Dead Ringer For Love
Meat Loaf
Meat Loaf started his music career in the 60s as the lead singer for a Californian band named Meat Loaf Soul. This band changed its name twice and opened for many famous acts at the time including Janis Joplin, The Kinks and The Who.
The band was relatively unsuccessful so Meat Loaf, whose voice covered four octaves, joined the cast of the musical, Hair.
On the coattails of his theatrical success, Meat Loaf teamed up with singer, Stoney Murphy to release an album in 1971. Together, they toured but Meat Loaf split after the record label decided to replace the vocals with that of another singer.
In 1973, Meat Loaf went back to theatre acting and joined the stage version of Rocky Horror Picture Show. During this time, he met Jim Steinman and began working on the album, Bat Out of Hell. The partnership between Steinman and Meat Loaf on this project produced some of the greatest classic rock masterpieces in the form of title track Bat Out of Hell, Paradise by the Dashboard Light, You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth and Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad. The album has sold over 40 million copies globally.
Steinman and Meat Loaf went searching for a record deal but the rock opera musical style was difficult to sell. Finally, Cleveland International Records took a chance and released Bat Out of Hell in 1977. The songs were greeted by the public with enthusiasm. Meat Loaf performed on Saturday Night Live and supported the album with a tour.
Before and during recording of his second album, Bad for Good, Meat Loaf struggled with cocaine addiction, suicidal feelings and a loss of voice. Steinman had to resort to finishing the album without the portly singer.
In the 80s, Meat Loaf released Dead Ringer which hit #1 in the UK. But it wasn’t to last. The subsequent releases in the form of Midnight at the Lost and Found and Bad Attitude left Meat Loaf bankrupt and caused a break up with Steinman.
So he went back to basics, touring in small venues and re-building his fan base which proved to be the right move. In 1989, Steinman and Meat Loaf reunited to work on Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell which was finally released in 1993, sixteen years after the original. The album was a huge success and is considered one of the greatest comebacks in music history. He was awarded with a Grammy for Best Rock Solo Vocal Performance and single I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) held the UK #1 spot for seven weeks.
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By now, there was no doubting Meat Loaf’s popularity. He continued to release successful albums in the 90s and sold out over 160 concerts during a 2005 tour.
A trademark dispute between Steinman and Meat Loaf failed to stop the release of the last instalment in the Bat Out of Hell Trilogy called The Monster is Loose. The album produced a UK top ten hit in the form of It’s All Coming Back to Me Now, but didn’t sell well stateside. In 2007, rumours circulated that Meat Loaf was going to hang up his singing career after bouts of cancelled gigs but it was unfounded. Meat Loaf promised his fans he would be back and he delivered on it. In 2008, he completed a tour with Patti Russo and continues to work on new material, acting and charity work.
Juanita Appleby
This information is provided as a brief overview and not as a definitive guide, there are other sources on the net for that. If however you have a story or information that is not generally known we would love to hear from you. Content@rokpool.com
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Cher
Cher, born Cherilyn Sarkisian La Pierre, 20 May 1946, began her career working as a session singer in an attempt to finance an acting career. She recorded with producer Phil Spector as a backing vocalist, having become romantically attached to his studio assistant and PR man Sonny Bono.
After releasing two singles under the name Caesar And Cleo, the duo then achieved international acclaim as Sonny And Cher. Throughout this period Cher also sustained a solo career under the pseudonym Bonnie Jo Mason. Thereafter, she secured several hits, including an opportunistic cover version of The Byrds’ ‘All I Really Want To Do’. Although her acting aspirations seemed long-forgotten, she did appear in two minor 60s movies, Good Times (1967) and Chastity (1969). In September 1971 chart-topping ‘Gypsies, Tramps And Thieves’ and its attendant album saw her back in the ascendant. Two further US number 1 hits ‘Half Breed’ and ‘Dark Lady’ preceded her divorce from Sonny, though for a time the duo continued to appear together on stage and television. In 1975, she switched to Warner Brothers Records for the Jimmy Webb- produced Stars, while her on-off relationship with Gregg Allman.
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By the late 70s, she became a regular fixture in gossip columns and fashion magazines, which lauded over her outrageousness and much publicized musical and personal relationships with Allman, Gene Simmons and Les Dudek. In 1981, Cher appeared on Meat Loaf’s ‘Dead Ringer For Love’ but recording interests increasingly took a back seat to her first love: acting. A leading role in’ Come Back To The Five And Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean’(1982) and many others. She won an Oscar for Best Actress and celebrated that honour with another musical comeback with ‘I Found Someone’.
In 1989, she enjoyed three US Top 10 singles courtesy of ‘After All’, ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’ and ‘Just Like Jesse James’. Her April 1991 UK number 1 ‘The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)’ was the theme song to another screen appearance in Mermaids. In March 1995, in the company of Chrissie Hynde, Neneh Cherry and Eric Clapton, she topped the UK charts with the charity single ‘Love Can Build A Bridge’. The same year she did a credible cover of Marc Cohn’s ‘Walking In Memphis’ which preceded ‘It’s A Man’s World’.
Her popularity was confirmed by the worldwide hit single ‘Believe’, which topped the UK charts for seven weeks in late 1998.. The next single to be lifted from the album, ‘Strong Enough’, entered the UK charts at number 5 in March 1999, and in the same month ‘Believe’ completed its long climb up the US Billboard Hot 100 to the top. Oddly enough, Cher’s next album, ‘Not.com.mercial’, was only made available through her own website, and was better received than the ‘official’ follow-up, Living Proof. The singer’s Farewell tour of 2002/3 grossed over $70 million, although fans refused to accept the word farewell.
Carly Page
This information is provided as a brief overview and not as a definitive guide, there are other sources on the net for that. If however you have a story or information that is not generally known we would love to hear from you. Content@rokpool.com.
