Meat Loaf

selected Meat Loaf TShirTS, PosTerS & Prints

Marvin Lee Aday (born September 27, 1947(1947-09-27)), better known as Meat Loaf, is an American rock singer and actor of stage and screen. Meat Loaf is noted for his albums Bat Out Of Hell I, II, and III and several famous songs from movies. The Neverland Express is the name of the band he fronts, as its lead singer. In 2001, Meat Loaf changed his first name to Michael.

Despite setbacks (including bankruptcy, on more than one occasion), Meat Loaf is notable for the ultimate success of his music career, spawning some of the largest-selling albums of all time, and breaking several records for chart duration. Bat Out Of Hell, the debut album which had been four years in the making, has sold over 37 million copies. After almost 30 years, it still sells an estimated 200,000 copies annually, and stayed on the charts for over 9 years. Each of the seven tracks on the album eventually charted as a single hit.

Although he enjoyed success with Bat Out Of Hell and Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell, Meat Loaf experienced some initial difficulty establishing a steady career within his native United States; however, Meat Loaf has retained iconic status and popularity in Europe, especially the UK, where he ranks 23rd for number of weeks overall spent on the charts, and is one of only two artists with an album never to have left the music charts. In Germany, Meat Loaf became notably popular following the release of Bat Out Of Hell II but has enjoyed most of his success among pop/rock fans. Meat Loaf ranked 96th on VH1's '100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock'.

Meat Loaf has also appeared in over 50 movies or television shows sometimes even as himself, or as characters resembling his onstage personality, such as his memorable role as Eddie in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Meat Loaf appeared in the acclaimed feature film Fight Club, as Robert "Bob" Paulson; he is credited for this role as "Meat Loaf Aday".

Meat Loaf and friend/songwriter Jim Steinman started Bat Out Of Hell in 1972, but did not get serious about it until the end of 1974. Meat Loaf decided to leave theater, and concentrate exclusively on music. Then, the National Lampoon Show opened on Broadway, and it needed an understudy for John Belushi, a close friend of Meat Loaf since 1972. It was at the Lampoon Show that Meat Loaf met Ellen Foley, the co-star who ended up singing "Paradise By The Dashboard Light" with him on the album Bat Out Of Hell.

After the Lampoon show ended, Meat Loaf and Steinman spent time seeking a record deal. Their approaches were rejected by each record company, because their songs did not fit any specific recognized music industry style. Finally, they performed the songs for Todd Rundgren, who decided to produce the album, as well as play lead guitar on it. They then shopped the record around, but still had no takers until Cleveland International Records decided to take a chance. On October 21, 1977, Bat Out Of Hell was released.

Meat Loaf's first gig in support of the record was opening for Cheap Trick in Chicago; the audience started out hostile, but by the end of the show, they had been won over. Their next stop came a couple of days after the release of the album in New Jersey. The show was a complete sell-out, and people lined up to see it hours before it started. Things really started to take off after Meat Loaf appeared on Saturday Night Live, as the Musical Guest, on March 25, 1978. (That evening's host, Christopher Lee, introduced him saying, "Ladies and gentlemen...meet...Loaf! {pause} Eh?... Oh!... Ladies and gentlemen, MEAT LOAF!") The huge success of the album caused a rift to open up between Meat Loaf and Steinman: the group, named after Meat Loaf for ease of labeling, seemed to Steinman to sideline his work as creator, and Steinman started to resent the attention that his partner was getting.

During a show in Ottawa, Meat Loaf fell off the stage and broke his leg. The injury caused him to cancel the rest of the tour. Unable to handle the pressure, Meat Loaf resorted to cocaine, ultimately culminating in a nervous breakdown where Meat Loaf threatened to commit suicide by jumping off the ledge of a building in New York. Then, in December 1978, he went to Woodstock to work with Steinman. It was at the Bearsville studio that Meat Loaf met his future wife, Leslie G. Edmonds; they were married within a month. Leslie had a daughter from a previous marriage, Pearl, who has since followed in her stepfather's footsteps to become a singer. In the middle of recording his second album, Bad For Good, Meat Loaf lost the ability to sing; it is unclear as to the exact cause - the tour was a punishing one, and the vocals and energy intense. However, his doctors said that physically he was fine and that his problem was psychological. Nevertheless, Steinman decided to keep recording Bad For Good without Meat Loaf.

Just as his singing career seemed to be reaching a dead end, he got the role of Travis Redfish in Roadie. The movie had cameos by Debbie Harry, Roy Orbison and Hank Williams, Jr., but still was a box office flop.

Over time Meat Loaf got his singing voice back and got off drugs. The struggles that Meat Loaf faced making Bat Out Of Hell paid off. It now has sold more than 37 million copies worldwide, making it one of the biggest-sellers of all time. In the UK alone, its 2.1 million sales put it in 38th place. Despite peaking at #9 and spending only two weeks in the top ten in 1981, it has now clocked up 476 weeks on the UK album chart, a figure bettered by only one other album - Fleetwood Mac's Rumours with 478. In Australia, it knocked the Bee Gees off the number #1 spot and went on to become the biggest-selling Australian album of all time. Bat Out Of Hell is also one of only two albums that has never exited the Top 200 in the UK charts; this makes it the longest stay in any music chart in the world, although the published chart contains just 75 positions. Bat out of Hell is considered one of the most prestigious albums ever to be created.

from Wikipedia licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.