, I'm praying for the end of time to hurry up and arrive! 'Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you, I don't think that I could really survive!" The problem isn't that she got pregnant that night, because no kids are mentioned. Apparently, he just can't stand her any more: "I'll never break my promise or forget my vow, but God only knows what I can do right now!"

The song's length and subject matter held it back a bit, and it barely scraped the Top 40. But it was still an all-time classic, and Meat closed his concerts with it. The album closed with the 8:45 "For Crying Out Loud."

Although it only reached Number 13 on Billboard magazine's Album chart, the record became a cult classic, and has sold over 43 million copies as of October 21, 2022. The only albums that have sold more are Michael Jackson's 1982 Thriller, 70 million; AC/DC's 1980 Back in Black, 50 million; the soundtrack to the 1992 film The Bodyguard, featuring Whitney Houston, 45 million; Pink Floyd's 1973 Dark Side of the Moon, also 45 million; and The Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), 44 million. Note that the Bodyguard soundtrack is the only one of these to have been released after the rise of compact discs in the mid-1980s.

Given his physical proportions, Meat Loaf became perhaps the most unlikely rock and roll star since the purposely-stuttering, nerd-glasses-wearing Buddy Holly 20 years earlier. But touring took its toll on him, and affected his health. His already-present social-anxiety disorder got worse. Turning to cocaine didn't help. There were times when he collapsed onstage. In 1981, he literally lost his voice, and felt like he was losing his mind.

His relationship with Steinman soured, and, without Meat, Jim decided to try another rock musical. This time, it was about vampires. Like his sci-fi version of Peter Pan, it fell apart, but one song intended for it became legend: In 1983, Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler had a Number 1 hit with "Total Eclipse of the Heart." (That's right: It was for a musical about vampires. Now you know the original meaning of, "Forever's gonna start tonight." It also puts a new spin on that whacked-out video.)

Meat regained his voice and got clean. He married Leslie Edmonds, a secretary at the recording studio. He adopted her daughter Pearl, and together they had a daughter, Amanda. He continued to record without Jim, without much success. Fortunately, the royalties from Bat Out of Hell kept him solvent, and he could take time out to coach his daughters' softball teams. He told the players to call him "Coach Meat," and they did. He also went back to acting, including playing a club bouncer in Wayne's World.

He and Jim reconciled, and in 1993, they released a sequel album: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell. Among the songs was "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)." After all his years of struggle, which included one year of runaway success, Meat Loaf, 46 years old, finally had a Number 1 single.

He went back on the road, and all his perspective let his anxiety slip away. Having Pearl Aday as one of his backup singers helped. Pearl later married Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian. A few years later, Pearl and Scott formed the band Motor Sister. Amanda Aday is an actress.

In 1994, Phil Rizzuto also saw a long wait end: He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was named the honorary captain for the American League team at the All-Star Game at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Because of his connection to Rizzuto, Meat Loaf was invited to sing the National Anthem, and he got a standing ovation.

Meat had a few more hits, and appeared in a few more movies, including the Spice Girls' film Spice World, and Fight Club. He and Jim completed the trilogy in 2006 with Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose. In the end, Meat's only musical successes were connected with Jim, but what successes they were. Jim died on April 19, 2021, and Meat followed on January 20, 2022.

UPDATE: It took me until 2024 to think of this, but the 1970s were Schrödinger's Decade. There was too much overwrought music, and, at the same time, not enough of it.

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October 21, 1977 was a Friday. Baseball season had ended 3 days earlier, with the New York Yankees beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6 of the World Series, thanks to Reggie Jackson hitting 3 home runs. Football was in midweek. There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the New Orleans Jazz, 111-103 at the Rutgers Athletic Center (now the Jersey Mike's Arena) in Piscataway, New Jersey. Talk about a bat out of Hell: Pistol Pete Maravich torched the Nets for 41 points.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Detroit Pistons, 117-109 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. Bob Lanier scored 33 points, to no avail.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Indiana Pacers, 122-119 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Houston Rockets, 95-94 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 106-101 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the San Antonio Spurs, 122-117 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Rick Barry scored 34 for the Dubs.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat their arch-rivals, the Seattle SuperSonics, 106-99 at the Seattle Center Coliseum. Through the end of February 1978, the Blazers looked like they might repeat as NBA Champions. Then Bill Walton got hurt, and the dynasty was derailed. The Sonics ended up winning the Western Conference the next 2 seasons, losing the Finals to the Bullets in 1978 and beating the Bullets for the title in 1979.

There was 1 game in the NHL: The New York Islanders and the Atlanta Flames played to a 3-3 tie at The Omni in Atlanta. There were 3 games in the World Hockey Association:

* The Quebec Nordiques and the Indianapolis Racers played to a tie, 4-4 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The New England Whalers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the Houston Aeros beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 6-5 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")