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Steinmans work wasnt about excess per se.
It was about starting at excess and piling on more excess from there.
Steinman died on April 19 at his home in Connecticut at the age of 73.
According tothe New YorkTimes, he had suffered a stroke a few years ago.
He was discovered, in a way, when he was still in college.
Steinmans show was three hours long, had tons of nudity, andcaught the attentionof local police.
He saw no difference between Shakespeare andHair, Steinman wouldrecallof the producer years later.
It was all theater.
I grew up with opera and rock and roll and didnt see anything different [either].
It was all sensation.
Meat Loaf came in to audition, and Steinman saw something in him immediately.
He was a big huge actor, Steinman would recall.
I found someone who could sing my music the way I envisioned it.
He embodied what I was trying to get at theatrically.
More than You Deserve remains one of Steinmans funniest concoctions.
(The videoremains a kitschy hoot.)
But that wasnt enough to make the record anything like a hit.
Steinmans songwriting shtick was set here.
He built onto the songs everything they could hold, and occasionally more.
The album was also notable for the length of Steinmans songs.
The album was a major hit that year and continues to be.
It has sold about 14 million copies in the U.S. and has been a perennial seller worldwide.
(Though the claim on its Wikipedia page that it has sold 50 million copies is vastly overstated.
It became another flop.
1, and Making Love Out of Nothing at All, by Air Supply, which sat at No.
(Note that no fewer than five minutes had been trimmed from the album version of the song.)
Finally, around that same time, he got to see his belovedThe Dream Enginestaged in New York.
