On September 27, 1947, Marvin Lee Aday was born in Dallas, Texas. As the boy grew up, his interest in acting and music led him to adopt a new name that, according to some sources, came from a dish his mom made, Meat Loaf.
I have confessed on this blog about my love of a lot of Meat Loaf’s songs. Of course, his greatest album remains 1977’s Bat Out of Hell. The popular album had several hits that you still hear today, such as “Two Out of Three” and, of course, “Paradise By the Dashboard Light.” But the song on the album that I loved the most, which apparently is also the favorite of writer Jim Steinman, is “For Crying Out Loud.”
The song appeared as a B-side to the second single released from the album, “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.” The single was released July 31, 1977, and the album would follow on October 21, 1977.
Before Meat Loaf’s album, the song appeared in a 1975 play starring Christopher Walken called Kid Champion. Steinman wrote the music for the play, which is about a rock star. Steinman’s demo version of the song for the play is below.
Of course, nobody can match Meat Loaf’s chops. In the video below, Meat Loaf performs “For Crying Out Loud” with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra from 2004. While Meat Loaf’s voice may not be what it once was, it is still pretty amazing in this performance.
In the video, Meat Loaf introduces “For Crying Out Loud” by saying he had not attempted the song live since 1978 in New York City. I do not know if it is true that so much time had passed, and I can’t remember if he played it when I saw him in the 1990s.
There is a video on YouTube claiming to be audio of a performance of the song from 1993. But I did not see the song in any of the posted setlists from that year.
Meat Loaf did perform the song more recently in 2013 with a voice that is more wary. Yet, it is clear he rarely plays this great song, and this one from 2004 is pretty amazing. Check it out.
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