January 21, 2022
The sad news this morning of Meatloaf’s passing brought to mind so many happy memories associated with his blockbuster album collab with Jim Steinman that we couldn’t help but smile and send up gratitude for Bat Out Of Hell. In fact, one of our favorite stories in the whole World centers on that record. Not 100% positive, but pretty sure we first heard it at Broadway in Bryant Park a few years back, when a musical of the same name was running here.
According to that tale, Steinman had shopped Bat around to dozens of record companies which all of which rejected it as garbage. One bigshot even berated Steinman about his supposed ignorance screaming, “Get out of my office! You know nothing about writing or about rock music!” and ranting about how it’s supposed to be written in the form of A-B-A or something.
Long story short, as everyone knows, the album went on to become a huge hit. A small company in the Midwest snatched it up and released it. Forty million copies have sold since then, according to Billboard Magazine. And according to Steinman shortly before he passed away last year, “it still hasn’t peaked.”