SOUNDS

A Kiss Is A Terrible Thing To Waste (Extended Version - DEMO) - Rory Dodd

Before Jim Steinman wrote the song A Kiss Is A Terrible Thing To Waste for the musical Whistle Down The Wind he wrote a different song with the same title. This song has never appeared on any album. I believe it was written to appear on Jim's solo album Bad For Good, but was later abandoned for the song Out Of The Frying Pan (And Into The Fire). The opening introduction to both songs is basically the same as are several plot points in the songs. Some of the lyrics of this song were recycled into another song off of Bad For Good, Left In The Dark. Rory Dodd who sings Back Up on Jim's albums (and who sung lead vocals on three of Bad For Good's songs) also records Demos of many of Jim's songs. This is an unreleased Demo of Rory Dodd singing Jim Steinman's original A Kiss Is A Terrible Thing To Waste.

Star Spangled Banner - Meat Loaf

This is a recording of Meat Loaf singing The Star Spangled Banner at the All-Star Baseball game. Entertainment Magazine declared Meat Loaf the "Winner Of The Week" saying, "He didn't scratch and he didn't spit, he just belted the hell out of the country's national anthem!"

More Than You Deserve (LIVE) - Jim Steinman

During the Bat Out Of Hell tour from 1977-1979, Meat Loaf's voice became more and more ravaged. Several things were done to give Meat a chance to rest between numbers. During one point on the tour Jimmy took to singing the song More Than You Deserve. This had been his first real hit with Meat Loaf, and yet since it had not been on the Bat Out Of Hell album no one expected Meat to be the one singing it, and as Jimmy was planning on putting the song on Bat Out Of Hell's never materialized follow up album this gave Jimmy a chance to try it out in front of an audience. Eventually the song appeared on Meat Loaf's Jim Steinman penned Dead Ringer Album. This is a recording of Jimmy singing the song in 1979 from the appearance at Nassau Coliseum.

River Deep Mountain High (LIVE) - Meat Loaf & Karla DeVito & Jim Steinman

During the Bat Out Of Hell tour from they realized they needed more than the 7 songs on the album to fill out a show, so they began performing one of Jimmy's favorite songs from his idol Phil Spector. Jimmy adored this song so much he later produced it for Celine Dion. Here is a version from the concert Tour when Meat was still in Good voice, doing it theatrical style with Karla DeVito and with Jimmy playing the hell out of that piano!!

Bad For Good (LIVE) - Meat Loaf
Dance In My Pants (LIVE) - Meat Loaf

In the late 80's when Meat and Jimmy had patched things up and were working on Bat Out Of Hell II Meat began singing songs from Bad For Good on Tour, perhaps deciding which ones to recycle onto Bat Out Of Hell II. Over the years Meat has covered all of the songs from the Bad For Good album on various studio recordings save for three-- Bad For Good, Dance In My Pants, and Stark Raving Love. Here are two of the missing songs as sung by Meat Loaf on tour. The final song, Stark Raving Love, will probably never appear sung by Meat as apparently he doesn't like the song at all.

Australian Radio Interview with Jim Steinman for Bad For Good

When Jimmy recorded Bad For Good he went on a world wide publicity push for the album... even down to Australia. Here is an interview recorded for future play... including all the off mike Behind the scenes talk and promo recording.

More Than You Deserve (1974 Single Version) - Meat Loaf

In 1974 after Meat Loaf had appeared in Jimmy's More Than You Deserve, Meat pushed again to make a record of his song from the musical. He recorded a version of More Than You Deserve, which later appeared on Dead Ringer, to be released as a single. It was not done in Steinman's signature style, and in fact, Jimmy was not allowed in the studio. Several promo copies were sent to radio stations, but the single was never released for sale to the public.

Dance Of The Vampires Interview with Jim Steinman

Shortly after Dance Of The Vampires opened I was lucky enough to get an interview with Jim Steinman myself! I was able to ask him all the important questions and catch it all on tape for everyone to hear.

Meat Loaf interview on South Africa's FM 5

This is an interview that Meat Loaf gave to South Africa's FM 5 somewhere around 1996.

Meat Loaf interview on ABC's in concert Bat Out Of Hell II

This is an interview that Meat Loaf gave to ABC's in concert to promote Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell.

Come Together - Meat Loaf

Let It Be - Meat Loaf

When Meat was in the studio recording for one of his earlier albums he covered a couple of Beatles songs. He used these as "B" sides on some singles releases. I think Meat's voice brings a whole new quality to them, and in some ways surpases the originals....

Come In The Night - Ted Neely and the Neverland Express

When Meat toured for his Dead Ringer album he included some of Jim's Neverland material, though he did not perform it himself. This task was left up to his band. One piece his band performed was titled Come In The Night This was actually a combination of Come In The Night from The Dream Engine, and The Formation Of The Pack from Neverland. Here is Come In The Night, performed by Ted "Jesus Christ Superstar" Neely and the Neverland Express.

Theme Song to Gilligan's Island - Meat Loaf

During an interview with TV Guide, Meat Loaf was asked if he remembered the Theme to Gilligan's Island... which he said he did, then went on to prove that he didn't...

3 High C's from the ending of Bat Out Of Hell and an Unheard track.

Here is a recording of Meat Loaf sitting at the mixing board listening to himself hit the three high C's of the ending to Bat Out Of Hell and then discovering an unheard track not used in the final cut.

Stand By Me - Meat Loaf

Meat Loaf also did a nice cover of Stand By Me that ended up as a "B" side to one of his singles.

Heaven Can Wait (LIVE) - Ellen Foley

Ellen Foley was the woman who played Wendy in Jim's Neverland. As such, she was the first person to sing Heaven Can Wait, the first song written for Bat Out Of Hell, as this was Wendy's song. Several years later she sang this song in concert. You can hear this live concert version here. Jim has said that she recorded a version of this song in the studio for her album, but that her label didn't let her put the song on the album. Would that ever be a great find!

Delta House Theme (Extended Version) - Michael Simmons

There was a short lived TV version of the movie Animal House, called Delta House. Jimmy was tapped to write the theme song, which was basically a recycled version of the Dead Ringer tune. The credits list Jimmy only as the music writer and not the lyrics. But if you listen you can hear some recycled Jim lyrics, which can only lead one to assume Jimmy helped write the lyrics. An interesting side note is that Meat had been asked to play Bluto had Belushi turned the role down.

Cover Up (Opening Theme Song) - Elizabeth Daily

Cover Up (Closing Credits Song) - Elizabeth Daily

A short lived TV series by the name of Cover Up decided it wanted to use Jim's Holding Out For A Hero as its theme, but didn't want to pay the expensive Bonnie Tyler royalities so they had Elizabeth Daily (the voice of Tommy Pickles from the Rugrats among many other things) record a cover of the song.

Hello (DEMO) - Popcorn Blizzard

Once Upon A Time (DEMO) - Popcorn Blizzard

Before Meat made it big he was lead singer of a band that went through many name changes every time they changed guitarists. They started as Meat Loaf Soul then became Popcorn Blizzard and then Floating Circus. Meat took the band to Detroit to try and get a record contract. No such luck, but the group did record some demos that were released as a single.

Is Nothing Sacred (DEMO) - Karine Hannah

Making Love Out Of Nothing At All (DEMO) - Karine Hannah

Braver Than We Are (DEMO) - Karine Hannah

Safe Sex (DEMO) - Karine Hannah

In 2001 Jim planned to make an album with a singer named Karine Hannah. She recorded Demos of four of his songs and they were praising each other. He called her the best voice he had worked with since Celine. She said that she had loved Jim's music since she was a child. Then suddenly the deal was off. Her manager released some vague statement about seeking a different opportunity. Her web page was then "Temporally Down" [sic] for a couple years before disappering completely. I'm glad it fell through as I never liked her voice or the very pop sound of her demos. But here they are, judge for yourself.

Oh What A Beautiful Morning - Meat Loaf

Here is another Meat Loaf cover. This one taking Meat back to his theatrical roots. From the musical Oklahoma! it's Oh What A Beautiful Morning.

A Time For Heroes - Meat Loaf

In 1987 Meat Loaf recorded the vocals for the theme song for the 1987 Special Olympics. The band was Tangerine Dream and Brian May. This song was released as a 12" single as well as on cassette.

Bat Out Of Hell II Interview - Meat Loaf

Here is another interview Meat did after the release of Bat Out Of Hell II.

Backmasking on Hot Summer Nights

On Bat out of Hell in the opening introduction to Hot Summer Nights Ellen says "Will he offer me his mouth?" and Jim says "Yes!" Some people claim if you play this backwards it says "Satan.... For I'm seeking to follow you!" here is an mp3 file of it playing in reverse, you decide!.

Heaven Can Wait - Markus

Big Steinman fan, Markus, performed Jimmy's Heaven Can Wait live a few years ago. He was nice enough to record it and share it with the Steinman community.

Faster Than The Speed Of Night (LIVE) - Bonnie Tyler

Ravishing (LIVE) - Bonnie Tyler

Holding Out For A Hero (LIVE) - Bonnie Tyler

Total Eclipse Of The Heart (LIVE) - Bonnie Tyler

Here are some of Jim's songs sung by Bonnie Tyler, live in concert.

Paradise By The Dashboard Light (Paradijs Bij Het Dashbordlicht) - Paul de Leeuw & Imca Marina

An interesting version of Paradise. Apparently this Paul de Leeuw is Dutch and is one of the most popular singers in the Netherlands. You can visit his homepage at www.pauldeleeuw.nl.

Left In The Dark - Lamnad I Murkret - Cecilia Vennerster

For many people this is their favorite version of Left In The Dark. Personally I think Jimmy is the only artist to have captured the right emotion on the song. I also think that the song really only works when sung by a man. That having been said, this version is certainly better than Meat or Babs.

Confessions Of A Vampire - Ryan Letizia

Ryan Letizia, the Steinman fan that many love to hate, performed Jimmy's "Confessions Of A Vampire" in some Aussie wattering hole. We were all dubious and of course he made up many excuses as to why he couldn't produce the tapes after bragging about them, as he had on many previous occasions. But after enough hounding, he finally came through. I'll give the kid props... he's got talent. Ryan, stop twatting around and you could go places!

Only When I Feel - Ryan Letizia

Recently Ryan recorded Jim's Only When I Feel sitting at his computer with no instrumentation. Listen and draw your own conclusions.

It's All Coming Back To Me Now - Kimberly Kelsey

It's All Coming Back To Me Now - Monica Songok

A couple of singers on American Idol took a shot at singing Jimmy's It's All Coming Back To Me Now. One of them did pretty well... the other... well... you can hear the announcer take their digs and I think it was warranted. Thanks to Christian for sharing these files with me!

Interview with Meat Loaf on Bat Out Of Hell 3

I managed to get Meat Loaf to give me an interview with him on Skype about Bat 3: The Monster Is Loose