Rock and pop maker Jim Steinman, who wrote and composed music for Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Celine Dion, and more, passed away Monday, April 19th. He was 73.
The Connecticut Chief Medical Officer’s Office has confirmed Steinman’s death Rolling clip. A cause of death was not given.
A statement posted on Steinman’s Facebook page read: ‘I can confirm Jim’s passing with a heavy heart. There will be much more to say in the coming hours and days as we prepare to honor this giant of man and his glorious legacy. For now, do something that makes you feel young, happy and free. He wants it for you! ‘
In Steinman’s unique career, he works as a composer, lyricist and producer for a variety of artists in different styles. According to a biography on his website, the records he has worked on have sold more than 190 million copies worldwide. He was also nominated for four Grammys over the course of his career and eventually won Album of the Year for his work on Dion’s 1996 series, Fall into you.
Steinman begins his career in musical theater, writing and playing in a rock musical while calling university The dream car, which caught the attention of New York theater producer Joe Papp. After his studies, Steinman worked at the Public Theater in New York (which Papp founded) and conjured up various creative projects. In 1973, Yvonne Elliman recorded Steinman’s song “Happy Ending”, which was Steinman’s first commercial release. That same year, the Public Theater staged its musical More than you earn.
One of the actors who auditioned for More than you earn was Meat Loaf, and he and Steinman soon forged a close personal and professional relationship. The two began working on Meat Loaf’s proper solo debut, Bat from hell, in the early seventies, but the album would only be released in 1977. Only about a year later – after Meat Loaf performed on Saturday Night Live – that the album became a certified hit.
“There’s no other songwriter like him ever,” Meat Loaf said during Steinman’s inauguration in the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2012. “I can never compensate him. He was indeed such a huge influence on my life, and I learned so much from him that I never met Mr. Jim Steinman would not be able to compensate. ‘
Despite the success of Bat from hellHowever, Meat Loaf and Steinman’s relationship began to deteriorate after Steinman began working on a sequel to Bruce Springsteen’s keyboardist Roy Bittan without telling Meat Loaf. Although they completed and released Dead Ringer In 1981, Steinman and Meat Loaf collaborated much more sporadically and regularly engaged in lawsuits against each other.
During the 1980s, Steinman collaborated with Barbra Streisand, the Sisters of Mercy, and Fire Inc. He produced Bonnie Tyler records, including 1983s Faster than the speed of light (which contains the hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Steinman) and 1986s Secret dreams and forbidden fire; he composed the theme music for pro wrestler Hulk Hogan; and he writes ‘Endure for a Hero’ for the Footloose soundtrack (sung by Tyler). Meat Loaf also recorded a handful of Steinman songs for 1984s Bad attitude, while Steinman released the album in 1989 Inheritance probe with his group Pandora’s Box.
In the early 1990’s, Meat Loaf and Steinman reunited, and in 1993 they were released. Bat Out of Hell II: Back in Hell, with the hit “I would do anything for love (but I will not do it).” A few years later, Steinman made a bond with Dion Fall into you and wrote her hit, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.” Steinman also embarked on several musical theater projects in the 1990s and collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber Whistle in the wind and the production of his own project, Dance of the Vampires, which opened in Austria in 1997.
Meat Loaf is released in 2006 Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose, which was credited and promoted as another production with Steinman, but the couple were again embroiled in a legal dispute and sparsely collaborated on it (in an interview with Rolling clip, Meat Loaf acknowledged that the album “should never have happened” and said, “For me, the album did not exist.” , Brave than we are.
“My songs are folk songs,” Steinman said Rolling clip in 1978, “to those moments when you feel like you’re on top of a burning match. These are folk songs from the essence of rock & roll, to a world that despises contempt and loves passion and rebellion. These are folk songs for the kind of feeling you listen to ‘Be My Baby’ by the Ronettes. This is what I love about folk songs – the anger, the melody and the passion. ”