He was a delightful and incredibly talented, unique guy. He had a band in his youth called The Clitoris That Thought It Was A Puppy!!!! Such a shame he suffered bad health the last dozen years of his life, while still managing to get the Bat musical created. RIP.
@@ketevansazandrishvili5096 "Someone must have blessed us when he gave us those songs", he wrote in Rock n Roll Dreams Come Through. That should be Jim's epitaph. He was always so genuine. Decades after I wrote about his work, when the Bat musical hit London he had his website lady arrange free tickets in the best seats. Not too many people in the music business like that.
@@Mistersandyrobertson nice to hear such a good thing about Jim’s generosity. I used to be a caregiver for Jim for a short time, couple of months earlier before he passed away 💔😪
@@ketevansazandrishvili5096 I remember Jacqueline who does the site telling me that friends offered help but that he didn't want to burden them and hired caregivers. Thanks for doing that job. My ex gf is a support worker for autistic people with huge health issues and I know it's hard work.
@@ketevansazandrishvili5096 I appreciate you can't go into detail, but it sounds like you're saying things weren't perfect because there wasn't someone who knew him in charge? I know that's the case sometimes in care situations. My own health isn't great and I have no close family so I worry about ending life one day in the care of folks who may have little empathy for me. Getting old is no picnic.
*"If you don't go over the top, you can't see what's on the other side."* *JIM STEINMAN: November 1, 1947 - April 19, 2021* Jim Steinman, who died aged 73 on April 19, 2021, was the songwriter behind some of the most successful - and most sung-in-the shower - records in the history of rock music, notably the Bat Out of Hell albums with Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler’s chart-topping ballad Total Eclipse of the Heart. James Richard Steinman was born at Hewlett, New York, on November 1, 1947. His father owned a warehouse that stored steel and his mother taught Latin. After attending the local high school, he went to Amherst College, Massachusetts, and originally hoped to have a career in film. Customarily described as a rock opera - Steinman nicknamed himself “Little Richard Wagner” - Bat Out of Hell in fact drew on the whole gamut of America’s musical heritage, including doo-wop, gospel, rock’n’roll, and in particular musical theatre. Years in the making, the roots of the album lay in a show that Steinman had begun writing as a student in the late 1960s. The Dream Engine had a brief run in Washington, fronted by a young Richard Gere, and caught the eye of Robert Stigwood, the impresario who managed the Bee Gees, and Joseph Papp, the producer of Hair. Encouraged by them, Steinman worked for some years in theatre in New York. He met the improbable, and outsized, ‘Meat Loaf’ (born Marvin Lee Aday) in 1973 when the singer auditioned for a role in a Vietnam War-inspired musical Steinman was putting together. While the pair toured in the National Lampoon Show (replacing Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi), they worked on a staging that recycled many of Steinman’s earlier songs. Incorporating themes of teenage rebellion and lust, drawing on Gothic imagery and the modern mythology of the motorcycle, they had the Bat Out of Hell album written by 1975. Its songs included Paradise by the Dashboard Light, which reframed a back-seat seduction as a baseball match, complete with commentary. The record was produced by Todd Rundgren, who matched a Phil Spector-style “Wall of Sound” to Steinman’s deliriously frenzied words and music, the whole witches’ brew saved from parody only by the wholehearted sincerity of Meat Loaf’s performance. Other influences included Bruce Springsteen’s- several of members of his band played on the album - and The Rocky Horror Show, in which Meat Loaf had appeared on stage and screen. Yet record companies, in the era of disco and punk, at first showed no interest in acquiring the record. Famously, Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records, told Steinman that his songs - many of them three times the length of most singles - did not sound sufficiently like those on the radio. It was not until 1977 that Bat Out of Hell was released by a small subsidiary label, Cleveland International. Steinman recalled that only when the record deal was signed did he learn that he and Meat Loaf would not be billed as a duo. Finding a foothold first in Britain, where it would eventually spend an astonishing ten years in the chart, Bat Out of Hell would go on to sell about 50 million copies worldwide, helped by the success of singles such as Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad and You Took the Words Right Out of my Mouth. Meat Loaf however, struggled with his transition to stardom, and although the 1981 LP Dead Ringer, which included a duet with Cher, reunited him with Steinman, the two became embroiled in legal action after Steinman released an album of his own, Bad for Good, in 1981. In retaliation, Steinman then began to collaborate with the group Air Supply (who took his song Making Love Out of Nothing at All to No 1 in America) and with Bonnie Tyler. The soaring, lushly orchestrated ballad Total Eclipse of the Heart, with a passionate performance by Tyler and aided by a typically understated video directed by Russell Mulcahy (who later made the film Highlander), hit the top in both Britain and America in 1983. The Welsh singer also made the most of Steinman’s Holding Out for a Hero in 1984, from the soundtrack to Footloose, while Barry Manilow scored success with Read ’Em and Weep in 1983. Steinman was said to have been approached by Andrew Lloyd Webber to write the lyrics to The Phantom of the Opera, but after a long hiatus he and Meat Loaf unexpectedly reunited in 1993 to create Bat Out of Hell II. Heralded by the single I’d Do Anything For Love, which was a worldwide chart-topper, the album went on to almost equal the success of its predecessor. After the success of Bat Out of Hell II, Steinman won a Grammy in 1996 for writing It’s All Coming Back to Me Now, which was a hit for Celine Dion. That same year, he composed the lyrics for Whistle Down the Wind, the Lloyd Webber musical. Although not a smash at the box office, it did yield a huge pop hit when Boyzone recorded one of the songs, No Matter What. In 1997, Dance of the Vampires, Steinman’s own musical version of Roman Polanski’s film The Fearless Vampire Killers, opened in Vienna. A long-cherished project of his, it was directed by Polanski himself. Subsequently there were rumours that Steinman was working on musicals about Greta Garbo and Batman, but these never materialised. Instead, Steinman was stricken by the first of several strokes in 2004 and then mired in yet more litigation with Meat Loaf, this time over the use of the Bat Out of Hell trademark for the third album by that name, released in 2006. Although that record featured several of Steinman’s songs, all written for earlier records, it was the first of the trilogy in which he was not involved in their production. The litigation was eventually settled. Between 2017 and 2019 a musical drawing on the songs in the Bat Out of Hell cycle, toured North America and Britain. Critics routinely characterised Steinman’s visions as camp and over-the top, a verdict that ignored not only the joy he brought to millions but also an originality which in cinema would have seen him hailed as an auteur. As he once observed: “If you don’t go over the top, you can’t see what’s on the other side.” JAMES RICHARD STEINMAN: November 1, 1947 - April 19, 2021
It is called A Kiss Is A Terrible Thing To Waste, written by Jim and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Jim Steinman did not write it for Meat Loaf, it was written for an aborted vampire musical before he gave it to Bonnie Tyler.
He originally told Meat Loaf they would use the song he is getting this award for on Bat III, to crank out another number one hit for them after their infamous reunion with "I'd Do Anything For Love." I can't help but feel Jim is sort of getting the last laugh here in his sordid relationship with Meat. You hear Meat Loaf in the background recording a much lesser song as a throw on for a greatest hits album, while Jim is being awarded for the song that should have been Meat Loaf's next great hit. LOL the irony is too much!
I wish there was more jim steinman interviews online , musical genius
Jim was a warm and wonderful person.
Jim essentially was a very nice and very funny nerd.
genius you wanted to say
He's incredibly talented, but also equally awesome and genuine.
Jim Steinman seems like a cool guy. So talented! :)
Such a talented individual. He is totally amazing. Totally blessed us with his creativity in music. Thank you Jim Steinman.
Rip actually
@@felipenocedal3948 'Rip' yourself.
Great speech Jimmy! We all have a kid from Wisconsin inside, thanks for the music.
Hidden gem on paradise by the dashboard light , the trumpet addition to the end of second verse
It's his version of "A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing to Waste." You can hear part of it at the beginning of the video.
A man of many words.....
Just saw this for the first time. Great to hear the way you can go on and on. Never anyone quite like you, from Pond Basement on.
He was a delightful and incredibly talented, unique guy. He had a band in his youth called The Clitoris That Thought It Was A Puppy!!!! Such a shame he suffered bad health the last dozen years of his life, while still managing to get the Bat musical created. RIP.
@@ketevansazandrishvili5096 "Someone must have blessed us when he gave us those songs", he wrote in Rock n Roll Dreams Come Through. That should be Jim's epitaph. He was always so genuine. Decades after I wrote about his work, when the Bat musical hit London he had his website lady arrange free tickets in the best seats. Not too many people in the music business like that.
@@Mistersandyrobertson nice to hear such a good thing about Jim’s generosity. I used to be a caregiver for Jim for a short time, couple of months earlier before he passed away 💔😪
@@ketevansazandrishvili5096 I remember Jacqueline who does the site telling me that friends offered help but that he didn't want to burden them and hired caregivers. Thanks for doing that job. My ex gf is a support worker for autistic people with huge health issues and I know it's hard work.
@@ketevansazandrishvili5096 I appreciate you can't go into detail, but it sounds like you're saying things weren't perfect because there wasn't someone who knew him in charge? I know that's the case sometimes in care situations. My own health isn't great and I have no close family so I worry about ending life one day in the care of folks who may have little empathy for me. Getting old is no picnic.
@@ketevansazandrishvili5096 I don't know your email but I appreciate we wouldn't want to put our email addresses on here.
thats funny because i spent the last few nights lying in bed with headphones on, listening to his music.
*"If you don't go over the top, you can't see what's on the other side."*
*JIM STEINMAN: November 1, 1947 - April 19, 2021*
Jim Steinman, who died aged 73 on April 19, 2021, was the songwriter behind some of the most successful - and most sung-in-the shower - records in the history of rock music, notably the Bat Out of Hell albums with Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler’s chart-topping ballad Total Eclipse of the Heart.
James Richard Steinman was born at Hewlett, New York, on November 1, 1947. His father owned a warehouse that stored steel and his mother taught Latin. After attending the local high school, he went to Amherst College, Massachusetts, and originally hoped to have a career in film.
Customarily described as a rock opera - Steinman nicknamed himself “Little Richard Wagner” - Bat Out of Hell in fact drew on the whole gamut of America’s musical heritage, including doo-wop, gospel, rock’n’roll, and in particular musical theatre. Years in the making, the roots of the album lay in a show that Steinman had begun writing as a student in the late 1960s. The Dream Engine had a brief run in Washington, fronted by a young Richard Gere, and caught the eye of Robert Stigwood, the impresario who managed the Bee Gees, and Joseph Papp, the producer of Hair. Encouraged by them, Steinman worked for some years in theatre in New York. He met the improbable, and outsized, ‘Meat Loaf’ (born Marvin Lee Aday) in 1973 when the singer auditioned for a role in a Vietnam War-inspired musical Steinman was putting together.
While the pair toured in the National Lampoon Show (replacing Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi), they worked on a staging that recycled many of Steinman’s earlier songs. Incorporating themes of teenage rebellion and lust, drawing on Gothic imagery and the modern mythology of the motorcycle, they had the Bat Out of Hell album written by 1975. Its songs included Paradise by the Dashboard Light, which reframed a back-seat seduction as a baseball match, complete with commentary.
The record was produced by Todd Rundgren, who matched a Phil Spector-style “Wall of Sound” to Steinman’s deliriously frenzied words and music, the whole witches’ brew saved from parody only by the wholehearted sincerity of Meat Loaf’s performance. Other influences included Bruce Springsteen’s- several of members of his band played on the album - and The Rocky Horror Show, in which Meat Loaf had appeared on stage and screen.
Yet record companies, in the era of disco and punk, at first showed no interest in acquiring the record. Famously, Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records, told Steinman that his songs - many of them three times the length of most singles - did not sound sufficiently like those on the radio. It was not until 1977 that Bat Out of Hell was released by a small subsidiary label, Cleveland International. Steinman recalled that only when the record deal was signed did he learn that he and Meat Loaf would not be billed as a duo.
Finding a foothold first in Britain, where it would eventually spend an astonishing ten years in the chart, Bat Out of Hell would go on to sell about 50 million copies worldwide, helped by the success of singles such as Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad and You Took the Words Right Out of my Mouth.
Meat Loaf however, struggled with his transition to stardom, and although the 1981 LP Dead Ringer, which included a duet with Cher, reunited him with Steinman, the two became embroiled in legal action after Steinman released an album of his own, Bad for Good, in 1981. In retaliation, Steinman then began to collaborate with the group Air Supply (who took his song Making Love Out of Nothing at All to No 1 in America) and with Bonnie Tyler.
The soaring, lushly orchestrated ballad Total Eclipse of the Heart, with a passionate performance by Tyler and aided by a typically understated video directed by Russell Mulcahy (who later made the film Highlander), hit the top in both Britain and America in 1983. The Welsh singer also made the most of Steinman’s Holding Out for a Hero in 1984, from the soundtrack to Footloose, while Barry Manilow scored success with Read ’Em and Weep in 1983.
Steinman was said to have been approached by Andrew Lloyd Webber to write the lyrics to The Phantom of the Opera, but after a long hiatus he and Meat Loaf unexpectedly reunited in 1993 to create Bat Out of Hell II. Heralded by the single I’d Do Anything For Love, which was a worldwide chart-topper, the album went on to almost equal the success of its predecessor.
After the success of Bat Out of Hell II, Steinman won a Grammy in 1996 for writing It’s All Coming Back to Me Now, which was a hit for Celine Dion. That same year, he composed the lyrics for Whistle Down the Wind, the Lloyd Webber musical. Although not a smash at the box office, it did yield a huge pop hit when Boyzone recorded one of the songs, No Matter What.
In 1997, Dance of the Vampires, Steinman’s own musical version of Roman Polanski’s film The Fearless Vampire Killers, opened in Vienna. A long-cherished project of his, it was directed by Polanski himself. Subsequently there were rumours that Steinman was working on musicals about Greta Garbo and Batman, but these never materialised. Instead, Steinman was stricken by the first of several strokes in 2004 and then mired in yet more litigation with Meat Loaf, this time over the use of the Bat Out of Hell trademark for the third album by that name, released in 2006. Although that record featured several of Steinman’s songs, all written for earlier records, it was the first of the trilogy in which he was not involved in their production. The litigation was eventually settled.
Between 2017 and 2019 a musical drawing on the songs in the Bat Out of Hell cycle, toured North America and Britain.
Critics routinely characterised Steinman’s visions as camp and over-the top, a verdict that ignored not only the joy he brought to millions but also an originality which in cinema would have seen him hailed as an auteur. As he once observed: “If you don’t go over the top, you can’t see what’s on the other side.”
JAMES RICHARD STEINMAN: November 1, 1947 - April 19, 2021
lol pure legend and one of my inspirations for poetry
Love the humor seems like a top bloke.
Great tunes too.
RIP
How can you tell he's a great songwriter?
He's a good storyteller
He was mentioned briefly as an author for local one-hit-wonders😂
@steinmanloaf A wonderfull musician indeed. He is just wonderfull
A pretty good award acceptance with no preparation.
At his best Jim Steinman can provide enough delicious ham at one time to feed a family of four for an entire week.
Jim steinman my mate I love him
WHAT A WONDERFUL MAN!! GOD BLESS AND THANK YOU SIR.
Thank you Jim for giving me a good memory in childhood.. Rip
R.I.P
Love the Iovine impersonation ! ....I used to rep Charlie Calello and Keith Olsen and you should hear some of their Iovine & Shelly stories !
Oh, can’t you take a stab at it? We’d love to hear any version of those stories, you know. As close to being that ‘fly on the wall’ as we’d ever get.
He looks so much like Bent Spider(Data from Star Trek NG)
btw: he used the therm "an erection of the heart" in the song "speaking in tongues". just for thos who didn't know.
RIP
This song is meat loafs total eclipse of the heart
It is called A Kiss Is A Terrible Thing To Waste, written by Jim and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Jim Steinman did not write it for Meat Loaf, it was written for an aborted vampire musical before he gave it to Bonnie Tyler.
Funny guy besides being a genius as well.
Just obsessed with his talent.
there cud not ave been meat loaf without jims words .....FACT
Meatloaf unplugged! LOL!
He originally told Meat Loaf they would use the song he is getting this award for on Bat III, to crank out another number one hit for them after their infamous reunion with "I'd Do Anything For Love." I can't help but feel Jim is sort of getting the last laugh here in his sordid relationship with Meat. You hear Meat Loaf in the background recording a much lesser song as a throw on for a greatest hits album, while Jim is being awarded for the song that should have been Meat Loaf's next great hit. LOL the irony is too much!
@poochickenone me too lol
*lol*
Jim, I love you.