[Anonymous]

Here's the article..

Here are 25 Essential Things You Need To Know about Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman's album BAT OUT OF HELL, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer: (I would like to thank John W. Rutledge for sending me this article)
1. For Meat Loaf, "Bat Out of Hell" is heavenly in retrospect. But making it was, well, hellish. "If you look at it as a whole, it was fantastic," says the supersized entertainer formerly known as Marvin Lee Aday, born 55 years ago in Dallas. "But if you break it down minute by minute, it was not enjoyable. That's how life is. When you're doing it, it sucks. When you look back on it, it's kind of cool."
2. "Bat" was released in October 1977 by Cleveland International Records, a local production company run by music-industry veteran Steve Popovich, and distributed by CBS Records. The album has sold 14 million copies in the United States alone - and at least another 16 million copies abroad. "People love it," Popovich says. "It's a classic."
3. Meat Loaf's partner Jim Steinman single-handedly composed the album's mock-operatic rock 'n' roll rhapsodies (mostly in the 5- to 10-minute range) about fast sets of wheels and young lust. Among them were three Top 40 singles: "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad," the sex-crazed "Paradise by the Dashboard Lightand "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)."
4. Steinman wasn't always on the same page as producer Todd Rundgren. "Steinman had very clear ideas about how he wanted the songs rendered," Rundgren says. "I thought Bat Out of Hell' was supposed to be a Bruce Springsteen parody, essentially taking all of that overblown and somewhat trite rock imagery and making it so over the top that you brought out a whole other humorous aspect." He adds with a laugh: "That's what I thought. Jim didn't agree 100 percent with my assessment. But the first time I ever saw Bruce Springsteen live was at Steinman's behest, which is where I got the idea this was an influence." Two members of Springsteen's E Street Band - drummer Max Weinberg and pianist Roy Bittan - moonlighted on "Bat."
5. Before recording the album at Bearsville Sound Studio in upstate New York, Meat Loaf, Steinman, Rundgren and the other musicians spent three weeks fine-tuning the material in rehearsals. "Meat Loaf gives 200 percent every time he performs a song," says Kasim Sulton, who played bass on "Bat" and in Rundgren's band, Utopia. "It was the same in rehearsals. Meat sang like he was performing in front of 100,000 people. I remember having to hold back from laughing at this spectacle."
6. Meat Loaf swears he saw the ghost of a teenage girl outside the house where he and Steinman stayed when they were recording "Bat." One night, the covers mysteriously flew off Meat Loaf's bed. "I'm scared to death so I get Jim to sit in a rocking chair next to the bed. . . . I was so scared I actually considered asking him to get into bed with me," Meat Loaf wrote in his autobiography, "To Hell and Back."
7. The play-by-play double-entendres of "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" were provided by former New York Yankees shortstop and radio announcer Phil Rizzuto. To inspire him, Meat Loaf pantomimed a baseball game in the studio.
8. That motorcycle you hear roaring in the middle of the album's title track isn't really a Harley-Davidson. It's Rundgren doing an uncanny motorcycle imitation on his electric guitar. Steinman told VH1 the melodramatic tune was his attempt to write "the most extreme crash song of all time," a la "Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-Las.
9. On "Bat," glorious excess was the name of the game. "I played more notes on there than on any other record since then," says Sulton, who recently released his third solo album, "Quid Pro Quo." He's back on the road with Meat Loaf, playing bass and serving as the tour's musical director. "For 'Bat,' I did what I thought worked - then I did a bit more," Sulton says. "No one ever said, 'You're playing too much.' "
10. Meat Loaf "had his work cut out for him, trying to get these ridiculously high notes in tune," Rundgren recalls. "He was apprehensive about hitting all those stratospheric notes Steinman had written."
11. Vocalist Karla DeVito was cast as Meat Loaf's female foil when he went on tour with "Bat." But she didn't sing on the album. Ellen Foley did.
12. Meat Loaf was suicidal during the "Bat" recording sessions. "Somebody was being really condescending to me," he says. He won't name names, but he says it wasn't Steinman or Rundgren. Meat Loaf had to have his stomach pumped after he took an overdose of sleeping pills. "I was in a huge mess for about 12 years after my mother died," he says. "I was really oversensitive. I wouldn't stand up for myself."
13. When Meat Loaf and Steinman were trying to land a record deal, they performed selections from "Bat" live in the offices of various record-company executives. For maximum dramatic effect, Meat Loaf and his then-girlfriend Foley would make out during "Paradise by the Dashboard Light."
14. Legendary music mogul Clive Davis, who was in charge of Arista Records at the time, wanted no part of "Bat." He compared Meat Loaf to Ethel Merman.
15. "Every major label passed on 'Bat Out of Hell' before Cleveland International picked it up," Popovich says. Upon hearing the album, he sensed "magic" where others had failed to detect any promise. "It was the day and age of the wimpy-looking, Peter Frampton-types," Popovich says. "Then here comes Meat Loaf, this huge guy with an amazing voice. And Steinman's songs were brilliant."
16. When "Bat" came out, Meat Loaf weighed 260 pounds. Today, he's a (relatively) svelte 240. "I just ate a salad," he says.
17. The iconic cover of "Bat" was illustrated by Richard Corben, a veteran comic-book artist whose work has graced the pages of Creepy, Eerie and Heavy Metal magazines.
18. Sulton, for one, was initially oblivious to the album's commercial potential. "I thought I'd never hear the record again," he admits. "Meat Loaf was the polar opposite of everything going on in music at the time. But the lyrical content was brilliant, the melodies were great and the delivery was perfect. He sang amazingly."
19. Rundgren is proud of "Bat," although he also had no inkling of the multiplatinum monster it would become. "We all just felt fortunate to complete the project," he says. "It was more difficult to make than most records because of the scale and scope of everything, with all the background vocals and sweetening. It was hard work. There were times when we may have gotten frustrated. But as I recall, we didn't have any real ugliness. . . . I doubt any of us was ever Rude to Meat Loaf. He's a big guy."
20. On the road to promote "Bat," Meat Loaf headlined the Cleveland Agora on Nov. 14, 1977. Tom Petty and the Heart- breakers were the opening act. Back then, Meat Loaf was "the best live performer on the street," Popovich says. "His show was an amazing workout, to the point where often he would totally collapse and they'd have to give him oxygen backstage."
21. Even after all these years, Meat Loaf isn't tired of belting out everybody's favorite "Bat" tunes. "People go, 'You must be really sick of 'em,' " he says. "I'm not, because they're never the same. I'm an actor, and acting is moment to moment . . . which is how I deal with the songs. Every song lives in its own world. Every time I sing one of those songs, I live in a different moment."
22. Meat Loaf and Steinman reunited for 1993's "Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell" album, which boasted the No. 1 hit "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)." The duo doesn't stay in touch these days. "I get phone calls from his people saying he wants to call me," Meat Loaf says. "I say, 'OK, here's my number.' Or they'll say, 'What's your e-mail address? He really wants to e-mail you.' And that's that. I can never get to him, no matter what I try."
23. Meat Loaf is putting the finishing touches on a new album, "Couldn't Have Said It Better," tentatively scheduled for an April release. Count on more of the same, musicwise. "I don't sound like U2," Meat Loaf says. "This is the first record since 'Bat Out of Hell' where nobody has pushed me. Nobody said, 'OK, you gotta get this done.' We've been working on it almost four years. The record is amazing."
24. Popovich has filed a fraud and breach of contract suit against Sony Music Entertainment for allegedly failing to include Cleveland International's logo on recent copies of "Bat" and other Meat Loaf releases. An October 2003 trial date has been set for U.S. District Court in Cleveland.
25. Ready for "Bat Out of Hell III"? It could happen. "If they call me up and say, 'OK. let's do "Bat III," yeah, there would be a 'Bat III,' " Meat Loaf says. "But I can't do it without Jimmy. And Jimmy legitimately can't do it without me. It's gotta be both of us together. I'd just like to do it before I'm 72."

Thanks..
Janelle