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If no other rock and roll album cover is
remembered at the turn of the next century, this will be the one that is.
'Nuff said. Okay, not 'nuff said. But
I can't say it as well as the back of the remastered CD:
- "Nearly 25 years after it was released
in late 1977, Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell screams with all the
fury and intensity that accompanied its 19-month stand on the
Billboard LP chart, and resulted in 13 million copies sold in the
U.S. alone (twice that worldwide). A song cycle built on Wagnerian power
chords and Townshendian teenage angst, this magnum opus almost went
unrecorded (as a post-modern off-Broadway rock opera entitled
Neverland, based on Peter Pan). But its composer Jim Steinman, his
National Lampoon Road Show pal Meat Loaf, and producer Todd
Rundgren stood their ground, and Epic's Cleveland International Records
saved the night. Three colossal hit singles are still staples of AM and
FM radio, "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad," "Paradise By the Dashboard
Light" (with hot date Ellen Foley and Yankee baseball great Phil
"Scooter" Rizzuto's play-by-play), and "You Took the Words Right Out of
My Mouth." In England, wehre they know a thing or two about rock opera,
Bat Out of Hell spent 471 weeks on the national chart. Need we
say more?"
471 WEEKS?! That's over 9 YEARS!
TRIVIA
- As of this writing (Sep 2003), Bat
Out Of Hell remains the third best-selling album of all time, with
over twenty million copies sold. In the United Kingdom, it remains the
top seller ever.
- Meat broke the album on Saturday
Night Live in 1977. (In other words, it was the first public
performance and the first time most people heard about it.)
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