The Grammy-winning producer and songwriter was known for his bombastic, over-the-top rock songs, which he perfected with Meat Loaf’s 1977 Bat Out of Hell. That album was one of the behemoths of the 1970s, selling over 50 million copies and staying on the U.K. record charts for over 10 years.
Though Steinman will be best remembered with his collaborations with Meat Loaf, he also penned hits for Celine Dion, Bonnie Tyler and Air Supply, won a Grammy, and had been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
10 great songs to remember Jim Steinman by
1977: “Bat Out of Hell”—Meat Loaf
During his early career composing music for theater, Steinman met Marvin Lee Aday, an actor and singer who was starring in his musical More Than You Deserve and working under the name Meat Loaf.
The pair continued to work together in theater throughout the 1970s. Preparing a musical titled Neverland, Steinman wrote three tracks that he realized would work better as an album, and SO started to prepare a seven-song rock opera LP.
This album became Bat out of Hell. After two years of trying to get signed, the album came out in 1977 and became a huge hit, even as a much rawer punk style was in vogue. Nearly 45 years later, it is the fourth biggest-selling studio album ever.
Perhaps its finest achievement was the title track, a nearly 10-minute opus that saw Steinman trying to create what he called the “most extreme crash song of all time.”
1981: “Dead Ringer for Love”—Meat Loaf and Cher
Steinman and Meat Loaf’s follow-up, Dead Ringer, was delayed for four years, with part of the delay caused by the singer losing his voice following a long and drug-fuelled touring schedule.
During this time, Steinman worked on his own debut album Bad for Good, and the second Meat Loaf album was released in 1981. Though its success did not match that of its predecessor, the album did hit number one in the UK.
The album’s finest song is its nearly-title track “Dead Ringer for Love,” a duet with an uncredited Cher—though she does appear in the music video.
1983: “Total Eclipse of the Heart”—Bonnie Tyler
Meat Loaf is Steinman’s longest and most famous collaboration, but he also worked numerous times with the Welsh power balladeer Bonnie Tyler.
In fact, their collaboration brought to life both Tyler and Steinman’s most famous song, “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” A U.K. and U.S. number one single, the song has sold over six million copies around the world.
Steinman said of the song (per Rolling Stone): “Most pop songs are about the lyrical side of love, the pleasant side. I’ve always liked writing about the other side, the darker side. An eclipse seemed like the perfect image to describe when someone is totally overwhelmed by love. It’s like an eclipse. There’s no more light at all.” Elsewhere, he has described it as a “vampire love song,” a theme picked up in the video where Tyler appears as a vampiric school teacher.
As with nearly every one of Steinman’s biggest songs, Meat Loaf has claimed the song was intended for him, though Tyler has denied this.
1983: “Making Love Out of Nothing At All”— Air Supply
In 1980, Steinman had written the main title theme for 1980 movie A Small Circle of Friends. A few years later, he reworked the song for soft balladeers Air Supply, giving the band a new sound quite unlike what they were known for.
Another song reportedly first written for Meat Loaf, the song ended up being recorded by Air Supply, working with two members of Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band. Steinman’s other muse, Bonnie Tyler, would also record the song in 1995.
The song was also a hit on the charts, reaching number two on the charts—it was held off the top spot by another Steinman classic, “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
1984: “Holding Out for a Hero”—Bonnie Tyler
Tyler and Steinman went full camp for their contribution to the Footloose soundtrack, “Holding Out for a Hero,” which became a bachelorette party staple.
Tyler led the tributes to Steinman after his death, with the singer telling Rolling Stone: “Jim wrote and produced some of the most iconic rock songs of all time and I was massively privileged to have been given some of them by him. I made two albums with Jim, despite my record company initially thinking he wouldn’t want to work with me. Thankfully they were wrong, and can say without any doubt that Jim was a true genius.”
1985: “Hulk Hogan’s Theme”
Perhaps his strangest commission. In 1985, Steinman was asked by guitar player Rick Derringer (who had played guitar on “Making Love Out of Nothing at All”) to contribute a song to the WWF tie-in The Wrestling Album.
Steinman’s contribution for the album was a theme for Hulk Hogan that is all tinkling piano, stabbing synthesizer and chants of “Hulk!”
Though the composition never caught on as a theme for the actual Hogan, it did appear in various forms throughout the 1980s. Steinman reworked the song for Bonnie Tyler track “Ravishing,” and it was also used for cartoon Hulk Hogan’s Rock ’n’ Wrestling.
1993: “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)"—Meat Loaf
Meat Loaf and Steinman returned to the same well that had given them global success in 1993 when they released Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell. One of their longest songs at 12 minutes, it nevertheless became Meat Loaf’s only number one on the Billboard 100 and UK singles charts, and won Meat Loaf a Grammy. Its music video was also an early credit for future Transformers director Michael Bay.
Another duet for Meat Loaf, previous artists who had worked with Steinman like Cher and Bonnie Tyler were considered for the female part until it went to English singer Lorraine Crosby, a friend and frequent collaborator of Tyler. Like Cher before her, she was not credited on the song.
The song’s success also made it the butt of many jokes, with people asking exactly that the “that” that Meat Loaf would not do for love was. As the singer has explained before, however, listeners should be able to hear five things that Meat Loaf will not do for love in the song.
1995: “Never Forget”—Take That
In the ’90s, while Steinman was pushing other artists into ever more baroque power ballads, he also had an unlikely producer credit on “Never Forget,” a U.K. number one single for boyband Take That.
Though the sound is more boyband R&B than the operatic rock listeners may expect from Steinman, there are some characteristic touches of him in the song, with its stadium rock chorus and bombastic choir moments.
1996: “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”—Celine Dion
Steinman won his only Grammy for his work on this song from Celine Dion’s multi-million selling Falling Into You. He had to fight long-term collaborator Meat Loaf over the song, with the singer even taking him to court for the right to perform it. Meat Loaf claimed that the pair had discussed it for Bat Out of Hell II, but decided to put “I Would Do Anything For Love” in its place.
The reason for this battle was that Steinman wanted a female vocalist to perform the song which he said was inspired by the novel Wuthering Heights. Originally, the song was performed by girl group Pandora’s Box, but it is the Celine Dion version that is the most famous – though it was beaten to number one by the “Macarena.”
Meat Loaf did eventually release the song as the lead singe to his 2006 album Bat Out of Hell III.
1998: “No Matter What”—Boyzone
The 1990s saw Steinman return to his theatrical roots, as the songwriter teamed up with Andrew Lloyd Webber for Whistle Down the Wind, the story of three farm children who find a fugitive in a barn and mistake him for Jesus.
Its most famous song was “No Matter What,” a ballad about being true to yourself and your convictions. It was brought to the pop charts via Irish boy band Boyzone, who became one of Steinman’s most unlikely collaborators.
His most frequent collaborator also had a crack at the song, though, with Meat Loaf featuring his version on his 1998 greatest hits.
It was the Boyzone version, however, that gave Steinman one of his biggest hits. It sold one million copies in the U.K., and gave Boyzone their fourth number one in that country. It also charted on the Billboard charts in the U.S. after featuring on the Notting Hill soundtrack album.
