What can you tell me about the Bat Out Of Hell album

A.� About thirty million people liked this album enough to have bought it, putting it into the Top Three Best Selling Albums Of All Time.

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Q.� What's so great about it

A.� In a word�- style. The whole massive overblown operatic up-and-at-it super-hype composition and delivery of this album makes it unique, there really is nothing else quite like it.

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Q.� Can you give some details

A.� The story of this magnum�opus begins with its composer Jim Steinman. Steinman's career began in New York theatre, and he professed an equal fascination with the works of Phil Spector, and Wagner�- influences you can hear clearly from the first note of Bat Out Of Hell.

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Second up is Meatloaf�- Marvin Aday to his friends and family, a stage singer and actor who toured with The Rocky Horror Show before his big break as the vocalist on the ground-breaking album that was to become his career. Steinman saw Aday on stage and wanted him as his own personal Wagnerian hero�- the fat man that should be a laughing stock, but instead contains his own dignity and strength, shown through the passion and power of his vocal delivery.

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The final part of the trilogy is producer Todd Rungren. Already a respected writer, Rungren had produced a vast spectrum of artists, everyone from Grand Funk Railroad to Frank Sinatra, which made him the perfect choice for the sessions. Rungren's arrangements, guitar, and vocals are all over the album, it is as much his work as either of the other two, it is Todd Rungren's abilities in the studio that have made Jim Steinman's dream a reality.

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Q.� So what is the album about

A.� It's about growing up, a universal theme, which never looses its appeal. The bombastic and sheer OTT approach to the songs is in perfect keeping with the uncompromising style of young people finding out about sex and drama and music, in equal measure. The songs reflect the nature of adolescence, with a degree of humour that never oversteps its mark, and pathos that never descends into slush. As in all great records, it speaks to its audience in terms they understand, while managing to bludgeon the hearing of any adults within a fifty yard radius, a secondary, but immensely gratifying aspect of the whole show.

Q.� It sounds totally outrageous!

A.� It is!�Steinman's vision was a record where 'Everything is louder than everything else,' and Rungren made pretty sure he got as near to that goal as possible. Using a variety of top notch musicians, including keyboards and drums from Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band, Todd Rungren made sure that everyone could maintain the break-neck pace that opens the album, only really letting up for the classic teen dream�weepy Two Outa Three Ain't Bad, which must rank as one of the most grandiose hymns to a broken heart ever committed to sound recording.

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Straight out of that, the album picks up with the soap opera antics of a couple who may or may not consummate their relationship, depending who gets their own�way. The parallel event of a baseball commentary provides the shot of humour that stops the album from simply becoming a puffed up maestro-trip for show-off rock stars.

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Q.� So this album is a one-shot success

A.� No it certainly is not. Jim Steinman's follow-up albums, 1981's Dead Ringer sold a staggering 8 million copies, again featuring Meatloaf. In 1983, Steinman penned Faster Than The Speed Of Night for Bonnie Tyler, the first album by a female artist to debut at Number One in the UK album charts, and featuring the worldwide hit single Total Eclipse Of The Heart.

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In 1984, Steinman enjoyed song-writing success with Left In The Dark, recorded by Barbra Streisand, and with Barry Manilow who charted with Read 'Em And Weep,�proof if any were needed that Steinmans talent was far from�one-dimensional, and he was a long way from being a one-hit wonder.

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As a final coup de grace, Steinman penned the lyrics for the stage musical version of Whistle Down The Wind�- a versatile writer indeed.

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Q.� So the critics must love Jim Steinman

A.� Some do, but most miss the point entirely, and hate his work accordingly. Steinman's work is shot through with irony and pathos which he sees as vital ingredients to live through the pitfalls and pratfalls of life as a teenager. The audience understand his stance perfectly, and it goes over the heads of some critics, and honourable exception being the NME, who reckoned that 'If God made albums, they'd probably sound a lot like Steinman's' which more or less sums it all up.

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Q.� All this talk of bombast and drama make the album sound rather intimidating.

A.� The best way to approach it is to play it through three times in succession without stopping. At the end of that time, you will want to own this album, and you'll see why it has remained in the top 150 British Albums since the day it was released. Try it�- it works!

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By:� Andy Hughes.