Jim Steinman: 1947 to 2021

“I’ve been called over the top. How silly. If you don’t go over the top, you can’t see what’s on the other side.” – Jim Steinman

Acclaimed composer, lyricist, record producer, and playwright Jim Steinman passed away on April 19th. He was 73 years old.

Steinman was known for his epic musical compositions. Some might call them operatic, while others would probably prefer to describe them as melodramatic. Myself, being someone with a fondness for the epic, grand soundscapes, really enjoyed his work.

Steinman’s career began in the late 1960s, but he first gained widespread recognition when he composed Bat Out of Hell, the 1977 debut album of Meat Loaf. Bat Out of Hell became one of the best-selling albums of all time. I have to confess, Bat Out of Hell initially escaped my attention for one very good reason: I was all of one year old when it came out, so I was obviously a bit too young to be able to appreciate Steinman’s lyrics & compositions and Meat Loaf’s vocals.

However, by the time their long-awaited follow-up, Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell was released in September 1993, I was absolutely the perfect age to listen. This was right at the beginning of my senior year in high school, and “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” was being blasted across the airwaves. Meat Loaf belted out these incredible, soulful vocals. The duet at the end between Meat Loaf and Lorraine Crosby aka “Mrs. Loud” topped off the dramatic, atmospheric ballad.

The epic music video for “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” directed by Michael Bay, with its eerie, Gothic romance imagery, was in heavy rotation on MTV in late 1993. Yes, kids, this was back in the bygone days when MTV actually played music videos!

I bought Bat Out of Hell II soon after it came out, and I totally played that album to death! Seriously, it was one of those albums I would listen to from start to finish, not skipping any tracks. Steinman and Meat Loaf really seemed to catch lightning in a bottle with this one, with nary a dud on the track list. Even track 7, “Wasted Youth,” a bizarre monologue spoken by Steinman himself, was weirdly entertaining.

Steinman also worked with Air Supply, Barry Manilow, Bonnie Tyler, Celine Dion, and The Sisters of Mercy, writing some incredibly stirring songs for those artists. Many of those songs became huge hits.

Growing up in the 1980s, the Bonnie Tyler song “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (1983) was a regular presence on “light FM” radio stations. I always liked it, although it wasn’t until a decade later that I learned Steinman had written & produced it. Of course, as soon as I found out, I could immediately see his lyrical and acoustical signatures all over it. “Total Eclipse of the Heart” was later covered as an electronic dance track by Nicki French in 1995, again becoming a hit.

The power ballad “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” was written by Steinman in 1986. Inspired by the Gothic romance novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” was first recorded in 1989 by Pandora’s Box, a female group assembled by Steinman in the late 1980s. Elaine Caswell provided the lead vocals.

The video for “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” was directed by acclaimed filmmaker Ken Russell.  Steinman wrote the script for the video, and he drew inspiration from Russell’s own recent work on the “Nessun Dorma” segment from the 1987 compilation opera movie Aria. Russell’s video for “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” could be described as an apocalyptic S&M orgy, with leather-clad demons and angels fighting over the soul of a woman (portrayed by Caswell) who hovers between life and death after a fiery motorcycle crash in a graveyard.

“It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” was covered by Celine Dion on her 1996 album Falling Into You, with Steinman once again producing the track. Dion’s version became a worldwide hit. Andrew Lloyd Weber reportedly told Steinman that he thought it was “the greatest love song ever written.”

The video for Dion’s cover of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” was directed by Nigel Dick. It was much more in the line of traditional Gothic romance than the Pandora’s Box version had been, but it was certainly no less grandiose. Set in a sprawling mansion, the music video was shot on location in the 200 year old Ploskovice summer palace of the Austrian Emperors, and at Barandov Studios in Prague, Czech Republic.

“It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” was later covered again in 2006. This time it was performed as a duet by Meat Loaf and Marion Raven. The producer on this version was Desmond Child rather than Steinman.

Steinman later wrote Bat Out of Hell: The Musical, which featured a number of his iconic compositions. The show opened in February 2017 at the Manchester Opera House. It subsequently was staged in London, Toronto and New York City. Tours in the United States, Australia and the UK were planned, but postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jim Steinman career has been described as “wholly unique” by Rolling Stone. He leaves behind a rich musical legacy of incredibly dramatic, iconic songs.

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