Turn Around, Bright Eyes, Part 2

Summary

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Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia

"Turn Around, Bright Eyes, Part 2"

Host: Chris Molanphy
Date: October 30, 2020

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Episode Overview

In "Turn Around, Bright Eyes, Part 2," host Chris Molanphy dives deep into the 1980s and 1990s chart reign of songwriter-producer Jim Steinman. Continuing from Part 1—which focused on Steinman's early collaborations with Meat Loaf—the episode explores how Steinman became one of pop’s most eclectic and bombastic hitmakers, shaping the sound of theatrical rock ballads for artists like Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Barry Manilow, Barbra Streisand, and Meat Loaf—ultimately defining the “power ballad” as a chart force.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” – The Ultimate Steinman Power Ballad

• Background & First Hits: Bonnie Tyler, hailing from Wales, found early success in the UK with “Lost in France” (1976) and the international smash “It’s a Heartache” (1978).

• Finding Steinman: By the early ‘80s, Tyler craved a modern “Phil Spector sound.” She pursued Steinman, who tested her musical tastes; their instant creative chemistry led to the collaboration.

• Recording & Release:

  • Steinman penned “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” involving familiar collaborators from the Bat out of Hell sessions (Roy Bitton, Max Weinberg).
  • The result was a “monster” hit.
  • Quote: “Let’s be honest, [Total Eclipse of the Heart] doesn’t make much sense. Not the title, not its lyrics, and certainly not its glossy, bonkers and much ridiculed music video … Both the song and the video might be the ultimate expression of the Jim Steinman aesthetic: no logic, all feeling. And what’s wrong with that?” (Chris Molanphy, 07:34)
  • Critical Take: Tom Breihan (Stereogum) on Total Eclipse: “The term power ballad doesn’t adequately describe Total Eclipse of the Heart, if only because the word power just doesn’t have enough power. It’s an extinction level event rendered in musical form.” (Chris Molanphy quoting Tom Breihan, 07:54)

• Chart Success:

  • Entered Hot 100 at #75 in July 1983, hit #1 in October, stayed there for 4 weeks.

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2. Air Supply & the Takeover of the Charts (10:13–14:30)

• Background: The Australian duo, after a long run of soft-rock hits, sought a new sound as their popularity waned.
• Steinman’s Role: Steinman gave them “Making Love Out of Nothing at All,” itself cobbled from an earlier movie theme.
  • “90% of the players from Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ played on Air Supply’s ‘Making Love Out of Nothing At All.’ So of course the two songs came out sounding like twins.” (Chris Molanphy, 13:16)
• Chart Domination:
  • For three weeks in fall 1983, “Total Eclipse…” and “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” held the #1 and #2 spots; Steinman was the first since the Bee Gees to achieve this as sole songwriter/producer.
  • “It was a total Jim Steinman chart conquest…” (Chris Molanphy, 13:50)

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3. Steinman Becomes Pop’s “Gun for Hire” (15:09–17:45)

• Barry Manilow – “Read ‘Em and Weep”: Repurposed from a Meat Loaf song; hit #18 in 1984 and topped the Adult Contemporary chart.
• Bonnie Tyler – “Holding Out for a Hero”: Another explosive Steinman/Tyler joint, written with Dean Pitchford for Footloose (peaked at #34, 1984).
• Billy Squier – “Rock Me Tonite”: Squier’s biggest top 40 hit, produced by Steinman (peaked at #15, summer 1984).
• Barbra Streisand – “Left in the Dark”: Steinman recycles a song from his earlier solo project for Streisand; moderate hit, heavy on Steinman’s “theatrical” production.

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4. Failed & Curious Experiments (19:12–24:00)

• Def Leppard – Hysteria: Steinman’s production style clashed with the band’s, leading to his exit from the project.
• Streets of Fire Soundtrack: Steinman’s bombastic songs underperformed, while Dan Hartman’s did well.
• Bonnie Tyler’s “If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man)”: Written by Desmond Child with explicit “gender-crossing” instructions from Steinman; failed to hit big, but inspired Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name,” a direct rewrite and a massive hit.

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5. Crossing Genres: Goth, Alternative Rock, and the Sisters of Mercy (24:43–29:10)

• Steinman Produces Sisters of Mercy:
  • “This Corrosion” (1987): Steinman insisted on a 40-person chorus! Became the gothic band’s biggest UK hit.
  • “More” (1990): Another bombastic, cinematic goth hit—reaching #1 on America’s Modern Rock chart for five weeks.
  • “More was goth done Steinman style, with a cinematic sound and just a hint of Broadway.” (Chris Molanphy, 28:31)

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6. The Meat Loaf/Steinman Reunion & 1990s Renaissance (29:10–36:30)

• Pandora’s Box / “Good Girls Go to Heaven”: Steinman’s 1989 all-female project provided more material for Meat Loaf’s big comeback.
• Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell:
  • “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” — built upon a throwaway lyric from Bonnie Tyler’s album, became a giant smash.
    • “Has to be regarded as one of the most amazing Pop Rocks comebacks of all time. … Actually, comeback isn’t quite right. Maybe come up is more appropriate.” (Chris Molanphy, 31:33)
  • Charted immediately at #3, went to #1 (album and single) in late 1993—five weeks atop the Hot 100.
  • “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through” and “Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are” added to the run of hits.
• Nikki French’s “Total Eclipse” Cover:
  • 1995 dance cover peaked at #2, proving the song's continued chart magic.

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7. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" & the Celine Dion Era (38:30–41:00)

• Origins: Written for Pandora’s Box, inspired by Wuthering Heights.
  • Jim Steinman on song’s genesis: “It's All Coming Back to Me Now is my attempt to write the most passionate romantic song I could ever write. I was writing it while under the influence of Wuthering Heights …”—(Jim Steinman, 39:03)
• Celine Dion’s Version:
  • 1996, featured on Falling Into You—epic Steinman/Bitton production, huge vocals.
  • Reached #2 on Hot 100 (blocked by “Macarena”), album sales soared.

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8. Late-Career & Broadway Ambitions (41:10–end)

• Stage Musicals:
  • Whistle Down the Wind (with Andrew Lloyd Webber): Mixed reviews, a moderate UK pop hit (“No Matter What” by Boyzone).
  • Tanz der Vampire/Dance of the Vampires: Steinman’s full musical adaptation underperforms on Broadway, but features “Total Eclipse” (retitled “Vampires in Love”).
• Covers & Revivals:
  • “Total Eclipse of the Heart” remains ever-present: covered by Glee (2010s), The Voice (2017), and others.
  • “Total Eclipse remains Jim Steinman's most unkillable, perhaps I should say undead, composition.” (Chris Molanphy, 45:58)
• Meat Loaf’s Continued Steinman Connection:
  • Recorded new versions of Steinman songs (“It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” “Loving You’s a Dirty Job”) into the 2000s/2010s.
• Jim Steinman’s Final Victory Lap:
  • Bat Out of Hell: The Musical tours globally and plays Off-Broadway, serving as a super-sized retrospective of his career.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Let’s be honest, Total Eclipse of the Heart doesn’t make much sense … Both the song and the video might be the ultimate expression of the Jim Steinman aesthetic: no logic, all feeling.”
  (Chris Molanphy, 07:34)

• “It was a total Jim Steinman chart conquest … giving Steinman, who was the sole producer and sole songwriter of both hits, a hammerlock on the top of the charts, which he held for three weeks.”
  (Chris Molanphy, 13:50)

• Tom Breihan on “Total Eclipse”:
  “The term power ballad doesn’t adequately describe Total Eclipse of the Heart … It’s an extinction level event rendered in musical form.”
  (Chris Molanphy quotes Tom Breihan, 07:54)

• On Steinman’s attitude toward musical logic:
  “No logic, all feeling. And what’s wrong with that?”
  (Chris Molanphy, 07:40)

• On old songs getting new life:
  “Jim Steinman was not a guy who’d let a catchy aphoristic phrase go unnoticed. So he wasn’t about to let this throwaway Bonnie Tyler lyric … get thrown away.”
  (Chris Molanphy, 31:10)

• On “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”:
  “Celine Dion’s ‘It’s All Coming Back To Me Now’ was in many ways the culmination of Jim Steinman’s lifelong art project. Wagnerian drama, thundering production, overpowering romanticism … the ultimate vocal diva.”
  (Chris Molanphy, 40:09)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Bonnie Tyler and “Total Eclipse of the Heart”: 00:08–10:08
• Air Supply and “Making Love Out of Nothing at All”: 10:13–13:50
• Consecutive Chart Domination: 13:50–15:09
• Steinman, Manilow, Squier, Streisand: 15:09–18:56
• Failed Production Work & Gender-Swapping Hitmaking: 19:12–24:32
• Goth Rock Crossover with Sisters of Mercy: 24:43–29:10
• Meat Loaf/Steinman Reunion & Early 90s Comeback: 29:10–36:30
• Nikki French and “Total Eclipse” Cover: 36:30–38:30
• Celine Dion and “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”: 38:30–41:00
• Musicals & Steinman’s Late-Career Legacy: 41:10–end

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Conclusion

Chris Molanphy’s episode is both affectionate and sharp in tracing Steinman’s outsized pop legacy. If you want the story of how enormous, over-the-top, emotionally volcanic music conquered the charts—not just once, but again and again, and echoed through decades—this chart history deep-dive is essential. Steinman’s gift for musical bombast left an indelible mark, from Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler to Celine Dion, from arena rock to the gothic underground and Broadway stages. As Molanphy concludes, regardless of taste, “you can only imagine that as Jim Steinman, the self-proclaimed lord of excess, looked upon this spectacle, it was all coming back to him. Now.” (50:24)

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Transcript

[Narrator/Announcer]

You're listening ad free on Amazon Music.

[Chris Melanphy]

Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanphy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One series. On our last episode, we talked about how Jim Steinman felt found his muse in the singer Meat Loaf, and together they produced the blockbuster album Bat out of Hell. But by the 80s, Steinman and Meat Loaf were on the outs, just as Steinman was about to write some of the biggest songs of his career. During his first decade, Jim Steinman had worked with a range of people in the theater world, but in the pop world, his main claim to fame was still Meatloaf. It was only in the early 80s, as Jim and Meat became professionally estranged, that Steinman began working with a wider array of pop collaborators. One of them would be the vehicle for his most enduring song. But she had already had hits of her own years before she met Jim Steinman. Bonnie Tyler, born in Skewvan, Wales, began recording in London in 1976, and by the end of that year she had her first British top 10 hit. The poppy Abba esque Lost in France reached number nine in the uk. A little over a year later, however, Tyler scored an even bigger hit around the world.

[Singer/Vocalist (performing song excerpts)]

It's a Heartache. Nothing But a Heartache.

[Chris Melanphy]

It's a Heartache was not only a blockbuster single, reaching number four in the UK and a remarkable number three in America in the summer of 1978, it also established a vocal Persona for Bonnie Tyler, a rough, hewn, throatier, huskier voice, a kind of gravelly female analog to Rod Stewart.

[Singer/Vocalist (performing song excerpts)]

It's a heartache Nothing but a heartache.

[Chris Melanphy]

The challenge, of course, with a fluke smash like It's a Heartache is following it up. The song's country music overtones led her management to push Bonnie toward twangier songs at a time when country pop crossover was doing well on the charts. However, Tyler's 1979 single My Guns Are Loaded only managed to bubble under the Hot 100, peaking in America at number 107. By 1981, after several flop singles and albums, Bonnie Tyler fired her management and signed to a new label, CBS Records. When asked by her new team, whom she'd like to work with, Tyler said she wanted the modern equivalent of the Phil Spector sound, something big and soulful. And she figured the one guy who could do that was the man behind Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell. So Tyler chased after Jim Steinman. At first he wasn't interested. Eventually he had an idea of how they could maybe work together, and he agreed to a meeting. When they met, Steinman decided to test Tyler by playing her two of his favorite songs from two totally different bands. One by Swamp Rock hitmaker's credence, Clearwater Revival, have you ever seen the Rain? Other a deep cut by Prague metal band Blue Oyster Cult, Going through the Motions. It was a tidy summary of the breadth of Steinman's tastes. Passion crossed with pomposity. If Tyler had expressed disinterest in either song, Steinman knew it would be folly for them to work together. But she loved both. In fact, Tyler would wind up covering both songs for her next album, Faster Than the Speed of Night, which Steinman would produce at that point. Steinman hadn't produced a full album since Meat loaf's ill fated 1981 album Dead Ringer, and by 1983, Meat had moved on to different producers and songwriters for his Midnight at the Lost and Found album. If Bonnie Tyler hadn't shown up in Jim Steinman's life, he probably would have presented his next set of songs to Meat Loaf. The most promising was an irresistible melody that Steinman had been refining and reusing for multiple projects over a decade, including, to refresh your memory, his college musical the Dream Engine. And the score to the 1980 film A Small Circle of Friends. Steinman Frank finally turned this melody, culminating in the lyric turn around bright eyes into a complete song that he bequeathed to Bonnie Tylum. They recorded it with many of Steinman's favorite players from the Bat out of Hell sessions, including pianist Roy Bitton and drummer Max Weinberg from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, as well as vocalist Rory Dodd, who provided falsetto counterpoint that was so prominent on the song. It was practically a duet in every way, sonically, spiritually and on the charts. This song was a monster. Total Eclipse of the Heart, let's be honest, doesn't make much sense. Not the title, not its lyrics, and certainly not its glossy, bonkers and much ridiculed music video in which Tyler is a teacher or maybe the headmaster of a boys prep school where the boys are possessed. Both the song and the video might be the ultimate expression of the Jim Steinman aesthetic. No logic, all feeling. And what's wrong with that? In 2020, for his long running Stereogum blog, the Number Ones, Tom Bryan wrote, quote, the term power ballad doesn't adequately describe Total Eclipse of the Heart, if only because the word power just doesn't have enough power. It's an extinction level event rendered in musical form form pop music as heart pounding, chest thumping, blood gargling, heaven's falling passion explosion. It's sheer spectacle. And right when it seems like Total Eclipse is about to end, it somehow becomes even bigger. Who the fuck cares what it's about? It was also a massive hit, debuting on the Hot 100 at number 75 in July of 1983. Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart took a dozen weeks to reach number one, knocking out Billy Joel's teller about it the first week of October 1983. It gave Jim Steinman not only his first top ten hit and ever remember Meat Loaf's biggest hit, 2 out of 3 Ain't Bad had peaked at number 11 in 1978, but of course it was also Steinman's first number one. Total Eclipse of the Heart remained on top for four weeks, but it wasn't Steinman's only chart smash in the fall of 83. Rising alongside total Eclipse of the Heart was another bombastic ultra power ballad from the Jim Steinman cinematic universe. And the frontline artist for this hit was a far unlikelier collaborator than Bonnie Tyler. Based on this duo's prior hits, you might never have guessed they'd wind up working with Jim Steinman.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Reach for a star and I'll show you how.

[Chris Melanphy]

It may be hard to remember even for those of us who were alive at the time, but Air Supply, the Australian soft rock duo of Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock, were the schlocky kings of the charts at the turn of the 80s. Starting with their 1983 hit Lost in Love, Air Supply racked up seven consecutive top five hits from 1980-82, including their mawkish 1981 number one smash, the One that you love.

[Singer/Vocalist (performing song excerpts)]

Asking for another Day.

[Chris Melanphy]

And their equally cheesy hit Even the Nights are better, a number four five hit in 1982. These hits were power ballads of a sort, albeit not at Jim Steinman scale. And Air Supply lead vocalist Russell Hitchcock did possess a potently histrionic voice. At the end of 1982, Air Supply sensed that they needed a change of direction. When their top five streak ended, two straight singles barely scraped the top 40. In the age of MTV and new wave, they needed something beefier. And Jim Steinman had just the thing. Yet another melody he'd been tinkering with for years. This main title theme from the 1980 film A Small Circle of Friends was turned by Steinman into a full blown song with lyrics. By 1982, he gave it the melodramatic, quintessentially Steinmanian title Making Love out of Nothing at all, and the demo for the song was performed by his frequent vocal collaborator Rory Dahmer.

[Narrator/Announcer]

I know just how to whisper and I know just how to cry.

[Chris Melanphy]

This demo found its way to Air Supply, who were looking for a new single to add to their 1983 greatest hits LP. Jim Steinman agreed to produce Air Making Love out of Nothing at all, and it would give Leave lead singer Russell Hitchcock the biggest vocal workout of his life. Steinman produced the Air Supply single with his usual team Bitten, Weinberg, Dodd. In fact, 90% of the players from Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart played on Air supplies Making Love out of Nothing At All. So of course the two songs came out sounding like twins.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Out of nothing at all.

[Chris Melanphy]

And even though they were on rival labels Columbia and Arista, Bonnie Tyler's and Air Supply's respective singles scaled the Hot 100 together. It was a total Jim Steinman chart conquest the week ending October 8, 1983, when Tyler's Total Eclipse was in its second week at number one and Air Supply's Making Love rose to number two, giving Steinman, who was the sole producer and sole songwriter of both hits, a hammerlock on the top of the charts, which he held for three weeks. Billboard reported that Steinman was the first songwriter produced producer to have the top two hits in America since the Bee Gees locked down the chart in 1978 at the peak of Saturday Night Fever. As if that wasn't enough, about a month later, as Steinman's twin hits began their chart descent, yet another client of his cracked the top 40.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Like Come on and Look At Me.

[Chris Melanphy]

Barry Mamelo, the king of 70s Broadway style power balladry, was attempting an 80s career makeover similar to Air Supplies. Like them, he was seeking material for a greatest hits album, and Manilow possessed the kind of show tunes caliber voice ideally suited to Jim Steinman. So Steinman gave Manilow Read Em and Weep, a song he'd previously written for Meat Loaf's 1981 Dead Ringer album. Meat Loaf's version hadn't been a single, let alone a hit, but Manilow's Read Em and Weep, though now the present.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Is nothing but a hollowed out dream.

[Chris Melanphy]

Broke into the top 40 in late November 1983, while the Bonnie Tyler and Air Supply hits were still in the top 20. Jim Steinman had more credits within the Billboard top 40 at that moment than Michael Jackson or Lionel Richie. Manilow's Read Em and Weep eventually reached number 18 on the Hot 100 in early 1984 and number one on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, another first for the song's sole producer and only songwriter, Jim Steinman. By 1984, Steinman had fully reinvented himself as pop's ultimate gun for hire. His fingerprints were all over the charts.

[Singer/Vocalist (performing song excerpts)]

Late at night I touched and I turn and I dream of what I see I need a Hero.

[Chris Melanphy]

When screenwriter and songwriter Dean Pitchford went looking for songs for the soundtrack to his upcoming film Footloose, he invited Bonnie Tyler, which meant that Jim Steinman came with the package. Steinman co wrote holding out for a Hero with Dean Pitchford and Steinman produced the song in high Jim Steinman style, Serving as a de facto sequel to Tyler's total eclipse of the heart. The explosive holding out for a Hero peaked at number 34 on the Hot 100 in April 1984. Three months later, Steinman's name was back in the top 40 with another collaborator. Arena rocker Billy Squire brought in Jim Steinman to produce his 1984 album Signs of Life. Though the album bore fewer of Steinman's sonic touches and Squire wrote all his own material, Steinman's way with a pop hook gave Squier his biggest ever top 40 hit. Rock Me Tonight peaked at number 15 that summer. Two weeks after Billy Squire's hit peaked, another Jim Steinman production broke into the Hot 100, and this one sounded a lot more like him.

[Singer/Vocalist (performing song excerpts)]

But I must have been l bet you still got a trace of her love in your eyes and you still got her eyes on your mind.

[Chris Melanphy]

Like her fellow show tunes veteran Barry Manilow, Barbra Streisand requested a theatrical lung buster from Jim Steinman. He served up yet another song from his vault called Left in the Dark. He had written and recorded it himself for the 1981 project that started as a meatloaf album and turned into the Jim Steinman album Bad for Good. Steinman produced a new version of the song for Barbra and gave it the full Steinman treatment, with pounding pianos and piles of background vocals. Serving as the lead single of Streisand's 1984 album Emotion. It was also her first video to appear on MTV. Left in the Dark reached number 50 on the Hot 100 and the top five on the the Adult Contemporary chart. Not all of Steinman's production jobs worked out for a few weeks. In 1984, he was hired to produce the long awaited Def Leppard album that would eventually be titled Hysteria. Steinman and the band did not get along in the studio. Steinman attempted to capture big brassy moods, while Def Leppard was were more about crafting meticulous recordings. They parted ways before 1984 was over and hysteria was eventually produced by Leopard's usual mastermind, Robert John Mutt Lang. Jim Steinman was also brought in to rescue the soundtrack to the Summer 19801984 movie Streets of Fire, a notorious flop named after a Bruce Springsteen song that the filmmakers couldn't get the rights to from Springsteen. Steinman contributed two replacement songs to the film, both performed by a fictional band he named Fire Incorporated. While the Streets of Fire soundtrack did produce a 1984 hit in Dan Hartman's I Can Dream about you, Steinman's contributions Tonight is what It Means to Be Young and Nowhere Fast went nowhere on the charts. Speaking of Nowhere Fast, that Jim Steinman song appeared on another 1984 album, Meat Loaf's Bad Attitude. The cold war between Meat and Jim persisted. They were still not working together, but Meatloaf was recording the occasional Steinman song on his own. The 80s was a lost decade for Meatloaf. He scored virtually no hits after 1981, and attempts to recreate the Jim Steinman sound with other writers and producers generated limited results. The very Steinmanesque 19 the 1984 single Modern Girl was a top 20 hit in the UK, where Meatloaf was still beloved, but it flopped in most other countries including the U.S. meanwhile, gun for Hire Jim Steinman kept busy with his wide array of projects, including no kidding, writing the 1985 theme song for World Wrestling Federation starring Hulk Hogan. And more predictably, steinman produced Bonnie Tyler's long awaited 1986 follow up album Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire. Even when Steinman didn't write the songs himself, his bombastic sound prevailed, as on the anthemic single if you were a woman and and I was a man.

[Singer/Vocalist (performing song excerpts)]

I look at you, you look away. What do you say?

[Chris Melanphy]

Steinman recruited journeyman songwriter Desmond Child to write if youf Were a Woman and I Was a Man for Bonnie Tyler. Steinman gave very explicit instructions to Child about the kind of gender crossing anthem he wanted. The finished song was so catchy. That Child was convinced the song had to be a hit. Annoyed that Bonnie Tyler's label didn't promote the single enough to get it past number 77 on the Hot 100, Desmond Child took it with him to his next recording project and essentially rewrote the same song for this well known hair metal band who made it a number.

[Guest or Additional Commentator]

One hit.

[Chris Melanphy]

I'm so sorry I had to play Bon Jovi again. You Give Love A Bad Name, co written by Desmond Child with Bon Jovi, was an intentional, nearly note for note remake of Child's Bonnie Tyler single. It had no involvement from Jim Steinman, but it might as well have. From its verbose title to its anthemic chorus, it sounded like Bat out of Hell infused with Aquanet. You Give Love A Bad Name affirmed that the Steinman aesthetic was colonizing all corners of of the radio dial. Well, almost all corners. Despite the pronounced gothic overtones of Steinman's anthemic rock, he had never tried his hand at what might be called modern or alternative rock, which made his next move surprising but perhaps inevitable. The Sisters of Mercy, led by the gloomy voiced singer Andrew Eldridge, was one of the most iconoclastic English goth bands of the 1980s. They proffered a blend of doomy hard rock and dance music backed by a throbbing drum machine that Eldritch considered a member of the band. The song this Corrosion, from their 1987 album Floodland, was written by Eldritch as goth style dance rock with big hooks and a towering sound. It was an ideal playground for Jim Steiner. Steinman agreed to produce this Corrosion and he lobbied the Sisters of Mercy's label, Warner Bros. To provide a budget big enough to hire a 40 person chorus to back Andrew Eldridge. The song became the sister's biggest British hit to date, reaching the top 10 in the UK in 1987. In the US the song did well on alternatives and college stations. And if Billboard had had an alternative rock chart in 1987, this corrosion probably would have been a hit in America too. By the end of the 80s. As we've discussed in previous hit Parade episodes, Billboard had indeed launched its first ever modern rock chart. It was typically led by the likes of the Cure, Depeche Mode and Love and Rockets. This might seem an unlikely chart to be commanded by the man behind hits credited to Meat Loaf, Air Supply, Barry Manilow and Barbra Streisand. But when did genre limitations ever stop Jim Steinman? For The Sisters of Mercy's 1990 album Vision Thing, Steinman teamed with Andrew Eldredge to not only produce but co write the lead single. In a rare instance of succinctness for Steinman, the song's title had just one word, more, and it certainly sounded like More.

[Singer/Vocalist (performing song excerpts)]

And I need all the love I can get.

[Chris Melanphy]

More was goth Dunn Steinman style, with a cinematic sound and just a hint of Broadway. It topped the modern rock chart for five weeks at the end of 1990, holding off hits by Morrissey and the Happy Mondays. Thanks to the Sisters of Mercy, Jim Steinman, a man who'd previously topped Billboard's pop and adult contemporary charts, now had the top alt rock hit in America. Around the time the Sisters of Mercy were number one, Jim Steinman reconnected with his old friend and collaborator Meat Loaf. The two had long settled their legal disputes and in a later interview Steinman said, quote, working together again seemed like the cool thing to do. Meat Loaf had kept his career afloat in the late 80s by touring extensively, but he hadn't had a serious hit in years, and in their time apart, Steinman had written so many songs that so easily could have been Meatloafs. One of these was from a short lived 1989 Stein Steinman project, an all female vocal group he had assembled and dubbed with his typical grandiosity, Pandora's Box. Good Girls Go to Heaven, Bad Girls Go Everywhere was named after a quote made famous by early 20th century Sex symbol Mae West. It was classic Jim Steinman, anthemic, muscular rock with a coy wink and big pop hooks. Eventually recorded by Meat Loaf, it would form the seed of his next album.

[Singer/Vocalist (performing song excerpts)]

Everywhere.

[Chris Melanphy]

At last, Meatloaf and Jim Steinman could begin work for the third time on a proper sequel to Bat out of Hell. But the most pivotal song grew out of a single lyric Jim slipped into an album cut on Bonnie Tyler's smash 1983 LP, I do anything for Love.

[Singer/Vocalist (performing song excerpts)]

But I won't do that.

[Chris Melanphy]

In case it hasn't been cleared at this point in the episode, Jim Steinman was not a guy who'd let a catchy aphoristic phrase go unnoticed. So he wasn't about to let this throwaway Bonnie Tyler lyric, I'd do anything for love, but I won't do that get thrown away. So of course he built a whole song around it.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Anything for love But I won't do.

[Singer/Vocalist (performing song excerpts)]

That.

[Chris Melanphy]

No, I won't do that Meatloaf's I'd Do Anything For Love But I Won't do that, the lead single from his 1993 album Bad out of Hell 2 Back into Hell, has to be regarded as one of the most amazing Pop Rocks comebacks of all time. Actually, comeback isn't quite right. Maybe Come up is more appropriate. Remember, as big selling as 1977's bat out of Hell turned out to be, it grew slowly and it never generated a top 10 hit. Whereas charts wise, this 1993 single and album were the opposite. Near instant instant chart topping triumph. In October 1993, the music business was stunned when Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell 2 Back into Hell debuted on the Billboard 250 album chart, all the way up at number three, right behind albums by Garth Brooks and Mariah Carey. Four weeks later, Bat 2 reached number one, leaping over CDs by Brooks and Nirvana and giving both Meat Loaf and Steinman the first chart topping album of either man's career. One week after that, I'd Do Anything For Love, But I Won't do that did the even more improbable rising to number one on the Hot 100. The song stayed on top for five weeks, one week longer than Steinman's 1983 number one with Bonnie Tyler, Total Eclipse of the Har. Sixteen years after bat one, fans greeted bat two as if 1981's dead ringer had never existed, and as if the official bat 2 had come out only a year or two after its predecessor. Yet again, Steinman was rebooting old songs from his catalog. Arguably, he was finally producing them with the man they were meant for. Meat loaf recorded Steinman's minor 1981 hit, Rock and Roll Dreams Come through and took it higher on the charts in 1994, reaching number 13 on the Hot 100. The album was also packed with more hilarious Jim Steinman phrases, where the title alone sold the song on Billboard's album rock chart, Meat Loaf took Life Is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back to number 17. And as for the aforementioned power but ballad Objects in the Rear View Mirror may Appear Closer Than they Are, it was the album's third top 40 hit, reaching number 38.

[Narrator/Announcer]

And Objects in the Rearview Mirror May Appear Closer than they.

[Chris Melanphy]

By the end of 1994, Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell 2 Back into Hell was on its way to Quintuple platinum, remarkable for an album by two guys in their late 40s. And its hit songs set up Jim Steinman for another chart streak. Mind you, he did not return to his hit making peak in the early to mid-80s. But for four years running, from 1993 to 1996, Steinman scored at least one Top 40 hit as a writer or producer. In fact, his 1995 hit as a songwriter very nearly topped the Hot 100, and Steinman couldn't have seen it coming. For once, he had no hand in its creation. Nikki French was a veteran British session singer who in 1994 had the chance to work with producers Mike Stock and Matt aitken. They were 2/3 of Britain's phenomenally successful stock, Aitken Waterman production team who had scored a slew of hits since the mid-1980s with the likes of Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue and even Donna Summer. For Nikki French, Stock and Aitken produced a high energy dance cover of Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart that was a smash around the world in 1994 and 90. In America. French's throbbing take on Total Eclipse peaked at number two in June 1995, giving songwriter Jim Steinman yet another smash and re establishing Total Eclipse as his all around most successful composition. It would not be the last time Steinman would benefit from that indelible melody. Speaking of indelible melodies, that same year Steinman was invited to contribute to a forthcoming blockbuster album that would go on to win the Grammy for Album of the Year, Falling into youo, the fourth English language album by French Canadian power chanteuse Celine Dion. Other than perhaps Barbra Streisand in 1984, Dion in 1995 was the biggest vocalist in every sense of that word that Steinman had ever had the chance to work with. So he brought out the big guns, one more mega power ballad from his vault that had been recorded once before but never reached its potential. It's All Coming Back to Me now was first recorded by Pandora's Box, the aforementioned female group Steinman assembled in the late 80s. Group member Elaine Caswell, a power vocalist herself who worked with Steinman on numerous projects, took the lead in classic Steinman fashion, the song was inspired by a heaving romantic classic from decades before, Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights. In a 1989 promotional video for the Pandora's Box project, Steinman, never lacking in confidence, explained the song's genesis.

[Guest or Additional Commentator]

It's All Coming Back to Me now is my attempt to write the most passionate romantic song I could ever write. I was writing it while under the influence of Wuthering Heights, which is one of my favorite books. It was about the dark side of love, but about the extraordinary ability to be resurrected by it once dead, and I just tried to put everything I could into it, and I'm real proud of it.

[Chris Melanphy]

According to Meat Loaf, Steinman considered the song for bat out of hell 2, but he gave Meat I'd Do Anything For Love instead. Essentially, It's All Coming Back to Me now was destined for a vocalist like Slightly Celine Dion, and Jim Steinman spared no expense. He brought in several longtime collaborators, including Roy Bitton and Rory Dodd. Even Todd Rundgren provided backing vocals and the result. With Celine Dion taking the lead, you could predict the result. Subtle it wasn't.

[Singer/Vocalist (performing song excerpts)]

And if you whisper like that it was lost long ago. But It's All Coming Back To Me.

[Chris Melanphy]

Celine Dion's It's All Coming Back To Me now was in many ways the culmination of Jim Steinman's lifelong art project. Wagnerian drama, thundering production, overpowering romanticism, and a towering performance by the ultimate vocal diva, The song reached number two on the Hot 100 in October 1996. Heartbreakingly for Celine Dion and Jim Steinman, it was blocked by Los Del Rio's Macarena. Nonetheless, during the chart run of It's All Coming Back to Me Now, Dion's Falling into youo album doubled its sales from 4 million to 8 million copies, and it gave Jim Steinman his fourth straight year with a top 40 smash. This was Steinman's last major Hot 100 hit, but certainly not the end of his career as a purveyor of grand sentiment. Indeed, in 1996, Steinman was finally pivoting back to his first love, the stage. We could do a whole episode about Jim Steinman's latter day adventures in the world of the big budget stage musical. It's beyond the the scope of this chart history podcast, and I will cover it only briefly, of course. Steinman had been writing for an imagined stage all along, and his theater roots dated to his college days and his time working with Joseph Papp. Now he at last had the clout to work with Broadway level impresarios and to have his heart broken. Suffice it to say, for this exceedingly confident music maker, only the theater has proved a humbling experience. A kiss is a terrible thing to waste. There's another punchy Steinman song title came from Whistle down the Wind. Steinman, collaboration with Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber, the maker of Evita Cats and Phantom of the Opera, wrote the music. Steinman was the lyricist. The musical played in Washington D.C. in 1996 and in London's West End in 1998. Reviews for the U.S. version were tepid and a planned Broadway production was cancelled. Arguably the biggest hit that resulted from Whistle down the Wind was the song no Matter what, which was a UK number one and a minor US pop radio hit for the British boy band Boyzone. In 1998, A more acclaimed production, at least at first, was Thanes d' Vampyre or Dance of the Vampires, a musical Adaptation of the 1967 Roman Polanski film the Fearless Vampire Killers. Jim Steinman composed all of the music and yet again. As he had done throughout his career, he borrowed musical motifs from his prior works, including his biggest pop hits. Though the musical received acclaim and even awards when it played in Vienna and Stuttgart, the trouble came when Dance of the Vampires was brought to Broadway. That's when Team Steinman got the chance to work with a top tier Broadway star, Michael Crawford, who originated the role of the Phantom of the Opera in Andrew Lloyd Webber's blockbuster musical.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Dare you trust the music of the night? Close your eyes.

[Chris Melanphy]

We'll link on our show page to a New York Magazine article about the troubled history of the Broadway version of Dance of the Vampires, starring Michael Crawford. It's a saga nearly as troubled in its day and costly as the Broadway's infamous Turn off the Dark. A decade later, Jim Steinman himself would wind up disavowing the Broadway show, which to this Day remains Steinman's only fully produced Broadway musical, though it played just 61 previews and 56 performances in 2002 and 2003. If nothing else, Dance of the Vampires finally got Steinman's total eclipse of the Heart, recast as the song Vampires in Love, onto a Broadway stage.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Turn around this is the night Now I need you more than ever and if you'll only hold me tight we'll be holding on forever and we'll only.

[Chris Melanphy]

Total Eclipse remains Jim Steinman's most unkillable, perhaps I should say undead composition. As recently as the 2010s it made the hot 100 twice, once in a cover by the cast of Fox TV's Glee, which briefly cracked the top 40, And in 2017, a cover by Chloe Kohansky, a winner on NBC's singing competition the Voice. As for Steinman's nearly lifelong collaborator and muse Meat Loaf, in addition to continuing continuing to act in more than 50 movies, including 1999's acclaimed Fight Club and a 2011 season of The Apprentice, Mr. Loaf continues to dabble in the Jim Steinman songbook from time to time. In 2006, meat finally got to wrap his pipes around it's all coming back to you.

[Singer/Vocalist (performing song excerpts)]

And if you meet me like that.

[Chris Melanphy]

Meat Loaf recorded the song that Celine Dion made famous for bat out of hell 3, the monster is loose. Though Meat couldn't persuade Jim to join him for the 2006 album, Steinman was then recovering from a reported heart attack. The singer managed to complete the album with producer Desmond Child, and even in Steinman's absence, bat three did reasonably well, reaching the top 10 on the album chart and going gold as late as 2016. Just shy of his 70th birthday, Meat Loaf was still taking on Steinman's challenging and quippy compositions, including one that Steinman originally wrote for Bonnie Tyler in the 80s. Loving you is a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it. And Jim Steinman himself, he's still trying to fulfill his Great White Way dreams. Four decades after he and Meat Loaf recorded Bat out of Hell, he finally turned their 1977 magnum opus into a show. Its full and oh so humble title is Jim Steinman's Bat out of Hell. The Music. It's more than an adaptation of Bat out of Hell. The musical is a tour of Steinman's entire career, not just the songs he did with Meatloaf. The Bat musical has played in both London's West End twice as well as Toronto and Germany. Touring versions in Australia, across the UK and in the Hard Rock chain of hotels and casinos that were supposed to play in 2020 have all been postponed, hopefully temporarily due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Oh yeah, and by the way, Bat out of the Musical played in New York, albeit off Broadway, just over a year ago. It was playing the New York City Center Theater for about a six week run. Reviews from the tough New York theater critics were bemused, sometimes withering, but the critics largely agreed that that Steinman's songs, however ridiculous and purple, were also indelible. And that's about right. Bat out of Hell the Musical is a super sized victory lap. Each night in the late summer of 2019 on the city center stage, a group of young actors belted out such prolix chestnuts as paradise by the Dashboard Light. Making love out of nothing at all. You took the words right out of my mouth. I'd do anything for love, but I won't do that. Come on, you know all the words. You can only imagine that as Jim Steinman, the self proclaimed lord of excess, looked upon this spectacle, it was all coming back to him. Now. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfy. That's me. My producer for this episode was Benjamin Frisch and we also had help from Rosemary Bellson. Special thanks also to Todd Rundgren, biographer and authority all around swell guy Paul Myers. He's our guest on our new episode of Hit Parade, the Bridge, which is available exclusively to Slate plus members. In that Bridge episode, Paul and I talk about not only Jim Steinman and Meatloaf, but also Bat out of Hell producer Todd Rundgren to sign up for Slate plus and hear that show and all of our shows the day they're released, visit slate.com June Thomas is the senior managing producer and Gabriel Roth the editorial director of Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of [e-mail] podcasts thanks for listening, and I look forward to leading the hit parade back your way. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Melanie.

[Singer/Vocalist (performing song excerpts)]

Sa.