Too bad rundgren couldn’t get a better sound out of that production, it actually is a pretty fun album. I played it just recently after my high school girlfriend passed away, it was one of her favorites
Bat Out Of Hell is one of the more interesting stories in rock and roll. It was shopped around to labels for years and rejecteted by almost everyone. The only reason that Todd Rundgren produced the record was because he was told, falsely, that Meatloaf/Jim Steinman had a record deal for it with RCA. Rundgren found out late in the production that there was no record deal but was jazzed enough about how the record was turning out that he funded the completion of the album. There was a strong cadre of musicians that recorded the album, mostly split between Rudngren's group, Utopia and members of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. (A great E Street Band trivia question is what is the best selling album that Roy Bittan and/or Max Weinberg performed on? Answer: Bat Out Of Hell.
It was another E Street Band member that finally convinced a label to pick up the record, Steve Van Zandt. He cajoled Cleveland International to release it. Everyone at their parent company, Epic Records, hated the album and they gave it very little promotion. The promotion they did do, was half-hearted. Actually a number of the promotion staff at Epic told the label that they wouldn't promote it because it was a dog that would never bark. More on this later.
I was able to see a number of the first tour performances of Bat Out of Hell in what used to be The Morris Stage in Morristown, NJ. and The Bottom Line in NYC just before I went of to college. Those shows and especially Meatloaf were off the hook. There was just so much power coming off the stage. Each performer acted like it would be the last performance by any of them (there was a possibility it would be if the album bombed). When I got to college, one of the first things announced during my first week was that Meatloaf would be the first campus concert of the year. When tickets went on sale, I made sure to get to the box office early and ended up first in line. Truth be told, if I showed up 20 mins after the box office opened I would have been first in line. Seems nobody on campus knew the album at the time or if anyone did know it, they didn't like it. I was in the Radio/Television program at my school and since I already had on air radio experience and had a 1st Class RadioTelelphone license from the FCC (my high school had an actual broadcast FM radio station and I was it's former music director. Radio was my aim, hence the FCC license), I was the only student on campus that could do an overnight show because our college tranmitter was co located at a commercial radio station and they didn't have a 1st class license holder for overnight hours, they didn't broadcast either. To do so they would have had to hire a license holder to do the reports required. I took the overnight slot, much to the detriment of my pursuit of higher education, and was able to play pretty much whatever I wanted in new music. Record companies supplied free records only to stations that played new music and had the logs to confirm airplay. I was also, from day one, the only DJ on staff that didn't have to get a talking to from the stations music director to play new stuff. LOL. Plenty of records in the station library that I had been listening to for a year in the NYC market had never been opened. I was a kid in the candy shop and ruled the night airwaves. Bat Out Of Hell got plenty of airplay and other DJs took notice and started playing it a lot as well. I had met some of the band and crew at the shows I went to and said hello the night of the concert at my college. The day after the concert, I had convinced station management that they should be attending the Collegiate Radio Confernce in NYC to better show up on the broadcast radar. As fate would have it, one of the spotlight concerts for the attendees was Meatloaf that first night in NYC. Said my hellos to band and crew (they were surprised to see me the day after they played my college) and hung with members of my current radio station, a past HS gf and the crew from my old radio station and watched anothe kick ass show. The next day, I saw the Cleveland International promotion head on the convention floor grabbed my music director, who was agog and scared to talk to any label people, and introduced ourselves to the promotion head. I told him how I loved the record, had seen the band perform 4 times now (at that point the band had only done 7 shows) and how Meatloaf was creating a name for himself on our campus. I told the PR guy that he should capitalize on that buzz and do some give aways. The guy, who was having a very hard time breaking the album, promised to send 100 copies of the record to give away, a number of signed posters and an autographed leather Bat Ouf Of Hell jacket for a grand prize. We gave him our shipping address, promised to keep him posted on how it went, shook hands and said our goodbyes. The music director was floored that I asked for stuff and they gave it. The only give away the station had ever done was for a currently hot record that they had to buy to give away! Management said never again because the budget was meager to run the station. I don't think the music director realized that not only was doing things like that standard procedure, but the Cleveland Internation guy was probably willing to do more to get the album ANY sort of traction at that point. It had almost none.
Anyway, as I'm sure you all know, Bat Out Of Hell finally found some traction and stands almost at the top of the heap for record sales worldwide.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Sigmund
Best Meatloaf song was Hot
Best Meatloaf song was Hot Patootie
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Philzone Refugee
What was the animal that
What was the animal that started the COVID-19 pandemic?
I'll take Nature's Little Monsters for $400.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: fishcane
Too bad rundgren couldn’t get
Too bad rundgren couldn’t get a better sound out of that production, it actually is a pretty fun album. I played it just recently after my high school girlfriend passed away, it was one of her favorites
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Philzone Refugee
Surprised they never turned
Surprised they never turned it into a Broadway show.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Zoner
Great album! It's been a few
Great album! It's been a few years since I last gave it a listen.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: (~)};)StealYourFace
"Not Meatloaf Again"...
"Not Meatloaf Again"...
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Zoner
On number II. I've never
On number II. I've never listened to this album. He was talking about the earth being flat way back when. Meatloaf is a real OG.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: jazfish
He had huge breasts for the
He had huge breasts for the part he played in the movie, Fight Club.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Where Does The Time Go?
Bat Out of Hell was very
Bat Out of Hell was very popular in India
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: long live the dead
Loved it
Loved it
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: skyjunk
did someone say "bat out of
did someone say "bat out of hell"
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: intentionally blank
He was pretty great in Rocky
He was pretty great in Rocky Horror too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb1HDnYPPoo
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: skifurthur
Bat Out Of Hell is one of the
Bat Out Of Hell is one of the more interesting stories in rock and roll. It was shopped around to labels for years and rejecteted by almost everyone. The only reason that Todd Rundgren produced the record was because he was told, falsely, that Meatloaf/Jim Steinman had a record deal for it with RCA. Rundgren found out late in the production that there was no record deal but was jazzed enough about how the record was turning out that he funded the completion of the album. There was a strong cadre of musicians that recorded the album, mostly split between Rudngren's group, Utopia and members of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. (A great E Street Band trivia question is what is the best selling album that Roy Bittan and/or Max Weinberg performed on? Answer: Bat Out Of Hell.
It was another E Street Band member that finally convinced a label to pick up the record, Steve Van Zandt. He cajoled Cleveland International to release it. Everyone at their parent company, Epic Records, hated the album and they gave it very little promotion. The promotion they did do, was half-hearted. Actually a number of the promotion staff at Epic told the label that they wouldn't promote it because it was a dog that would never bark. More on this later.
I was able to see a number of the first tour performances of Bat Out of Hell in what used to be The Morris Stage in Morristown, NJ. and The Bottom Line in NYC just before I went of to college. Those shows and especially Meatloaf were off the hook. There was just so much power coming off the stage. Each performer acted like it would be the last performance by any of them (there was a possibility it would be if the album bombed). When I got to college, one of the first things announced during my first week was that Meatloaf would be the first campus concert of the year. When tickets went on sale, I made sure to get to the box office early and ended up first in line. Truth be told, if I showed up 20 mins after the box office opened I would have been first in line. Seems nobody on campus knew the album at the time or if anyone did know it, they didn't like it. I was in the Radio/Television program at my school and since I already had on air radio experience and had a 1st Class RadioTelelphone license from the FCC (my high school had an actual broadcast FM radio station and I was it's former music director. Radio was my aim, hence the FCC license), I was the only student on campus that could do an overnight show because our college tranmitter was co located at a commercial radio station and they didn't have a 1st class license holder for overnight hours, they didn't broadcast either. To do so they would have had to hire a license holder to do the reports required. I took the overnight slot, much to the detriment of my pursuit of higher education, and was able to play pretty much whatever I wanted in new music. Record companies supplied free records only to stations that played new music and had the logs to confirm airplay. I was also, from day one, the only DJ on staff that didn't have to get a talking to from the stations music director to play new stuff. LOL. Plenty of records in the station library that I had been listening to for a year in the NYC market had never been opened. I was a kid in the candy shop and ruled the night airwaves. Bat Out Of Hell got plenty of airplay and other DJs took notice and started playing it a lot as well. I had met some of the band and crew at the shows I went to and said hello the night of the concert at my college. The day after the concert, I had convinced station management that they should be attending the Collegiate Radio Confernce in NYC to better show up on the broadcast radar. As fate would have it, one of the spotlight concerts for the attendees was Meatloaf that first night in NYC. Said my hellos to band and crew (they were surprised to see me the day after they played my college) and hung with members of my current radio station, a past HS gf and the crew from my old radio station and watched anothe kick ass show. The next day, I saw the Cleveland International promotion head on the convention floor grabbed my music director, who was agog and scared to talk to any label people, and introduced ourselves to the promotion head. I told him how I loved the record, had seen the band perform 4 times now (at that point the band had only done 7 shows) and how Meatloaf was creating a name for himself on our campus. I told the PR guy that he should capitalize on that buzz and do some give aways. The guy, who was having a very hard time breaking the album, promised to send 100 copies of the record to give away, a number of signed posters and an autographed leather Bat Ouf Of Hell jacket for a grand prize. We gave him our shipping address, promised to keep him posted on how it went, shook hands and said our goodbyes. The music director was floored that I asked for stuff and they gave it. The only give away the station had ever done was for a currently hot record that they had to buy to give away! Management said never again because the budget was meager to run the station. I don't think the music director realized that not only was doing things like that standard procedure, but the Cleveland Internation guy was probably willing to do more to get the album ANY sort of traction at that point. It had almost none.
Anyway, as I'm sure you all know, Bat Out Of Hell finally found some traction and stands almost at the top of the heap for record sales worldwide.
From humble beginnings....
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Thumbkinetic
Surprised they never turned
Surprised they never turned it into a Broadway show.<<
Um . . .
https://www.nycitycenter.org/pdps/2019-2020/bat-out-of-hell/#:~:text=Exp...'s,of%20rock%20'n'%20roll.