Recording of the album took place at Ocean Way Recording in Los Angeles, California, then at The Power Station in New York City, New York. They performed the album live in 1976, with Steinman on piano, Meat Loaf singing, and sometimes Ellen Foley joining them for "Paradise". Todd Rundgren, however, whom Meat initially found cocky but grew to like and whom Steinman labeled "the only genuine genius I've ever worked with" in a 1989 interview with Classic Rock magazine, found the album hilarious.

Their four-star review declared that "it is a work of genius, a ready made rock classic and arguably the last word in rock operas. Not being able to "bear for people not to hear those songs," Steinman recorded the album, retitled Bad for Good, as a solo project, although Rory Dodd contributed lead vocals on some songs. According to Meat Loaf, Rundgren put all the arrangements together because although "Jim could hear all the instruments" in his head, Steinman hummed rather than orchestrated. However, Meat Loaf asserts that Rizzuto claimed ignorance only to stifle criticism and was fully aware of the context of what he was recording. the parent label of Bearsville, was impressed, but other senior people rejected them after they performed live.

The stereo tracks are considerably better (better than the Redbook CD my wife owns) but still on my system at least don't have a particulary wide or deep soundstage. I was barely seventeen" opens this track also, but instead of being "barely dressed" the protagonist "once killed a boy with a Fender guitar. It always seemed incomplete because I conceived it like a film, and what would you do without Die Hard 2? According to Meat Loaf's autobiography, the band spent most of 1975, and two and a half years, auditioning the record and being rejected.

and I wanted to do one that to me would be even more heroic and more epic and a little more operatic and passionate. The only exception I have come to meet so far was the Columbia SA-CD : the stereo program, which is a flat DSD transfer from the stereo downmix tapes, is just as horrible as heard on any other format, but the multichannel program, however, was an unexpected redemption. Responding to concerns about length and overstatement, they replied, "that's precisely the point of this album, and is also why it works so well. Visitors to your home will instantly be drawn by this elegant homage; sparking new and interesting conversations - perhaps even a little envy! Since this review entry is tagged as the multi-channel hybrid version, that is the main focus of my review.It may elevate adolescent passion to operatic dimensions, and that's certainly silly, but it's hard not to marvel at the skill behind this grandly silly, irresistible album. In 2006, it was voted number nine in a poll conducted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to discover Australia's most popular album. The cover depicts a motorcycle, ridden by a long-haired man, bursting out of the ground in a graveyard. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram also referred to the length of the songs, in which they said Steinman "vomits up 75 minutes of endlessly repeated choruses". You’ll notice that I didn’t say Dolby Atmos and that is because Apple Music also delivers the legacy SACD and DVD-Audio surround sound mixes; if the record label delivers it to them.

Jim Steinman considers the line "And can't you see my faded Levi's bursting apart" his most daring lyric on the entire album. As of June 2019, it has spent 522 weeks in the UK Albums Chart, the second longest chart run by a studio album.

This is a great album (particularly if you were an adolescent in the 70's) If only the sound quality was similar to the Elton John SACD's.

They "make out" heavily in the middle instrumental section, described in metaphor in a baseball commentary by New York Yankees announcer Phil Rizzuto. Steve Popovich, the head of Cleveland International Records, was relentless in his efforts to get Epic and all of CBS Records and radio on board. 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.Each verse comprises two things that he would do for love, followed by one thing that he would not do. I started writing what I felt was Bat Out of Hell part 2, definitely like The Godfather part 1 and part 2, that's how I saw it. The first disc contains the remastered original album, while the second contains several radio edits and remixes. The low end is a little muddier, by comparison, and after listening to the stereo mix for decades, the shift to a multi-channel mix can take a little getting used to. Ok, I may be missing something, but I really fail to see what all of the negative hub-bub is about regarding this CD.