Songoftheday 1/16/20 - I'd pull the sun down from the sky to light your darkest night, I wouldn't let one drop of rain fall down into your life...

"I'd Lie For You (And That's The Truth)" - Meat Loaf
from the album Welcome To The Neighbourhood (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11

Today's song of the day comes from singer/actor/reality show fodder Marvin Aday, aka "Meat Loaf", who had experience one of the biggest "comebacks" of the rock era (probably tied with Tina Turner) with his 1993 album Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell, which spawned three top-40 pop hits with "Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are", "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through", and the #1 smash "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)". Two years later, the Loaf returned with his next album Welcome To The Neighbourhood. It was formatted like a concept album, but again he broke away from longtime collaborator Jim Steinman, only using two of Jim's compostions (both retreads from earlier Steinman projects, including a remake of Barbra Streisand's minor pop hit "Left In The Dark"), and using Ron Nevison (most famous for his work with the revamped Heart) as the primary producer, and a plethora of writers. Song doctor Diane Warren penned the first single "I'd Lie For You (and That's The Truth)", obviously titled to recur similarities to his #1 hit from 1993. With longtime backup Patti Russo on vocals providing the female part in the epic song, they were hoping to strike gold twice. And in some places, they did. As for the music video, they apparently were hoping to top "I'd Do Anything" but ended up being Michael Bay's wet dream on acid...

"I'd Lie For You" became Meat Loaf's seventh and so far most recent top-40 pop hit in November of 1995. The song climbed to #21 on Billboard magazine's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio format chart, and got to #17 on their new Adult Top-40 list. But internationally, the single, did much, much better, and in Britain he claimed his second-biggest hit after "I'd Do Anything", peaking at #2, while reaching the top ten in Ireland (#4), Australia (#7), Sweden (#9), the Netherlands (#9), Belgium (#10F/#35W), and Norway (#10). It also made the top-40 in Canada (#11), New Zealand (#14), Germany (#17), Iceland (#19), Switzerland (#24), and Austria (#31).

The second release from the album, "Not A Dry Eye In The House", was also written by Warren and followed the same epic pattern, but only managed to scrape to #82 in America, while in the UK it was big, peaking at #7 there (and a top-40 hit in Ireland too at #23). A third single, "Runnin' For The Red Light (I Gotta Life)", stopped at #21 in the UK.

In 1998, Meat Loaf released a Very Best compilation which proved to be a steady seller, followed by a VH1 Storytellers live disc which included a Steinman co-composition in "Is Nothing Sacred" with Patti Russo as a duet, which brought them back into the British top-40 at #15. His next studio record, Couldn't Have Said It Better, again eschewed Steinman, and was mostly helmed by Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx and singer James Michael, who years later would form the longstanding Crue sideproject Sixx A.M. It scored a pair of moderate top-40 hits in the UK, including "Man Of Steel" with his daughter Pearl Aday (UK #21), and "Couldn't Have Said It Better" with Russo (UK #31), with the latter making Billboard's Adult Top-40 chart in America at #36 in 2003.

Meat came back with a third Bat Out Of Hell album, subtitled The Monster Is Loose, in 2006. Steinman, who had suffered a heart attack, couldn't produce, but his songs were half the album (produced by Desmond Child). In the U.S., the album was a top ten success (#8), but no singles made it to the radio charts. However in the UK, he returned to the top ten at #6 with a remake of Celine Dion's Jim Steinman-written "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" with Marion Raven (of the Norwegian duo M2M). Followup "Cry For Me" (UK #47) is his most recent British chart hit.

Since then Meat Loaf has released three more studio albums, most recently Braver Than We Are, which made the top-40 on the albums sales chart in the US, while all three were top ten successes in Britain. That set again featured all Jim Steinman compositions.

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Here's Meat Loaf and Patti Russo performing the song live on TV in 1995...

and again for a live TV special built around the album in 1996...

And finally, a live take from German TV in 1995...

Up tomorrow: Canadian emo-girl is searching for change, perhaps?