Bat out of Hell

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Bat Out of Hell

Studio album by Meat Loaf
Released	October 21, 1977
Recorded	1977
Genre	Wagnerian rock
Length	46:33
Label	Cleveland International
Producer(s)	Todd Rundgren
All Music Guide link Epinions link Robert Christgau (C-) link Rolling Stone (mixed) link
Meat Loaf chronology
Stoney & Meatloaf (1971)	Bat Out of Hell (1977)	Live at the Bottom Line (1979)

This article describes the album by Meat Loaf. For the single release of the title song, see Bat Out of Hell (song)

Bat Out of Hell is the extremely successful second album of singer Meat Loaf (Marvin Lee Aday), released in 1977 (see 1977 in music).

The album featured music of a bombastic and Wagnerian style. When Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf started proposing it to music companies they had a lot of trouble finding someone willing to produce it. But when guitarist Todd Rundgren heard it, he immediately decided he wanted to produce the album. They still needed a label and it took them some more time before they finally settled with Cleveland International Records.

The album was not an immediate hit; it was more of a growing one. Bat Out of Hell still sells about 200,000 copies per year and has sold an estimated 40 million copies worldwide, 16 million in the US alone, over 1.5 million albums in Australia (even re-entered charts on November 2006, at number 41 on the ARIAs) becoming one of the biggest selling albums of all time. It remained 474 weeks on the UK charts, a feat only surpassed by the 478 weeks of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. In 2003, the album was ranked number 343 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It is also one of only two albums that have never exited the top 200 in the UK charts. This makes it the longest stay in any chart in the world.

Jim Steinman is credited with the album cover concept, which was illustrated by Richard Corben. The album was dedicated to Wesley and Wilma Aday (Meat Loaf's parents) and Louis Steinman.

In 1993 a sequel called Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell (with a cover by Michael Whelan modelled on the first one) was released, which includes the hit single "I'd Do Anything for Love (but I Won't Do That)". A second sequel called Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose, was released in October 2006.

Todd Rundgren charged a flat fee of $US 45,000 to produce albums, but his fee was rejected as too high for this project. He accepted a percentage deal instead and made a small fortune for his work as producer on the album. The album was also recorded start-to-finish as a whole, rather than each song recorded individually.

The phrase "Bat out of Hell" did not originate with the album or song; it can be traced back to the Greek playwright Aristophanes' 414 BC work entitled The Birds. [1] In it is what is believed to be the first reference to a bat out of Hell:

“

Near by the land of the Sciapodes there is a marsh, from the borders whereof the unwashed Socrates evokes the souls of men. Pisander came one day to see his soul, which he had left there when still alive. He offered a little victim, a camel, slit his throat and, following the example of Odysseus, stepped one pace backwards. Then that bat of a Chaerephon came up from hell to drink the camel's blood.

”

[edit] Track listing

Side One:

"Bat Out of Hell" – 9:48
"You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)" – 5:04
"Heaven Can Wait" – 4:38
"All Revved Up with No Place to Go" – 4:19

Side Two:

"Two out of Three Ain't Bad" – 5:23
"Paradise by the Dashboard Light" – 8:28
- "Paradise"
- "Let Me Sleep on It"
- "Praying for the End of Time"
"For Crying Out Loud" – 8:45

(All music, lyrics, and spoken material by Jim Steinman.)

(Arrangements by Jim Steinman, Todd Rundgren, Ken Ascher, Roy Bittan, Steven Margoshes.)

The album also exists in numerous other formats and rereleases, including a twenty-fifth anniversary edition with three bonus tracks ("Great Boléros of Fire (live intro)," "Bat Out of Hell (live)," and "Dead Ringer For Love") and the Hits out of Hell DVD, and a "Bat Out of Hell: Revamped" release featuring the song "Dead Ringer for Love."