WCSX Classic Cuts
Meat Loaf: “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”
The Hook: Producer Todd Rundgren didn’t get why baseball announcer Phil Rizzuto was needed on the song.
Album: Bat Out of Hell
Year: 1977
Writer: Jim Steinman
Stats: Peaked at number-39 the Billboard Hot 100
Background: Todd Rundgren, who produced Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell, credits songwriter Jim Steinman with insisting on the value of having baseball announcer Phil Rizzuto’s segment on “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.” Rundgren tells us it certainly wasn’t his idea.
Todd Rundgren, who produced Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell, on the inclusion of sportscaster Phil Rizzuto on “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” being songwriter Jim Steinman’s idea, not his. OC: …of it. :23
“I was not a baseball fan. You know, I had heard of Phil Rizzuto because he was doing the Money Store ads on the TV at the time. I couldn’t understand why they were paying him $5,000 to read this one page. And it turned out to be one of the signature elements of the first record. So I have to plead ignorance. I didn’t know what the value of it was. When we were doing it I just knew that Steinman felt that this was a very important part of it.”