Editing Bat Out of Hell (section)

==Pre-production==
The album was developed from a musical, ''Neverland''; the play is a futuristic rock version of ''[[Peter Pan]]'' which Steinman wrote for a workshop in 1974, and performed at the [[John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts|Kennedy Center]] Music Theatre Lab in 1977.<ref>{{cite web |title=Neverland |url=http://www.jimsteinman.com/neverlnd.htm |work=jimsteinman.com |access-date=August 22, 2007| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070815110939/http://www.jimsteinman.com/neverlnd.htm| archive-date= August 15, 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref><ref name="gallery">{{cite web |title=The Power Of Rock 'n Roll |work=Gallery magazine |url=http://www.jimsteinman.com/gallery1.htm |date=May 1978 |access-date=November 17, 2006| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061103065035/http://www.jimsteinman.com/gallery1.htm| archive-date= November 3, 2006 | url-status= live}}</ref> Steinman and Meat Loaf, who were touring with ''[[The National Lampoon Show]]'', felt that three songs were "exceptional" and Steinman began to develop them as part of a seven-song set they wanted to record as an album.<ref name="cr2">{{cite web |first=Jon |last=Hotten |title=Bat Out Of Hell – The Story Behind The Album (page 2) |work=[[Classic Rock (magazine)|Classic Rock]] |date=July 2000 |url=http://www.jimsteinman.com/00classicr2.htm |access-date=August 15, 2007| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070816193821/http://www.jimsteinman.com/00classicr2.htm| archive-date= August 16, 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref> The three songs were "Bat Out of Hell", "Heaven Can Wait" and "The Formation of the Pack", which was later retitled "All Revved Up with No Place to Go".

''Bat Out of Hell'' is often compared to the music of [[Bruce Springsteen]], particularly the album ''[[Born to Run]]''. Steinman says he finds that "puzzling, musically", although they share influences; "Springsteen was more an inspiration than an influence."<ref name="gallery"/> A BBC article added "that [[Max Weinberg]] and [[Roy Bittan]] from Springsteen's [[E Street Band]] played on the album only helped reinforce the comparison."<ref>{{cite web|title=Sold on Song Top 100: Bat Out Of Hell |work=BBC Radio 2 |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/soldonsong/songlibrary/indepth/batoutofhell.shtml |access-date=November 17, 2006}}</ref>

Steinman and Meat Loaf had difficulty finding a record company willing to sign them. According to Meat Loaf's autobiography, the band spent most of 1975 writing and recording material, and two and a half years auditioning the record and being rejected.<ref name=autobiog118-9>{{cite book |last=Loaf |first=Meat |author-link=Meat Loaf |author2=David Dalton |title=To Hell and Back: An Autobiography |year=2000 |publisher= Virgin Publishing |location= London |isbn=0-7535-0443-X |pages= 118–9|title-link=Meat Loaf: To Hell and Back }}</ref> Manager [[David Sonenberg]] jokes that new record companies were being created just so the album could be rejected.<ref name="ca-ds">{{cite video |people=David Sonenberg |date=1999 | title=Classic Albums: ''Meat Loaf Bat Out of Hell'' | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0235298/ |medium=DVD |publisher=Image Entertainment}} Dir: Bob Smeaton</ref> They performed the album live in 1976, with Steinman on piano, Meat Loaf singing, and sometimes [[Ellen Foley]] joining them for "Paradise". Steinman says that it was a "medley of the most brutal rejections you could imagine."<ref name="classicalbums"/> Meat Loaf "almost cracked" when [[CBS]] executive [[Clive Davis]] rejected the project.<ref name="cr2"/> According to Meat Loaf's autobiography, Davis commented that "actors don't make records" and challenged Steinman's writing abilities and knowledge of rock music:

<blockquote>Do you know how to write a song? Do you know ''anything'' about writing? If you're going to write for records, it goes like this: A, B, C, B, C, C. I don't know what you're doing. You're doing A, D, F, G, B, D, C. You don't know ''how'' to write a song.... Have you ever listened to pop music? Have you ever heard any rock-and-roll music.... You should go downstairs when you leave here...and buy some rock-and-roll records.<ref>Clive Davis, as recalled by Meat Loaf, in Meat Loaf/Dalton, pg. 117.</ref></blockquote>

Meat Loaf asserts "Jim, at the time, knew every record ever made. [He] is a walking rock encyclopedia." Although Steinman laughed off the insults, the singer screamed "Fuck you, Clive!" from the street up to his building.<ref>Meat Loaf/Dalton, pg. 117.</ref>

In one 1989 interview with ''[[Classic Rock (magazine)|Classic Rock]]'' magazine, Steinman labeled Todd Rundgren "the only genuine genius I've ever worked with."<ref name="cr2"/> In a 1989 interview with Redbeard for the ''[[In the Studio with Redbeard]]'' episode on the making of the album, Meat Loaf revealed that [[Jimmy Iovine]] and [[Andy Johns]] were potential candidates for producing ''Bat Out of Hell'' before being rejected by the singer and Steinman in favor of [[Todd Rundgren]], whom Meat Loaf initially found cocky but grew to like. Rundgren found the album hilarious, thinking it was a parody of Springsteen.<ref>{{cite web|last=Dansby|first=Andrew|title=In defense of: Bat Out of Hell|url=http://blog.chron.com/29-95/2010/08/in-defense-of-bat-out-of-hell/|publisher=29-95.com|access-date=July 20, 2015|date=August 27, 2010|quote=I thought it was a parody of Bruce Springsteen. Oddly enough, the world took it seriously. There's this big, fat, operatic guy doing totally over the top, over-wrought, drawn-out songs. All this bombast. It was like Bruce Springsteen squared. I was just chuckling the whole time, and I'm still chuckling. I can't believe the world took it seriously.|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304095247/http://blog.chron.com/29-95/2010/08/in-defense-of-bat-out-of-hell/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The singer quotes him as saying: "I've 'got' to do this album. It's just so 'out' there." They told the producer that they had previously been signed to [[RCA Records|RCA]].<ref name=autobiog118-9/>