CSPC: Meat Loaf Popularity Analysis

Physical Singles Sales

As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 3 ratio between one album and one physical single.

Bat Out of Hell (1977) – 870,000 equivalent albums

Bat Out of Hell –  150,000
You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night) – 790,000
All Revved Up with No Place to Go – 10,000
Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad – 1,120,000
Paradise by the Dashboard Light – 600,000
Bat Out of Hell (Live, 1987) – 10,000
Paradise by the Dashboard Light (1988) – 50,000
Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad (1992) – 10,000
Paradise by the Dashboard Light (1993) – 10,000
Bat Out of Hell (1993) – 150,000

Dead Ringer (1981) – 189,000 equivalent albums

I’m Gonna Love Her for Both of Us – 150,000
Read ‘Em and Weep –  50,000
Dead Ringer for Love – 410,000

Midnight at the Lost and Found (1983) – 44,000 equivalent albums

Razor’s Edge –  40,000
Midnight at the Lost and Found – 80,000
If You Really Want To – 25,000

Bad Attitude (1984) – 90,000 equivalent albums

Modern Girl – 230,000
Nowhere Fast – 40,000
Piece of the Action – 30,000

Blind Before I Stop (1986) – 30,000 equivalent albums

Rock ‘n’ Roll Mercenaries – 70,000
Getting Away with Murder – 10,000
Blind Before I Stop – 10,000
Special Girl – 10,000

Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell (1993) – 1,479,000 equivalent albums

I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) – 4,110,000
Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through – 590,000
Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer than They Are – 230,000

Welcome to the Neighbourhood (1995) – 417,000 equivalent albums

I’d Lie for You (And That’s the Truth) – 1,110,000
Runnin’ for the Red Light (I Gotta Life) – 40,000
Not a Dry Eye in the House – 240,000

Couldn’t Have Said It Better (2003) – 20,000 equivalent albums

Couldn’t Have Said It Better – 15,000
Did I Say That? – 30,000
Man of Steel – 20,000

Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose (2006) – 50,000 equivalent albums

Blind as a Bat – 5,000
It’s All Coming Back to Me Now – 150,000
Cry Over Me – 10,000

Orphan – 65,000 equivalent albums

Is Nothing Sacred – 60,000
A Kiss Is A Terrible Thing To Waste – 5,000
What You See Is What You Get – 150,000

Although Bat Out Of Hell sold bucketloads amounts up to date and was released at the singles peak, it got no Top 10 hit neither in the UK nor in the US. Instead, 3 songs made the Top 40 in both country, with one on each going Top 20. The title track fixed that issue in the UK during 1993’s Christmas week when its reissue went #8. The size of the market in late 70s still grant these songs a healthy 2,9 million physical singles sold.

Dead Ringer for Love, a duet with Cher, did well in the UK a few years later, hitting #5. After that, Meat Loaf went through over a decade without a single Top 10 hit. He got a new one in 1993, and what a hit! I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) led the US Hot 100 for 5 weeks. It topped UK charts for 7 weeks while dominating the ranking in Australia (8 weeks), the Netherlands (6 weeks), New-Zealand (5 weeks), Austria (12 weeks), Switzerland (9 weeks), Belgium (6 weeks), Sweden (6 weeks), Norway (5 weeks) and Germany (9 weeks) too, among others. The biggest selling single of 1993 globally, the song moved over 4,1 million units.

The singer got a last million seller with 1995’s I’d Lie for You, a #2 hit in the UK. In total, he sold close to 11 million physical singles to date.