A few years ago, the radio at work was tuned into one of the Anchorage “adult contemporary” stations — brainless background work-safe music that I wasn’t really paying much attention to. One song came on that caught my ear, so I stopped to take a closer listen to it. I had no idea what it was or who was singing, but the more I listened to it, the more a certain suspicion grew.
So I called up the radio station.
“Mix 103.1, what can I do for you?”
“I just need to know what the song you just played was — but before you tell me, I want you to check something out for me. By any chance was that song written or produced by Jim Steinman?”
“What? I haven’t got a clue.”
“Could you check?”
“Um…sure, hold on.” The DJ must have thought that I was nuts. A moment later, he got back on the phone. “Actually, yeah, you’re right. Written and produced by Jim Steinman. How did you know that?”
I laughed. “It just sounded like him. He’s the guy who wrote and produced both of Meat Loaf’s big albums, Bat out of Hell and Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell. Whatever that song was, it sounded like a Meat Loaf song, only it was someone else singing, so I figured it was probably Steinman.”
“Not bad.”
“Thanks. So who was it?”
“Celine Dion. It’s All Coming Back To Me Now.”
“Oh. Crap, I just liked a Celine Dion song?”
(Sigh.)
So, yeah. There’s one Celine Dion song that I do have to admit to liking. In my defense, though, it has nothing to do with Celine — it’s all about Jim Steinman. Overproduced, bombastic, and very often tongue-in-cheek rock and roll. I love it when Meatloaf’s singing it, and I even like it when Celine’s singing it.
Just another addition to my many guilty pleasures.
(This confession inspired by a MeFi pointer to this list of parody Steinman song titles, which isn’t really as amusing as I’d hoped it would be.)
“You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)” by Meat Loaf from the album Bat Out of Hell (1977, 5:05).
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So what’s the song?
‘It’s All Coming Back to Me Now’, by Celine Dion.
Ya know, I really dislike Celine Dion as well, but this song caught my attention when one of the kids on American Idol sang it. I owned Bat Out of Hell on vinyl back in the 80’s and I nearly wore it out. I can totally agree with the comparison and it’s reassuring to know that I’ve got a small cop-out if I ever get caught jamming to that tune.
I was amused when I read your post, something very similar happened to me. I was helping a friend get some stuff moved when a song I didn’t recognize came on the radio. It caught my ear and I looked over at my friend and told him, “That’s a Jim Steinman song.” He replied that it wasn’t a guy singing, thinking that I had heard it wrong. I explained that Jim was the writer of the Bat Out of Hell albums. We immediately went to the local Wally World and found the CD single. (the DJ had identified the song for us) and of course it listed Jim as the writer. So, I am in the same boat as you, I actually like ONE Celine song, and it has nothing to do with her.