Apparently recorded for Welcome to the Neighborhood back in 1995, The Very Best of Meat Loaf also offered the first release of this Steinman song with lyrics by Don Black. Celine Dion also recorded but did not release the song for her 1997 Let’s Talk about Love album. In the end, its only actual release was on The Very Best of Meat Loaf.

Eric Titelman is the credited producer, a seeming A-list producer, writer, and multi-instrumentalist with connections going back decades all the way back to Phil Spector. There are some Steinman veterans here: Jimmy Bralower is credited for drum programming; Eddie Martinez for “power guitar;” Kasim Sulton for bass; Mickey Curry for drums (He played “additional drums” on the Steinman-produced Celine Dion recording of “River Deep, Mountain High.”); and Kasim Sulton, Eric Troyer, and Curtis King for background vocals. Bralower and Martinez had past history with Titelman, most notably appearing on the Steve Winwood song “Higher Love”produced by Titelman and Winwood. Robbie Kondor, playing keyboards, had done similar work with Titelman on multiple Eric Clapton albums, but this is his first appearance in a Steinman project, as far as I can tell. The other musicians all seem to share the major connecting point of Curtis King, who had already appeared on Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell. He, Jenny Muldaur (credited here as “backing vocals”), Cindy Mizelle (“additional choir”), James “D-Train” Williams (“additional choir”), and Vaneese Thomas (“additional choir”) have many overlaps in various combinations on recordings in New York going back a decade before this recording and continuing long after, notably including both live and/or album work with Joe Cocker for all five. Jeff Pevar, credited with “electric guitar,” is also a Cocker veteran.

And then of course there is an elephant in the room in lyricist Don Black. Black is a new character in Steinman’s career at this point, though he has some definite at least second-degree connections. He worked with Andrew Lloyd Webber several times in the ’80s and ’90s, so it seems likely that’s how he ended up here. He also, way back in 1974, wrote the lyrics for a musical that ended up giving Michael Crawford his first leading West End role. And then in 2002, he contributed lyrics to the ill-fated Dance of the Vampires.

In this song, Black’s lyrics are clearly not Steinman lyrics, but they also aren’t attempting to be them. They mix romance with religious worship in a way that isn’t too dissimilar from Steinman’s love of using religious terms for sexuality, but those are very different propositions. They’re far more conventional than Steinman’s usual work and they completely lack any sort of humor or satire. There’s nothing wrong with them–they’re better than plenty of pop lyrics–but they’re unmemorable.

The song opens with multiple lines of choir building up with some synthesizer sounds until a vintage Steinman cymbal sound ends the instrumental opening. Meat Loaf sings over a mix of soft synthesizers, some strings, and a piano through one verse. Some drums and light choir join in for the chorus. It keeps building a bit more throughout, adding guitars and some booming drums like Steinman had regularly used in the early ’80s. It’s kind of a Steinman-by-the-numbers sound, but it isn’t bad. And having an orchestra is a nice addition.

Unfortunately, this song does show some weakness in Meat Loaf’s upper range. He sounds fine through much of the song, but there are high notes where he really sounds stretched. While it’s still not bad, it’s one of his weaker performances of the era. There is a shorter duet version with Patti Russo sharing lead vocals (Meat Loaf still definitely has the lion’s share), and she instead sounds a bit shaky on the lower end of her range but fine on the higher-pitched parts.

It’s a fine song, but it just doesn’t have anything special about it. It kind of comes across like a watered-down song Steinman rushed out the door, but there’s just no reason to think that’s the case, especially with a big-time guest like Andrew Lloyd Webber on board. It kind of feels like “I’d Lie for You (And That’s the Truth),” which isn’t a terrible thing by any means. This would mark the last collaboration between Steinman and Meat Loaf on a not-previously-released song for nearly two decades.

Notes

• Thank you to reader G. DelGi. for correcting my very incorrect credits on the track. I went into more detail about the connections of the musicians to one another than usual because I first wrong a couple of paragraphs about how it was a mix of Steinman and Andrew Lloyd Weber-connected musicians and it seemed so odd for the latter to be involved at all, let alone bringing along others. Well, since it didn’t happen, no wonder it seemed odd! I think I got everything corrected above, but I am happy to correct any more or still remaining mistakes that anyone notices.