Jim Steinman

James Richard Steinman was born on November 1, 1947, in Hewlett Harbor, New York, the son of Eleanor, a Latin teacher, and Louis Steinman, who operated a steel distribution warehouse. He was of Jewish ancestry. Steinman graduated from George W. Hewlett High School in 1965, having won Newsday's January essay contest on American History during his sophomore year in 1963. He earned a bachelor's degree from Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1969.

Steinman's career in musical theater began during his undergraduate years. As a senior at Amherst, he wrote the book, music, and lyrics for The Dream Engine, a musical presented at the campus's Kirby Theater in April 1969 and subsequently performed in nearby Holyoke. The production, co-created and directed by Barry Keating, centered on a character named Baal leading a group called The Tribe in a satirical-dystopian setting. Several lyrics and monologues from the show later appeared in songs Steinman released commercially, including material that surfaced in "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)." Joseph Papp, founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival, attended the production and expressed interest in bringing it to New York. Steinman subsequently worked under Papp following his time at Amherst.

In 1971, Steinman contributed music to a puppet show adaptation of Alfred Jarry's Ubu on the Hill. The following year, he collaborated with Barry Keating on Rhinegold at the Mercer Arts Center, a musical based on Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold, for which Steinman composed the music. In 1972, Bette Midler recorded a demo of his song "Heaven Can Wait." The first commercially released recording of a Steinman composition appeared in 1973, when "Happy Ending" was performed by Yvonne Elliman on the album Food of Love. That same year, Steinman wrote music and lyrics for the musical More Than You Deserve, which featured an actor named Marvin Lee Aday, known as Meat Loaf, in its cast. A single from the show was released with Meat Loaf as lead vocalist.

In 1975, while working for Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Steinman contributed music and lyrics to Thomas Babe's Kid Champion, which starred Christopher Walken. In 1976, a production of The Confidence Man, based loosely on the Herman Melville novel, featured music by Steinman alongside a book and lyrics by Ray Errol Fox. A more elaborate version of the show was staged at Queens College in New York City in 1986, with orchestrations by Steven Margoshes. One song from the production, "Milady," was recorded but never released by Barry Manilow; its melody later appeared in Tanz der Vampire as "Für Sarah," and additional music from the show surfaced in the hit song "Making Love Out of Nothing at All." A cast album of the production was released in 2003. Steinman also wrote music for a cabaret show titled Bloodshot Wine at the Manhattan Theatre Club, and a subsequent cabaret featuring songs from The Confidence Man was presented there in 1977. From 1974 onward, Steinman developed a musical called Neverland, which received its only performances during a 1977 workshop at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Steinman worked across multiple genres as a composer, lyricist, record producer, arranger, pianist, and singer. His collaboration with Meat Loaf produced Bat Out of Hell, one of the best-selling albums in recorded history, as well as Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell. His solo album, Bad for Good, was released in 1981. Among the chart singles he wrote are Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart," Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)," Air Supply's "Making Love Out of Nothing at All," Barry Manilow's "Read 'Em and Weep," the Sisters of Mercy's "This Corrosion" and "More," Take That's "Never Forget," Celine Dion's recording of "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" — originally released by Steinman's project Pandora's Box — and Boyzone's "No Matter What." He also wrote and produced Bonnie Tyler's album Faster Than the Speed of Night.

On Broadway, Steinman served as book writer for Dance of the Vampires, for which he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Original Musical Score in 1999. His theater credits additionally include the book, music, and lyrics for Bat Out of Hell: The Musical, lyrics for Whistle Down the Wind, and music for Tanz der Vampire. A native of New York, Steinman died on April 19, 2021.