American Top 40 PastBlast: 7/25/81

Jim Steinman wrote some of the most overwrought music of the late 70s/early 80s. We first encountered him on Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell (“Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad,” “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth”). Perhaps his crowning achievement came in October 83 when he wrote the songs in spots #1 and #2 (“Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Making Love Out of Nothing At All”).   He also penned Barry Manilow’s last Top 40 song (“Read ‘em and Weep”). To be honest, I liked the Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler songs pretty well, but man, some of his metaphors are really tortured.

In the middle of all that, he released the album Bad For Good under his own name, though he didn’t do vocals on all of the songs. (I’m thinking the title tune is a Paul Hunter song.) One of those sung by Rory Dodd (he’s best known for “Turn around, bright eyes” in “Total Eclipse”) was released as a single and made it to #32 in the late summer of 81 (it’s #37 here). Yes, it’s got most of the histrionics of his other stuff, but I’m really fond of it–I guess I relate to its theme of the power of music! Takes me back to a particular moment in time, right before my senior year in HS.