Jim Steinman (1947 – 2021) was an American songwriter and producer, best known for Meat Loaf’s 1977 album, Bat Out of Hell, a record that sounds like no other. His compositions were bombastic, theatric, overblown and unsubtle, but nobody can deny their impact.
In addition to Meat Loaf, Steinman had a stellar career, writing pop hits for other artists, as well to producing Billy Squier’s 1984 Signs of Life. Today, we’re going through five awesome Jim Steinman songs.
#1) Meat Loaf – “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” (1977)
A mini coming of age opera, this 8+ minute track featured a duet with Ellen Foley, and is the only rock song to use baseball as a sex metaphor, courtesy of a cameo of Yankee’s announcer Phil Rizzuto.
#2) Air Supply – “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” (1983)
After the massive success of Bat Out of Hell, there was no quick follow-up album, due to Meat Loaf’s vocal issues. By 1981, the world had moved on and when the second Meat Loaf album and Steinman’s own album, Bad For Good, were released, nobody cared. So, Steinman worked with Bonnie Tyler, writing and producing her #1 hit, “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
But while that song hogged the top spot on Billboard, the song at #2 was also a Steinman composition, a newly written track on Air Supply’s Greatest Hits collection.
#3) Bonnie Tyler – “Holding Out for a Hero” (1984)
After the aforementioned success of Tyler’s hit and the associated album (Faster Than the Speed of Night), Steinman penned another hit for her, this time appearing on the Footloose soundtrack.
#4) Fire, Inc. – “Nowhere Fast” (1984)
Speaking of soundtracks, Steinman also penned two tracks for the 1984 film Streets of Fire. The songs “Tonight is What it Means to Be Young” and “Nowhere Fast” were performed by Fire, Inc., which in reality, was a studio creation. While actress Diane Lane appeared in the movie, the vocals were performed by Laurie Sargent and Holly Sherwood. Although the movie was a theatrical flop, it has attained a cult status in the years following, thanks to airings on cable television.
#5) Celine Dion – “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” (1996)
Once Steinman proved that he was a hit maker, he penned this song in 1989 for the girl group Pandora’s Box. It did nothing in the American charts, and Meat Loaf wanted to include it on his Bat Into Hell II:Back Into Hell album, but Steinman refused, saying he viewed it as a “woman’s song.” Which worked out great for Canada’s national treasure, Celine Dion, as she had an international hit single with it.