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I’m looking for Steinman related videos in European PAL format, and rare music by Jim Steinman.
Please e-mail me if you have something I might be interested in.

Each song rated from 1-10 (only songs written by Steinman). These are just my opinions, feel free to disagree!
 

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman

Songs from Whistle Down the Wind

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Jim Steinman. The album is mostly produced by them and Nigel Wright. David Cullen has written some excellent orchestral arrangements. Most singers are good. Tom Jones has one of the greatest voices of the century. Ronan Keating of Boyzone and Michael Ball are two other men with strong and soulful voices. Boyzone's No Matter What is probably the best pure pop song of 90’s. Its peaceful beauty reminds me of Heaven Can Wait. It was sad to see how many Steinman fans didn't get it at all, I guess it was too pop for them. Meat Loaf also recorded a different but equally great version of this song but it's not on this cd. Elaine Paige sings If Only well but the song just isn't Steinman and Lloyd Webber at their best.
   The only artist on the album who I'd never heard of before is Sounds of Blackness. Their Wrestle with the Devil is a magical afro-gospel-dance song. (I was really dissappointed when I heard one of their albums...) Bonnie Tyler's Tire Tracks is a disco song that sounds too much like Holding Out for a Hero. The sax part is good, and there are some nice hooks in the arrangement.
   Then there are two former teen-idols, Donny Osmond and Boy George. Boy is a nice surprise, his Steinman-produced Try Not to Be Afraid is very beautiful. He’s always been a quite good singer when he has a good producer (Crying Game which was produced by Pet Shop Boys is another example of this.) Donny Osmond is a less nice surprise, I don't have many good things to say about his too cute version of When Children Rule the World. The Red Hill Children version of that song was much better.
   There are two versions of the title song. Tina Arena sings her version quite well (though she did it better in ALW's 50th birthday concert) but the arrangement and production are rather dull. Lottie Mayor's version is almost perfect. The greatest song on the album is A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing to Waste. Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler are at their very best. The sometimes sweet, sometimes disharmonic orchestral arrangement is amazing. The lyrics may be the best Steinman has ever written. Though Lloyd Webber gets the composer credit, it’s obvious that Steinman has composed most of this song. Brian May of Queen was going to play on this songs but the solo guitar in the released version is played by Clem Clemson of Humble Pie.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman

Whistle Down the Wind
(the musical cast album)

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics (and about 20% of music???) by Jim Steinman.
   I saw Whistle in London. I loved it though the story was sometimes a bit silly. The cast album is good but not as good as the whole thing seen live.
   Musically the cd is excellent. The singers are mostly very good, especially I like Lottie Mayor (Swallow) and Dean Collinson (Amos). The best vocal performance however is Cold which is sung by Walter Herron Reynolds III. He’s got a huge voice. Marcus Lowett’s (the Man) voice unfortunately isn’t strong enough, especially his version of Unsettled Scores sounds pretty bad after hearing Michael Ball’s version. Lowett’s voice sounded better live. The best parts are the finales of both acts. As much as I love the other versions of No Matter What (by Boyzone and Meat Loaf), on this cd it’s even better.
   The biggest problem of the cd is the dialogue. Some of it sounds quite stupid on cd, especially because the British actors try to sound American.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman

Other versions of No Matter What

Often when a song becomes a huge hit, a lot of people start making cover versions of it. And most of these versions are much worse of the original. There are three really great versions of No Matter What: The original one in Whistle Down the Wind, Meat Loaf’s Steinman produced epic piece of work and Boyzone’s perfect pop. Most versions of this song are just remakes of Boyzone’s version. Donny Osmond did a very bad one, Smokie’s version is a bit more rocking and slightly better. The better ones are by the always great Michael Ball and somebody called Ged Roberts who has a quite beautiful voice. Then there are of course instrumental and karaoke versions. Georg Zamfir did a really bad version with his panflute. The king of elevator music, Richard Clayderman also recorded one which doesn’t sound that bad after listening to the ones by Zamfir and Osmond. Then there are books and cd’s called No.1 Hits for Clarinet/Saxophone/Violin...

Jim Steinman, Michael Kuntze and Roman Polanski

Tanz der Vampire
(the musical cast album)

Music by Steinman, lyrics by Kuntze. Directed by Polanski.
   A lot of the music is based on older Steinman songs, especially Original Sin and Total Eclipse of the Heart. Total Eclipse and Objects sound even better than the original versions. Original Sin is also good but not as dramatic as the Pandora's Box version. The Grande Finale is based on Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young which has never sounded more powerful. There's also many new songs: Carpe Noctem is probably the best new song, a dramatic masterpiece with many different sections. And then there's a beautiful love song Für Sarah. I love that song because at the time I heard it for the first time, I was in love with a girl called Sara. When I heard Tanz for the first time, Carpe Noctem (a long piece of work) and Für Sarah (a quite simple love song) were the easiest songs to like. But the more I listen to the musical, the clearer it becomes that my favorite song is Unstillbare Gier. Its music is mostly from Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer than They Are but somehow it sounds like a completely different song. I like Objects but it’s not one of my favorite songs. But Unstillbare Gier is one of my favorite songs.
   My knowledge of German is minor so I can’t say much about the lyrics. Some German and Austrian people have said that the lyrics aren’t good enough, and criticized Steinman for writing a musical with a schlager lyricist.
I decided not to rate the songs because some of them aren't "real songs" but sung dialogue.
   The singers are mostly good, especially Steve Barton (von Krolock) is one of the greatest voices that have sung Steinman’s music. I’m not crazy about Cornelia Zenz who sounds too much like an ordinary schlager singer. Like often on musical recordings, the comic scenes sound a bit silly.

film soundtrack

A Small Circle of Friends

The complete score was composed by Steinman. You can hear melodies that later became such songs as Total Eclipse of the Heart, Making Love Out of Nothing at All, Loving You’s A Dirty Job and Für Sarah. I’m not sure if Steinman himself made the the orchestration (probably it was by Steve Margoshes) but it sounds great, especially the ending is magnificent. There’s no audio release of the soundtrack but the film is available on video.

film soundtrack

Streets of Fire

Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young is one of the great Steinman epics, and Nowhere Fast is an excellent song too. The wonderful singers Holly Sherwood, Rory Dodd and Eric Troyer share the lead vocals making these songs perhaps the greatests vocal performances of Steinman songs ever. These two songs aren't the only good tracks on this sountrack album. There's also some good songs by such artists as Ry Cooder and Greg Philliganes.Streets of Fire is a quite silly and quite funny action movie.

film soundtrack

Rude Awakening

The song is credited to Rose/Rotchild/Steinman. Obviously it’s written by Rose and Rotchild, and Jim has written the intro. A quite good song sung well by the former Righteous Brothers singer Bill Medley. Jim also produced another track for the soundtrack, Phoebe Snow’s version of the Loving Spoonful classic Darling Be Home Soon. The movie isn’t a masterpiece but still probably the best movie with Steinman’s music. It begins as a rather funny comedy but grows into a serious statement about the death of Hippie movement and growth of neo-conservatism. We should remember that hippies weren’t just potheads, they actually had some very important things to say.

film soundtrack

Shadow

The end credits are by far the best thing in this lame movie because during them there’s this song. I’m not crazy about Dayne’s voice, somehow it sounds like she tried to make her voice sound more soulful than it actually is. The backing track is mostly the same as in the Pandora’s Box version. There are a few changes in the lyrics which actually sound quite nice.

All text and images © Robert Storm except where otherwise noted. (Pandora in the buttons painted by John William Waterhouse). Ask my permission if you want to use something.