Bat Out Of Hell is an album that’s excessive in every way; big, brash and loud – just like the singer. It’s 1978. Punk is rife, and the forces of classic rock have been scattered to the winds. The last thing anyone needs is an overblown record full of ridiculous gothic imagery and cod-sexual appetites. So Bat Out Of Hell was destined to be one of the year’s more forgettable efforts. Waste of time, waste of money… hang on! We’re actually talking about a record that’s one of the decade’s landmark releases; Bat Out Of Hell is one of the best-selling albums in the history of recorded music, having sold over 43 million copies worldwide. (As of May 2015, it has spent 485 weeks in the UK Charts).

Meat Loaf was, in reality, a collaboration between the operatic vocals of Meat (born Marvin Lee Aday - September 27, 1947), and the compositional charms of classically trained pianist Jim Steinman. The pair had worked together in a musical during the mid-70s, after which Steinman then plotted his magnum opus, a musical, Neverland, a sci-fi update of Peter Pan, which Steinman wrote for a workshop in 1974, and performed at the Kennedy Center Music Theatre Lab in 1977.

That never happened, but some of the songs were put to good use on Bat Out Of Hell. This was rock opera writ large and taken to excess. If Tommy saw The Who becoming introspective, then Steinman and Aday had no such qualms. This was excess: biker anthems with everything louder than everything else.

Recording started in late 1975 in Bearsville Studios, Woodstock, New York. The title track sets the scene. A monumental story of love, death and betrayal, it was an epic in every sense. "Paradise By The Dashboard Light", meantime, was a trailer trash soap opera. "You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)" cast the male as the hapless victim of female guile, being preceded by a spoken word piece (featuring Steinman) that mixed the romanticism of the werewolf with the cynicism of the age. "Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad" is a ballad that hides a streetwise truth, while "All Revved Up With No Place To Go" (originally called "The Formation of the Pack"), captures the frustration of rampant teenage hormones. "Paradise by the Dashboard Light", is an epic story about teen romance and sex. A duet between Meat Loaf and Ellen Foley, the couple reminisce about driving to a secluded spot, at which he plans to have sex.

At every turn, the brilliance inherent in Steinman’s lyrics and the simplicity of Phil Spector-inspired post-60s pop is matched by Meat Loaf’s magnificent over the top performance. And this is backed by some of the greatest musicians of the time. The inspired move of the choice of Todd Rundgren to produce the record (no, contrary to popular myth, Steinman didn’t do the job), was matched by Rundgren’s equally inspired decision to hire members of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band (Max Weinberg on drums and Roy Bittan on keyboards). Plus we have Edgar Winter on saxophone on three tracks, and Rundgren’s own proto-metal guitar throughout, from buzzsaw backing to searing lead, even evoking motorcycle noises where required.

When the album was ready for release, Steinman had wanted equal billing with Meat Loaf on the album's title. He wanted it to be called "Jim Steinman presents..." or "Jim and Meat," but for marketing reasons, the record company wished to make 'Meat Loaf' the recognizable name. As a compromise, the words "Songs by Jim Steinman" appear relatively prominently on the cover.

A mega-seller at the time, Bat Out Of Hell continues to enjoy almost iconic status – one of those rare albums that is both a coffee table necessity, but also vital in any Classic Rock-approved collection. Why? Because everything is pushed to the limit – and way beyond. Now, that’s rock ’n’ roll!

A Night At The Opera

By the time they were ready to start work on their fourth album, Queen were both experienced and proficient in recording studio craft. Buoyed by the commercial success of Sheer Heart Attack and driven by their unfettered confidence and ambition, they approached the project with a view to pushing the boundaries further than ever before; it was time to produce their magnum opus.

Queen devoted an intensive period, during June and July 1975, to developing and rehearsing new material. The recording itself took place from August to November of the same year, using several different studios including: Lansdowne Recording Studios, London, England, Olympic Sound Studios, London, Rockfield Studios, Monmouth, Wale, Roundhouse Recording Studios, London, SARM Studios, London, and Scorpio Sound Studios, London, England (where legendary British radio DJ Kenny Everett was handed a tape copy of a new unreleased track called Bohemian Rhapsody).

Reputedly, A Night At The Opera was produced at a cost approaching £40,000 - making it one of the most expensive rock albums up to that point (in 2012, using the UK Retail Price Index, it would be equivalent to £284,000). The time and expense were justified as soon as it was released; by the time it hit the UK record shops on 21st November 1975, public awareness of Queen's fourth album was already growing, thanks to their well publicised UK tour, which had commenced a week earlier in Liverpool, and the rapid climb up the charts of the Bohemian Rhapsody single, which had been released on 31st October and would be announced as the new UK No.1 a mere four days later.

This was the album which broke Queen to a wider audience around the world and established them as true rock superstars; in its original chart run it spent forty-four weeks in the UK album charts - four of them at No.1 - and 47 weeks in the USA Billboard album chart, reaching a highest position of No.4; its sales in the USA earned it a gold disc, whilst it went quadruple platinum in the UK.

The deluxe edition of the A Night At The Opera 2011 digital remaster included a Bonus EP which featured pared down remixes of I'm In Love With My Car, You're My Best Friend and the Bohemian Rhapsody operatic section. These were accompanied by live recordings of '39 and Love Of My Life and a new version of Keep Yourself Alive, recorded in June 1975 for a USA single.

In addition to another leap forward in the development of Queen's unique multi-layered big-production sound, this album includes classic songwriting contributions from all four band members: You're My Best Friend is the first true example of John Deacon's considerable abilities as a composer of hit singles; Freddie Mercury's enjoyment of 'music hall' and vaudeville styles is further developed, with two beautifully orchestrated examples in Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon and Seaside Rendezvous; Brian May ventures into similar territory with Good Company, in addition to contributing songs in more familiar styles; and Roger Taylor's I'm In Love With My Car provides a further evolved example of both his songwriting and vocal style, as well as a B-side for the mighty Bohemian Rhapsody. This, of course, was the international hit single which lead many new fans to purchase A Night At The Opera and discover just how much more there was to Queen.

Following the pattern of previous Queen albums, the sleeve credits for A Night At The Opera included the line ''No Synthesizers!''; with the considerable musical talents of all four band members, combined with their and Roy Thomas Baker's 'no limits' approach to production, it was clear they had no need for them.

The album's title was decided during a break in the Bohemian Rhapsody sessions, at Rockfield Studios. The band members were watching the Marx Brothers film 'A Night at the Opera' on an early VCR (video cassette recorder) and decided its title was a perfect fit for the album they were creating, particularly given the operatic nature of the epic track they were working on at the time.