Meat Loaf: Bat Out of Hell [EPIC]

Why you'll love it

This 180g edition is pressed in the EU. Bat Out of Hell has sold over 43 million copies worldwide, is certified 14 times platinum in the US and has spent 522 weeks on the UK Albums Chart.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Pressed in the EU
• Stereo mix

About the album

Bat Out of Hell started life as Neverland, Jim Steinman's futuristic rock version of Peter Pan, written for a workshop in 1974. Steinman and Meat Loaf were touring with The National Lampoon Show at the time, and three of the songs felt too big for a stage musical, so they built an album around them instead.

Todd Rundgren produced, mostly at Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, and played guitar, with Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan of the E Street Band, Edgar Winter and members of Rundgren's Utopia in the room. The ten-minute title track roars off like a motorcycle, "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)" opens with a spoken prologue, "Heaven Can Wait" is pure piano balladry, "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" became a radio staple, and "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" plays out a whole teenage drama, baseball commentary and all.

It spawned two sequels, and in 2017 it finally reached the stage as Bat Out of Hell: The Musical. Steinman spent years insisting the songs belonged in a theatre, and the rest of us spent forty years singing them in the car, which is close enough.

Also at Kops: more Meat Loaf on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Cleveland International / Epic / Legacy (cat# 88985375141), a reissue of the 1977 album.