Songwriter Jim Steinman has passed away aged 73, he wrote scores of hits for artists including Meatloaf, Celine Dion and Bonnie Tyler.
He began his career in musical theatre, but found success writing giant pop epics including Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell series of albums.
The 1970’s collaboration spawned a series of hits including Two Out of Three Aint Bad, Paradise By The Dashboard Light, You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth and the title track.
More hits came in the 1980’s with Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart and Holding Out For a Hero, plus Air Supply’s Making Love Out of Nothing At All.
In the late 1980’s Steinman created Pandora’s Box, a group with four female lead singers. They didn’t find success but one of their songs It’s All Coming Back to Me Now was later a massive hit for Celine Dion.
Andrew Lloyd Webber approached Steinman and asked him to be the lyricist for the musical The Phantom of the Opera, Steinman turned him down as he was busy working on an album for Bonnie Tyler. Lloyd Webber instead worked with longtime collaborator Tim Rice. Steinman later teamed up with the musical theatre legend to write Whistle Down the Wind.
In the 1990’s he reteamed with Meatloaf and topped the charts again with I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That). Steinman also worked as a producer guiding hits for Take That, Tina Arena, and Boyzone.
Steinman also had a notoriously bad session with British rock band Def Leppard. Booked to produce their Hysteria album, the recording sessions did not go well and the band fired the producer and went back to square one. Lead singer Joe Elliot recently commented on the sessions saying their were safely locked in a vault and would never be heard.
In recent years Bat Out of Hell – The Musical has brought Steinman’s tunes to new audiences.
Steinman passed away in a Connecticut hospital after reportedly suffering kidney failure.
OIP Staff
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