Jim Steinman: The Other Children

I thought I would spend this post looking at other albums Jim worked on over the years, from Air Supply to Barry Manilow, Barbra Streisand, Hulk Hogan (no, it's not a duet), and more, including his film and theatre work. On that note, let's begin at the beginning.

1. Yvonne Elliman: Food of Love (1973) --- Yvonne Elliman records the first commercially released Jim song, "Happy Ending", which is based on a piece of music from "The Dream Engine" Entr'acte. I have yet to hear the rest of this album, since I haven't had my vinyl copy transferred, so I can't really judge it as yet, but I would love if someone were to come along and record another version of "Happy Ending", because it's one I really like. If you play it before "Bat out of Hell", it feels like the calm before a massive storm. It also feels like a relative of "Heaven Can Wait" (but then don't they all feel related?). I look forward to hearing the rest.

2. Ellen Foley: Night Out (1979) --- OK, Jim was not involved with this album. He didn't write or produce or contribute in any way (so far as I'm aware), but I just had to get this in here. Well, would Ellen have made this album or not if it hadn't been for her killer vocal on "Paradise"? This album is just incredible, from "We Belong to the Night" which almost feels like Jim had written it, to the title song "Night Out", my personal favourite "Don't Let Go" at the very end, and so much more, really the whole thing. Have a listen to it, if you haven't already, and while you're at it, check out Karla DeVito's "Cool World". I haven't heard Ellen's other albums, or Karla's follow-up album either.

3. Air Supply: Greatest Hits (1983) --- Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock had met in the 1970s on the Australian production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" and this "Greatest Hits" album from 1983 is a showcase of their triumphs up to this point, including the phenomenal Jim Steinman written and produced  "Making Love out of Nothing at All". Imagine being played that song for the first time and then you get to sing it. We know how amazed Bonnie's reaction was to "Total Eclipse". It's always fun to sit back and relax to these songs, when suddenly that one starts and you feel like you've just walked into a movie theatre for the next installment of "Star Wars" and OMG. I know this is not specifically Air Supply related, but this is a Jim post after all, but you've got to hear the Rory Dodd demo if you haven't already. Click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRkFbgEbjWg

4. Bonnie Tyler: Faster Than the Speed of Night (1983) --- when asked who she wanted to work with on her next album, Bonnie Tyler replied: Jim Steinman. Like so many other music lovers around the world, she had been a huge fan of "Bat" and that was the music she wanted to record. She was determined to ask him, the result of which was a meeting where Jim played her Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have you Ever Seen the Rain?" and Blue Oyster Cult's "Going Through the Motions". If Bonnie hadn't gone for those songs, Jim wouldn't have done the album, but she was all for it, and the rest is history. Jim played her "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and it was, well, a total eclipse of the heart. And then it was a total eclipse of the charts! A six and a half minute song! Its parent album contains another Steinman epic, "Faster Than the Speed of Night" (that wail at the end is really something!), and epic production from Jim all round. Bonnie's version of Creedence is more like "Have you Ever Seen the Storm?" I also really like "Take me Back" and "Straight from the Heart". Then there's that moment Jim says in a female voice in "Getting so Excited": "I'd do anything for love but I won't do that". You have to wonder what that would have been like as a Steinman song, surely.

5. Footloose: Soundtrack (1984) --- I find it difficult to remember things from before about the age of five. The song "Footloose" is not one of those things. We were at a party somewhere, and my cousin wanted me to dance to this song, and I was probably only about four at the time. Because I can remember it from that long ago, it's one of the reasons I love that song. Of course this is the soundtrack that also contains Jim and Dean Pitchford's classic "Holding out for a Hero" as recorded by Bonnie Tyler. What can I say that hasn't been said by a thousand fans already? Through the wind and the chill and the rain, and the storm and the flood, I can feel its approach like a fire in my blood... Like a fire in my blood... Well, it's a start. But going all the way is just a start. Have a listen to the soundtrack sometime, again if you've heard it already.

6. Streets of Fire: Soundtrack (1984) --- in my search for more of Jim's work, I rented out a video which was music videos from the film "Streets of Fire", and was awestruck by "Tonight is What it Means to be Young". The Fire Inc. version of "Nowhere Fast" followed and though I'd liked the Meat Loaf version before this, I was smitten with this one, and they're quoting lines from Jim's "Bad for Good". Oh my! The entire soundtrack is an adventure in listening. Of course you get Jim, but then you get Marilyn Martin on "Sorcerer", "Countdown to Love", "One Bad Stud", "Blue Shadows", it's just full of gems. This is also the album that features the 80s song "I Can Dream About You" as recorded by Dan Hartman. It's the one I tend to hear the most on radio, which slightly annoys me. If I had my way though, pretty much most of this would be on the radio. If you don't want to be a completest Jim fan, this is one you should grab. If you already own it, then you probably know what I'm saying.

7. Barbra Streisand: Emotion (1984) --- I have to admit, I haven't heard much of Barbra's back catalogue, but "The Way We Were" would probably have to be one of my favourite songs. In 1984, she released "Emotion", on which she worked with Jim on her version of "Left in the Dark" which Jim also produced. I probably said this before, but Jim's original version actually tops this one by Streisand, which to some of her fans would probably sound like madness. But I believe it. Her version is still a great compliment to Jim however and vice versa, and when you dig in to the rest of this album, you find yourself having a pretty good time. "Make no Mistake, He's Mine", Barbra's duet with Kim Carnes is another stand out here for me. Give it a go if you haven't.

8. The Wrestling Album: Various Artists (1985) --- this is one of the things I love about Jim's catalogue. One moment I'm listening to Barbra, next moment it's Jim writing and producing "Hulk Hogan's Theme" on this album, which was a pain in the arse to find by the way, but I persisted. And it was worth it! I don't really follow the wrestling, but this is not only full of some cool little rock songs, but it's got humour in between the songs as well. And then "Hulk Hogan's Theme" jumps out at you all of a sudden, and wow! Yes, it's the music to "Ravishing", one of Jim's songs from Bonnie's "Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire", but a) that version has the lyrics and b) nobody is shouting Hulk! Hulk! Hulk! I just love it.

9. Iron Eagle: Soundtrack (1986) --- Jim provides additional production on the Urgent song "Love Can Make You Cry", which I'm really fond of. I only just heard the original version before Jim's remix and you can hear clearly what he brought to it. I sometimes forget that Queen's "One Vision" was from this movie and not "Highlander". It feels like a "Highlander" song to me, but I'm not sure why. It's probably something to do with "A Kind of Magic" being mostly "Highlander" songs, which is also the closest that movie comes to an official soundtrack (I wish we could get the end credits version of "A Kind of Magic" on an album). It's a pretty decent 80s soundtrack besides that. Give it a go.

10. Bonnie Tyler: Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire (1986) --- the story goes that Jim had met up with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh in Paris where they discussed Jim writing lyrics for "The Phantom of the Opera". Can you imagine? The reason it didn't happen was because Jim was committed to this album. So Jim returns to the production helm on this terrific little follow-up to 1983's "Faster Than the Speed of Night", and provides three new songs, as well as "Holding out for a Hero". The new duet "Loving You's a Dirty Job (But Somebody's Gotta Do It)" is so under-rated for me, it almost upsets me. Songwriter and producer Desmond Child also contributes "If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man)" and "Lovers Again", two very, very good songs. "Band of Gold" is another stand out here. If I had to fault the album, it would probably be "Before this Night is Through" which from memory wasn't on the vinyl anyway. This was the last time Jim and Bonnie would work together, until 1995's "Free Spirit", which I think is a pity really because she brings so much passion to Jim's songs, but I love what we have.

11. The Sisters of Mercy: Floodland (1987) --- the Sisters of Mercy was always sort of the one Steinman project I'd never really looked into as a fan, until about ten years ago now, and only in the last two years when I finally listened to "Floodland" and "Vision Thing" in full. I was missing out. Of course Jim does such a marvellous job on "Dominion/Mother Russia" (even that title is awesome) and listen to the choir on "This Corrosion", but the whole album is solid. It's a mini 1980s rock masterpiece.

12. The Sisters of Mercy: Vision Thing (1990) --- Sisters of Mercy follow up 1987's "Floodland" with this album. It contains not only one song produced by Jim but also co-written by him. Jim added the chorus and I just can't resist quoting these lines: "And I need all the love I can get/And I need all the love that I can't get too/And I need all the love I can get/And I need all the love that I can't get to". I'm not sure if the lyrics pick up on the different to/too there, but that's what Jim had intended. It sounds the same but it's got two different meanings (do you see what I did there?). It's not as strong as "Floodland" from memory, but it's still a fine album. Well, it's Sisters of Mercy.

13. The Shadow: Soundtrack (1994) --- so Jim had re-used "Good Girls go to Heaven" and "It Just Won't Quit" for "Bat II" and as so many of us know, "It's All Coming Back to me Now" for Celine Dion, but here's another song that was taken from the Pandora's Box album, even incorporating most of the original track. In that sense, it's the original "Original Sin", well sort of. With Jim's humour and wordplay, you almost wonder if he did it deliberately for that reason. Taylor Dayne knocks this out of the park. It leaves you wanting so much more, like the Taylor/Jim album that might have been, sometime between 1994 and 96. The rest of this soundtrack, which is the score by Jerry Goldsmith and a cool little moment from Sinoa and Diane Warren in "Some Kind of Mystery", is a great listen too.

14. Watershed: Twister (1995) --- Jim executive produced this album for the American group Watershed and it's a great little rock album from the 90s. I don't know what to compare this to. I probably shouldn't be comparing it to anything, but I'm trying to give you an idea. It's not Hootie and the Blowfish. It's not Offspring. But it's sort of, kind of something along those lines and it should have been bigger than it was. I don't really understand the story there. I have memories of something about the record company putting their energy behind Silverchair (Aussie band who I'll cover at some point) instead. Anyway, have a listen, or fiftieth listen for all I know.

15. Bonnie Tyler: Free Spirit (1995) --- Bonnie and Jim have returned to the studio together on "Making Love out of Nothing at All". I probably like it more than the Air Supply version at this point. It should have been a hit. Now I've been told "Total Eclipse" was Bonnie's "I'd do Anything for Love" when I was trying to compare what this should have been, but I think I got lost in translation (which does not surprise me at times.) What I mean is, this should have been the 1995 version of "Anything for Love", Bonnie's 90s Number 1 all around the world, and the hit that happened between that and Celine Dion, but for some baffling reason it wasn't. Maybe they needed Michael Bay or Nigel Dick for the video. Maybe they could have had Bonnie running around another castle. I don't know, just something that would have sent this song soaring. It almost upsets me. The other song they did together here was "Two out of Three Ain't Bad", which was totally not what I was expecting it to be. But I freaking (emphasis on the *beeps* here) *beep*, *beep* love it! The rest of the album is pretty solid on the whole. I'm sorry I don't have more to say about it, but... give it a spin.

16. Take That: Greatest Hits (1996) --- I have fond memories of listening to their single "Back for Good" in the car on cassette. It's always a song I enjoy listening to. The other songs on this album range from being slightly familiar, or I haven't heard them at all. And then there's that song! Jim takes this charming little pop song "Never Forget", which is perfectly good on its own, and suddenly turns it into the soundtrack for what could be a rock and roll gladiator pic! They all come out into the stadium fighting one another with Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters, raising it high above their heads and just as they're about to bring the guitar... well, you get the picture. And then it has quotes from Verdi's "Dies Irae" at the start, to the classic beat behind Queen's "We Will Rock You". Just wow!

17. Celine Dion: Falling Into You (1996) --- I remember hearing like a few seconds on an ad once, and then I woke up one weekend to the sound of the full song playing. Celine Dion had chosen it to open one of her biggest albums ever, "Falling Into You" from 1996, and it was a spectacular seven and a half minutes long. That really shows the belief she had in that song! Andrew Lloyd Webber once called it the record of the millennium and I can see why. The rest of the album is classic 90s Celine, along with two more Jim productions (not songs though), with her cover of "River Deep, Mountain High" and "Call the Man". "Call the Man" was co-written by one of the members of the group King Crimson, and I love "In the Court of the Crimson King", so it's pretty cool how all these people are on the same song together. Another song I really like is her take on Eric Carmen's "All by Myself". I prefer it over the original.

18. Anastasia: Soundtrack (1997) --- in 1997, Twentieth Century Fox had formed an animation company which Don Bluth and Gary Goldman would use to create movies like "Anastasia", based on the haunting mystery... could the Princess Anastasia somehow have survived the deaths of the Romanov family during the First World War? This movie says yes, and it's told like a fairy tale of a young woman trying to find her family again after her memory loss, which leads her to Paris. It has a beautiful score by the songwriting team Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens and a film score by David Newman. The villain is Rasputin, and the songwriters wanted his big villain song to sound like Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman! Cue: Jim's entrance, on the sensational "In the Dark of the Night", and just the intro alone gives me the chills. Actually, I have to wonder what this soundtrack would have been like if it was Jim producing the entire thing, because there are plenty of moments where I get the shivers here, including the end of "Journey to the Past", the chorus in "Once upon a December", and Newman's score in scenes like the Prologue and Anastasia's Nightmare.

19. Celine Dion: Let's Talk About Love (1997) --- Celine returns with this 1997 follow-up "Let's Talk About Love". This is the album she put out when "Titanic" was about to become King of the World at the Oscars and movie theatres everywhere. "My Heart Will Go On" is one of the coolest songs she ever did and it's on here. This album also includes another great song called "The Reason" which was co-written by Carole King, Celine partnering with the Bee Gees on "Immortality", Streisand on "Tell Him", and even Pavarotti at one point singing "I Hate You then I Love You" (imagine what Jim might have done with that title.) Jim is not really all that present here, unfortunately. He does additional production on "Us" which is a song I like, but then that's it. Well, except for the song he wrote with Don Black and produced which never made it to the album, "Is Nothing Sacred". I can't help but feel that if it had made it, we would have had another single, and it's a shame. There is a happy ending though, because a year later Meat recorded it and put it out on his "Very Best of" where it also became a single. Still, you sometimes wonder.

20. Songs from Whistle down the Wind: Various Artists (1998) --- Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman were opening their new musical "Whistle down the Wind" on the West End and they wanted famous artists to record around a dozen songs from the score. Here we have a pretty eclectic range, from Tom Jones and the Sounds of Blackness on "Vaults of Heaven", which raises the roof from the very beginning, "Whistle" the title song recorded by Australia's Tina Arena, and Boyzone's "No Matter What" which becomes the highest selling single from a musical in history. Even the Everly Brothers show up on "Cold", which pleased Andrew so much that he thought about retiring from musicals right there and then (revealed in his auto-bio "Unmasked"). Andrew alumni Elaine Paige, Donny Osmond and Michael Ball offer up their versions of "If Only" (such a pretty song), "When Children Rule the World" and "Unsettled Scores", which is brilliant. Then the Steinman alumni join the party, with Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler's phenomenal version of "A Kiss is a Terrible Thing to Waste" and Bonnie's "Tire Tracks and Broken Hearts". It's a joy from beginning to end. It also makes a great album for the car.

21. The Mask of Zorro: Soundtrack (1998) --- James Horner, not long off the success of "Titanic", provides the score here and what can I say? It's another triumph from the master. His music is like magic. Aptly Jim is involved with the production of the theme song here, "I Want to Spend my Lifetime Loving You" reunited with Tina Arena who is singing with Marc Anthony. I say apt because Jim is a wizard too. I wonder if they knew one another at Hogwarts or something. It always pleases me when this song comes up, because it's another one of those cultural icons that Jim worked on, but I don't see as many people talk about it. Or maybe it's bigger than I thought it was because they sang it on "Bold and the Beautiful". I don't know?

22. Whistle down the Wind: Original Cast (1999) --- the complete score and most of the script is included here, but in comparison to the "Tanz" cast album (see my earlier review) it's not produced by Jim. And I think that's a shame. I just wonder what he would have brought here and I think listeners miss out. It also suffers from the American accents. Apparently they got better as the production went on. But make no mistake, this is a deep and engrossing listen nonetheless, and you are constantly being hit by the combination of Steinman and Lloyd Webber's musical forces. It feels like Batman meets Superman. Batman is obviously Jim.

23. Opera Babes: Beyond Imagination (2002) --- Jim provided the production for the Opera Babes "Vittoria! (Aida 2002)" which I understand was used in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and included on the American issues of this album. It's not on the Australian release, but it's on the FIFA album which is easier for me to get a hold of. The rest of "Beyond Imagination" really packs a punch. I would have bought this just for their version of "O Fortuna" from "Carmina Burana". I don't know how many times I've listened to that. If you love this style of music, check them out. This is also Jim in his element working with classical music and opera. I wish he'd done more here.

24. The Confidence Man: Various Artists (2003) --- I remember my surprise when it was announced that they would be releasing an album of "The Confidence Man", Jim's 70s musical with Ray Errol Fox. Since when had there been albums for any of Jim's musicals before "Whistle down the Wind"? It was a pretty special moment. The album that was released in late 2003 was also done in aid of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS so buying a copy of this album is supporting a very good cause. Cast wise, there's a whole slew of talent from the musical and cabaret scene, including long time Steinman associate from his theatre days Andre De Shields who recently won a Tony for his role in the musical "Hadestown". Musical highlights for me include "Edging into Darkness", "Nocturnally Yours", "Milady" and "Something of this Masquerade May Follow". As awesome as the finale for "Tanz" is, "Masquerade" here is right up there in my eyes. It is just an incredible song.

25. Barry Manilow: The Essential (2005) --- I just picked up this collection, including Barry's version of Jim's "Read 'em and Weep". The recording here is different than the one he originally released. There are backing vocals on the second verse which I'd never heard before, and the drums are louder too. Hmmm, didn't Jim once mention a version with really loud drums that never got put out? Well, here it is, folks?! Of course you get (presumably) the rest of the great Manilow catalogue as well. Once I listened to "Read 'em" I had to go back and listen to "Mandy" at the start.

Well, that brings me to the end of this post. The reason I haven't commented on the other albums is, simply, because I don't own them yet, and the albums I do own, well... It's taken me over twenty years to get to this point. And I'm thrilled!

On that note, thank you for reading and God Speed!

Ryan.