JENNINGS: Steinman's 'Bad for Good' has unique spot in music history

Apr. 29—Jim Steinman, best known as the composer of all the songs on Meat Loaf's 1977 album "Bat Out of Hell", passed away last week. Steinman and Meat Loaf were able to capitalize on the surprise success of "Bat Out of Hell," which sold over 50 million copies worldwide. The album spawned two sequels and a Broadway musical.

While everyone knows Steinman for "Bat Out of Hell" and as the composer of Celine Dion's "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" and Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart," many people are not familiar with "Bad for Good," Steinman's only solo album.

After years of searching for a record deal, Steinman and Meat Loaf signed to a small label, Cleveland Records. It took a few months to catch on, but Meat Loaf credited former Buffalo radio personality Sandy Beach for being one of the first people to play "Two out of Three Ain't Bad" because of a lyric in the song that states, "you'll never find gold on a sandy beach."

Meat Loaf toured relentlessly to capitalize on the success of "Bat Out of Hell," and it resulted in him temporarily losing his ability to sing. With pressure from the record company for a follow up to "Bat out of Hell," Steinman began writing songs for a project with the working title "Renegade Angel."

Steinman reassembled the musicians that performed on "Bat out of Hell" so that they could begin recording demos and basic tracks for the follow up to "Bat." Unfortunately, Meat Loaf was in no condition to record the vocal tracks. In addition to his inability to sing, Meat Loaf was dealing with personal and financial problems.

Ultimately Meat Loaf's singing voice recovered, but he still did not want to record the "Renegade Angels" songs because it reminded him of a bad period in his life. Steinman decided to go ahead and complete the album without Meat Loaf, and the result was Steinman's only solo effort, "Bad for Good."

Steinman handled the lead vocals on most of the album's tracks, with three sung by Canadian singer Rory Dodd, who is best-known for singing the male vocal part on Bonnie Tyler's "Making Love Out of Nothing at All."

The result was Steinman's "Bad for Good," an album that included a 45 RPM record with the A-side being the prelude, entitled "The Storm" and the B-side was the epilogue, "Rock and Roll Dreams Come True."

The album had respectable sales, but nowhere near the level of "Bat Out of Hell." Richard Corben, best known for his work in Heavy Metal magazine, created the cover art. Corben had also done the iconic "Bat Out of Hell" cover art.

It took 16 years for Meat Loaf and Steinman to release a sequel to "Bat Out of Hell." Entitled "Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell," the album contained four remakes from Steinman's "Bad for Good" album. Meat Loaf also recorded the title track "Bad for Good," which appeared on the final album in the "Bat" trilogy, "Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose."

Barbara Streisand had a minor hit with one of the tracks from the album," "Left in the Dark" which appeared on her 1984 release "Emotion."

So while Steinman is best remembered for his work with Meat Loaf, he did record an overlooked solo album that is an important part of his legacy. If you are a fan of Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell "albums, "Bad for Good" will be a good album for you to check out.

Thom Jennings covers the local music scene for Night and Day.