With the Lost being tortured by her father downstairs, Raven heads out to her balcony to sing her showcase song.

The song opens with a modified, simpler version of the piano line from the original recording with a sort of flute-like synthesizer line. Christina Bennington’s vocal glides in on top and gets joined by some synth strings that more or less mimic the strings from the original recording but it all just stays quieter and simpler than the original recording. There’s a feeling of empty space in this recording that gives it a feeling of loss, which is definitely what Raven is meant to be feeling in the moment.

Midway through, there is a small break and one guitar chord to take us into the louder second half of the song where Bennington is also joined by a chorus of “ooh”ing backing vocals. She also provides her own dynamic by being herself much louder and more expansive in this part of the song.

The arrangement of this song isn’t terribly different, but the much simpler piano line that serves as its basis does actually give it quite a different sound. Combine that with the strings and horns all being replaced with softer synth strings and that synth flute sound and we get a considerably smaller-feeling rendition of the song. In a way, this is more of the sound that I would have expected from a Bat out of Hell ballad than the original recording, which is really surprisingly lush and full.

Bennington’s vocal is great. She has the voice to support this song in a way that Meat Loaf just did not. The ending high note is maybe less interesting because it doesn’t surprise as much here as it does coming from Meat Loaf, but she definitely hits it wonderfully.

I know that I’m already a weirdo for the original not being one of my favorites in the Bat out of Hell oeuvre, but I also actually do like this version better–it has a real feeling of emptiness and loss that the original just doesn’t have. Bennington’s vocal is also stronger.

Ranking the Versions

1. Jim Steinman’s Bat out of Hell: The Musical
2. Ellen Foley-Fighting Words
   • Released in 2015, Ellen Foley was 64, and her age does show at times. However, the bare-bones (nearly piano-only) arrangement and the strongest moments of Foley’s vocal are just great. The song actually fits her voice so much better than Meat Loaf’s that part of me has to wonder if she was the intended vocalist back in the ’70s.
3. Tyce-Hero
   • Tyce recorded an entire album of Steinman covers in 2017. A lot of them have fun arrangements but are marred by his vocals. However, this one is undoubtedly the best he sounds anywhere on the album. He draws out the final glory note to a ridiculous length for no reason beyond being able to do so, but he still sounds good doing it. It’s a stripped-down piano-only version that works surprisingly well.
4. Meat Loaf-Bat out of Hell (original)
5. Karla De Vito-Is This a Cool World or What?
   • It’s too fast and tries to force too much rhythm. (It was the ’80s, even if barely so.) She sounds good throughout but it just doesn’t work well.