I did already briefly mention this recording on Songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman’s “Whistle Down the Wind,“ but I just want to write a more fully-fledged post for a few reasons.

Immediately, Roy Bittan begins delivering a lightning-speed, extremely baroque-sounding version of “If Only.” A distorted guitar from Eddie Martinez joins in, and then some Kenny Aronoff drums and Kasim Sulton bass. Veteran backing vocalist and West End performer Cathy Porter softly intones “ah–if only” and then an orchestra bursts forth with the guitars, playing the main “A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing to Waste” riff. Meat Loaf’s lead vocal comes in, and all of the instruments soften but stay present until late in the first verse.

Following that raucous opening, the song transitions to “A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing to Waste” proper, with the orchestra providing almost all of the instrumentation while backing vocalists Kasim Sulton, Glen Burtnick, and Keith Murrell join in with Meat Loaf. We stay with essentially the same sound through a guitar solo from Clem Clemson.

It’s a booming, fantastic version of what was already the best song on Whistle Down the Wind, enhanced by Meat Loaf’s vocals and the sheer size and volume of everything going on. The full-blast orchestra and chunky rhythm guitars are already great, but then the blazing guitar leads add even more to how wild and loud the entire thing sounds.

And then there is a surprising transition, as it turns into the second-best song from the musical, “Tire Tracks and Broken Hearts,” with Bonnie Tyler joining Meat Loaf on vocals for the first and only time ever. It’s the same kind of ultra-loud, super-bombastic sound that the rest of the song had, but now the lead guitar is a constant presence, giving the entire thing a sense of rock and roll that the stage version just didn’t quite have.

After a couple of choruses of “Tire Tracks and Broken Hearts,” everything cools down for another repeat of the chorus of “A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing to Waste,” and Tyler is still present. I will admit, I had thought that maybe it was just that she had already recorded her vocals from her version of “Tire Tracks and Broken Hearts” and they were still present on this recording without any real intention of her presence, but the fact that she stays on through the chorus again makes it much more of an actual appearance.

This song is everything I would have wanted from a Lloyd Webber/Steinman joint project. It’s huge, with a level of bombast that even Steinman would not approach without Lloyd Webber alongside, let alone the other way around. It’s got the rocking obnoxiousness that is basically what separates Steinman from Lloyd Webber normally. It’s got a great lead vocal (which the cast version rather lacks). I cannot believe I had not known about this recording sooner, because it is simply astonishing.

It’s also worth noting that a lot of these long-term collaborators are finished working together after this. Steinman never produces Meat Loaf again (and indeed produces little for anyone again). Roy Bittan never plays on a Steinman production or a Meat Loaf recording again. Rory Dodd’s last appearance with Steinman was actually on the Celine Dion “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” and with Meat Loaf was on Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell. Kenny Aronoff, Eric Troyer (who isn’t on this one) and Kasim Sulton would show up on some more Meat Loaf recordings. but this is the end of the road for them with Steinman. Todd Rundgren made a token appearance on Bat out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose but otherwise never worked with either again.

It’s not a perfect fit, but this song is almost the lost, and last, true Bat out of Hell track.