Top 10 Jim Steinman Songs

The careers of Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf will be forever linked.

The pair, born a little more than a month apart in 1947, rose to prominence on 1977’s Bat Out of Hell, Meat Loaf’s multiplatinum debut album that was written and conceived by Steinman as a rock ‘n’ roll musical based on Peter Pan.

Even though the album was produced by Todd Rundgren, it was Steinman who called the shots, from its conceptual center to the Phil Spector-influenced sense of musical grandeur. But where Spector constructed his multi-instrumentalist visions as radio-friendly two-and-a-half-minute pop songs, Steinman took advantage of the boundless FM radio format in the mid-’70s and often pushed his songs to seven, eight or even more minutes.

But there was more to the writer and producer than just Meat Loaf, as you will see in the below list of the Top 10 Jim Steinman Songs. In the ’80s and ’90s, he expanded his widescreen, operatic and often romantic theatrical rock to artists as diverse as Air Supply, Celine Dion, Barry Manilow, the Sisters of Mercy and Billy Squier, and continued to rack up hit songs.

Still, it was Meat Loaf who gave him his final No. 1 when they reunited in 1993 for the belated sequel Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell. Steinman and Meat Loaf died within a year of one another in 2021 and 2022, respectively, their lives inevitably connected until the end.

10. Bonnie Tyler, “Holding Out for a Hero” (1984)

Flush from the success of “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” Steinman reunited with Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler for a song from the Footloose soundtrack. One of the few Steinman-written and -produced tracks that restrains epic inclinations, if not its length (the single version clocks in at an economical four and a half minutes, but an extended cut runs more than six), “Holding Out for a Hero” is pumped-up mid-’80s synth-pop.

 

READ MORE: Top 10 Meat Loaf Songs

 

9. Jim Steinman, “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through” (1981)

Steinman released only one solo album, 1981’s Bad for Good, which was intended as Meat Loaf’s second LP until the singer underwent vocal issues that temporarily sidelined his career. An uncredited Rory Dodd sings “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through,” a Top 40 hit for Steinman that was later revived for Meat Loaf’s 1993 comeback record, Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell. The original is filled with hope.

 

8. Meat Loaf, “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)” (1977)

The first single from Meat Loaf’s debut album, like the other two songs pulled for release, was trimmed in length to meet radio limits. “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth” lost a minute-long intro spoken by Steinman that doesn’t affect much – the track, by Steinman’s standards, is relatively short to begin with. Meat Loaf has said he asked the songwriter to pen a less sprawling song for him. The result: a pop-rock gem.

 

7. Air Supply, “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” (1983)

Steinman didn’t intend to be tied to just one artist, especially after the delay between Meat Loaf albums. So in 1983, he wrote and produced hit records for Bonnie Tyler and Air Supply, the Australian soft-rock duo that charted seven Top 5 singles since 1980. “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” appeared on their Greatest Hits LP and peaked at No. 2 for three weeks behind “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Another Spector-sized epic.

 

6. Meat Loaf, “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” (1977)

The breakthrough song from Bat Out of Hell was the last written for the album, a challenge to Steinman by a friend to write something less grandiloquent than most of his songs. While “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” still clocks in at five and a half minutes (the single edit cuts 90 seconds), the relative scaling-back proved to be a key ingredient. The power ballad just missed the Top 10, but its legacy endures.

 

5. Meat Loaf, “Bat Out of Hell” (1977)

Little surprise Bat Out of Hell sounds like a musical: Steinman pieced it together from a rock version of Peter Pan he wrote for the stage. The title track is the entryway to the album and, as a result, Steinman and Meat Loaf’s worldview. Stretching to nearly 10 minutes, “Bat Out of Hell” sounded unlike anything at the time: a piece of musical theater with rock ‘n’ roll at its core. The album made Meat Loaf a star; this is the start.

 

4. Celine Dion, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” (1996)

Celine Dion was one of the most commercially successful artists in the world, coming off her second No. 1, when she surprised fans with Steinman’s seven-and-a-half-minute “woman’s song.” “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” caused a rift between the songwriter and Meat Loaf, who wanted to sing it but was legally prevented by Steinman. Dion gives an epic performance, one of her all-time best; not a single note is out of place.

 

READ MORE: 50 Songs From the ’90s That Don’t Suck

 

3. Meat Loaf, “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” (1993)

Sixteen years after Bat Out of Hell made Meat Loaf a star and Steinman a hit writer, the pair reconciled for a sequel. Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell was an immediate hit, giving them their only No. 1 LP. Its lead single topped the chart, too. “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That),” in its album version, runs more than 12 minutes; the single, trimmed by half, loses some of the intensity but none of its romantic propensities.

 

2. Meat Loaf, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” (1977)

Bat Out of Hell‘s centerpiece requires four sections and eight and a half minutes to realize Steinman’s Phil Spector-like vision. A duet between Meat Loaf and Ellen Foley – who chart a couple’s romance from backseat courting to end-of-the-world-praying deliverance – “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” spotlights the LP’s nucleus, from the performers to producer Todd Rundgren to songwriter/conceptual mastermind Steinman.

 

1. Bonnie Tyler, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (1983)

Meat Loaf’s second album, 1981’s Bad for Good, was a critical and commercial nonstarter, and Steinman’s relationship with his muse singer was waning following the wait between records. So Steinman retreated to work with Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, who hit No. 3 in 1977 with “It’s a Heartache.” He coproduced her 1983 album Faster Than the Speed of Night and wrote a couple of the songs, including “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” a seven-minute, multipiece work that recalled his best music with Meat Loaf. The song was a worldwide hit, reaching No. 1 in the U.S. and U.K., and resurrected the careers of Tyler and Steinman, who’d go on to work with other artists throughout the decade. But none sparked him the way Tyler did – “Total Eclipse” is one of the ’80s best songs and a Steinman crown jewel.