Read 'em and Weep

The Meat Loaf song Barry Manilow turned into a hit

You thought I was done with Barry Manilow? Not a chance! While researching yesterday’s post, I ran across info about this song, that it was written by Jim Steinman for Meat Loaf. Once I found that out, I re-listened to Manilow’s version and could completely hear that influence. So I tracked down the original and thought it was better. So you’re getting both.

The Meat Loaf version was produced by Steinman and Jimmy Iovine and appeared on the 1981 album Dead Ringer. It was the long awaited follow-up to the huge Bat Out of Hell album and this song was the third single. Liberty DeVitto, Billy Joel’s drummer, plays on this track as does Davey Johnstone, who usually played guitar in Elton John’s band.

Since half the fun of Meat Loaf is watching him emote, here’s the video. I can’t find anything about the director or the shoot.

A couple of years later, Barry Manilow recorded it in a slightly rewritten version for his compilation album, Greatest Hits, Vol. II and that’s when it became a hit. This version featured new lyrics for the second half of the song's second verse, as well as slight changes in the first verse and final chorus.

Although the single went to #1 on the US and Canadian Adult Contemporary chart, #17 in the UK, and #18 on the Hot 100¹, Manilow's feelings about the song made him re-evaluate his approach to music. Most of his hits were other people’s songs picked out for him by Clive Davis and he was getting tired of it. As he said of the song in his autobiography Sweet Life:

When I listened to it, I felt proud of my interpretation, but once again, there was an emptiness about singing a song I hadn't written. I felt especially distant from this record because, due to the craziness of the tour, I hadn't even been able to produce or arrange the song…As a performer, I was really able to sink my teeth into it. But it was emotionally draining for me each night, because I was feeling so ambiguous about its success.

One person who didn’t like Manilow’s interpretation was Meat Loaf. As he told music historian Michael Cavacini:

Barry knows what I think about his version of that song. I met him six times before telling him what I thought. I said, “Barry, you have to know how to sing a Jim Steinman song.” One time, Barry was on Johnny Carson, down on his knees singing the song. He tried to bring out the dramatic elements of the song but it just didn't work. And he knew it didn't work. He told me, “That's why I don't sing it live."

It took Manilow in a very different direction that you can hear in the next album 2:00 AM Paradise Café, which I saw the tour for.

Here’s Manilow’s video. Thankfully, the video states the director up front, Bob Giraldi. His video for Michael Jackson’s Beat It first brought him to prominence, which he cemented with the videos for Pat Benatar’s Love Is A Battlefield and Lionel Richie’s Running With the Night² and Hello. This was shot around the same time but oddly doesn’t appear in his IMDB.

I love the concept for the video. Manilow studied musical theatre at Julliard and here he’s part of a company doing a performance. We see him alone in his dressing room, he beckons for others to join him but they move on. The makeup artist comes in and makes him up as a Harlequin, a character known for being amorous and never having that requited. Then in a neat trick, Manilow also shows up in the audience to watch this performance and sings along. The man watching his performer self and crying. Really wish I could find out more about the thought process for it.

Whichever version you prefer, enjoy your song of the day!

1. It was his 25th and final Top 40 hit on the Hot 100.

2. Which has shown me I have to write about it