JIM STEINMAN,
1947-2021

Composer-lyricist-producer Jim Steinman, who wrote Meat Loaf’s early albums as well as Broadway musicals and multiple soft-rock hits, died Monday in Danbury, Conn. He was 73.

A cause has not been given, but Steinman suffered a stroke four years ago and his health had since declined. He died after being transported from his home to a hospital in the early hours of Monday morning.

After starting in musical theater and winding up in a National Lampoon touring show, Steinman and Meat Loaf, a musical-theater artist known for Hair and the Rocky Horror Show, united in 1972 and began working on the music that would become 1977’s Bat Out of Hell, one of the best-selling albums of all time (14x platinum). They later worked together on Meat Loaf’s Dead Ringer in 1981 and 1993’s Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell.

Meat Loaf’s biggest songs came from Steinman—"Paradise by the Dashboard Light," “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That),” “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” and “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through”—and one intended for him that wound up with Bonnie Tyler, “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

In 1983 Steinman had the top two songs in the country: Tyler’s “Eclipse” and Air Supply’s “Making Love Out of Nothing at All.” That year Barry Manilow had an AC #1 with Steinman’s “Read ‘Em and Weep.”

Alongside his pop success, Steinman continued his film and theater work. He contributed songs to the films Footloose, Streets of Fire and Shrek 2, among others, and wrote lyrics for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down the Wind and lyrics and music for Tanz der Vampire and Bat Out of Hell: The Musical.

While he worked regularly with Tyler and Meat Loaf, Steinman also wrote for and/or produced Celine Dion, Billy Squier, Sisters of Mercy and Boyzone.

I am absolutely devastated to learn of the passing of my long term friend and musical mentor Jim Steinman. pic.twitter.com/TvR01AUXKr

— Bonnie Tyler (@BonnieTOfficial) April 20, 2021