Jim Steinman - 1990s

1990s

With Andrew Eldritch, Steinman co-wrote and co-produced the track "More" for the 1990 album Vision Thing by the group The Sisters of Mercy.

Around 1992, Steinman worked with the punk band Iron Prostate, which featured guitarist and writer George Tabb. The group reportedly dissolved while working with Steinman on what was to be their second album. Tabb's website has shared a recording of the song "Bring Me The Head of Jerry Garcia", with Steinman credited as executive producer. The song's lyric says of Jerry Garcia, "he plays guitar like diarrhea".

After a series of financial and legal disputes during the 1980s, Steinman and Meat Loaf met at the singer's house in Connecticut at Christmas 1989 or 1990 and sang Bat out of Hell on piano. Steinman says that "working together again seemed like the cool thing to do."

In 1993, the album Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell was released. Steinman wrote all the songs, and was credited as producer and arranger. Steven Rinkoff was, as usual, credited as co-producer, and others received co-producer credits. The album was very successful, reaching the peak position on album charts in many countries. The album had three top 40 singles, with "I'd Do Anything for Love (but I Won't Do That)" reaching the peak position on pop singles charts in 28 countries. As of 2009, this 1993 single, and the album containing it, are the most recent new song or project written entirely by Steinman to achieve major, chart topping success. The other top 40 singles from this album were "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" and "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are".

"Original Sin", the eponymous song on the 1989 Pandora's Box album, featured on the soundtrack album for the 1994 film The Shadow. The lyric on this release was slightly different from that heard on the original release of this song. Steinman also produced this version, with lead vocals by Taylor Dayne.

In 1995, the band Watershed released the album Twister. Steinman was executive producer for the album, and Steinman's partner Steven Rinkoff was producer for all but one track of it. The album consisted of songs written by the band members.

In 1995, Bonnie Tyler released the album Free Spirit, featuring two tracks produced and written by Steinman. They were dance versions of the past hits "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" and "Making Love Out of Nothing At All".

Steinman, along with Brothers in Rhythm and David James, with Steven Rinkoff as associate producer and engineer, co-produced the song "Never Forget". It was written by Gary Barlow, for the UK group Take That. It was released on the 1995 album Nobody Else and reached the #1 position on the UK singles chart. Like many Steinman/Rinkoff productions, it featured programming and keyboard work by Jeff Bova.

Celine Dion's 1996 album Falling Into You included the song "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", written and produced by Steinman. He also produced, but not authored, two other songs on the album: "River Deep, Mountain High" and "Call the Man". "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" reached #2 on the Billboard charts and won Steinman the award for BMI song of the year. That award is given for the song, out of all those represented in the BMI catalog, that receives the most radio airplay in a particular year. This album as a whole won two 1997 Grammy Awards, for Best Pop Album and for Album of the Year. Steinman also produced the track "Us", written by Billy Pace, for Dion's 1997 album Let's Talk About Love. Steinman's production team prepared a recording of the Steinman/Black song "Is Nothing Sacred" for that album, but it was removed shortly before the album's release. A recording of Dion singing the song was leaked and has been shared on fan websites.

Steinman produced two tracks for films in the late 1990s. He produced "In The Dark of the Night", written by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, for the soundtrack album of the 1997 film Anastasia. He also produced "I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You" (music by James Horner, lyric by Will Jennings) for the 1998 film The Mask of Zorro. Lead vocals were a duet between Tina Arena and Marc Anthony, and the track also appeared on Tina Arena's 1997 album In Deep.

Steinman provided lyrics for Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Whistle Down the Wind, which opened in Washington, D.C. in December 1996. However, it received poor reviews and the Broadway run, scheduled for the following April, was cancelled. A reworked and more successful West End production opened at the Aldwych Theatre on July 1, 1998. In addition to a full-length cast album for the London production, an album was released of well-known performers singing pop versions of the songs from the show. This album was produced by Steinman, as usual with Steven Rinkoff. One track, "No Matter What" performed by Boyzone, reached the peak position on the pop charts in many countries. The same track appeared on a Boyzone album and their greatest hits album. As of 2009, Boyzone's 1998 recording of "No Matter What" is the most recent new song or project written at least in part by Steinman, or to contain any new work of his at all, to achieve major, chart topping success. The track "Whistle Down the Wind", performed by Tina Arena, from the same album, also had some chart success.

Tanz der Vampire (Dance of the Vampires), opened in Vienna, Austria on October 4, 1997. The show was adapted from Roman Polanski's 1967 movie The Fearless Vampire Killers, and initially directed by Polanski himself. It won six International musical awards, at the International Musical Award Germany (IMAGE 1998), in Düsseldorf. There have also been translated productions of Tanz der Vampire in Estonia, Poland, Hungary and Japan. Many of the various productions of Tanz der Vampire have had cast recordings released, some of them produced by Steinman, along with other co-producers. Like much of Steinman's work, the show includes adaptation (or, recycling) of material Steinman had released before. This includes the song "Total Eclipse of the Heart", the melody of "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are", and many other parts of earlier works.

Ten previously released Steinman songs were included on the 1998 2-disc compilation album The Very Best of Meat Loaf. The included recording of the song "Life Is A Lemon And I Want My Money Back" was a new re-mix made by Steinman's production team. The compilation also included three new recordings of songs co-written by Steinman, all three of which he produced. They include the hybrid track "Home By Now/No Matter What" and "A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing to Waste" from Whistle Down the Wind. Also included is the song "Is Nothing Sacred", on which Steinman wrote music for Don Black's lyrics.