Writer: Jim Steinman

Producer: Todd Rundgren

Recorded: Early 1977 at several studios in New York

Released: Summer 1977

Players:	Meat Loaf — vocals Ellen Foley — duet vocal Todd Rundgren — guitar, vocals Kasim Sultan — bass Roy Bittan — keyboards Jim Steinman — keyboards Roger Powell — synthesizers Max Weinberg — drums Edgar Winter — saxophone Rory Dodd, Marvin Lee — backing vocals Phil Rizzuto — play-by-play
Album:	Bat Out Of Hell (Cleveland International)

Before making it big on his own, Meat Loaf played a role in The Rocky Horror Show and its film adaptation, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and sang on Ted Nugent‘s 1976 album Free For All.

The Bat Out Of Hell album was conceived by composer Jim Steinman, who met Meat Loaf in 1974 when he appeared in an off-Broadway production of Steinman’s play More Than You Deserve.

The eight-and-a-half-minute “Paradise By The Dashboard Light” was the album’s third single, and peaked at Number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The track depicts Meat Loaf trying to seduce a date — voiced by Ellen Foley — in the back seat of his car, ultimately with promises of enduring faith. Baseball Hall-Of-Famer and the late former New York Yankees announcer Phil Rizzuto makes a cameo appearance, calling the progress of a runner around the base paths as Meat Loaf tries to “go all the way.”

The song was set up like a suite and divided into three parts — “Paradise,” “Let Me Sleep On It,” and “Praying For The End Of Time.”

Bat Out Of Hell reached Number 14 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It hit Number One in several other countries, including Australia.

In the U.K., Bat Out Of Hell spent 471 consecutive weeks (more than nine years) on the album chart.

Meat Loaf found himself overwhelmed by the album’s success, however. He said, “I didn’t know how to deal with it. I went into self-inflicted exile. I said, ‘I don’t want to do this. I don’t like this.’”