Day 2: a song you like with a number in the title.
“Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” has never been a favorite of mine. Neither the original Meat Loaf nor the Steinman produced Bonnie Tyler version ever really did much for me. Todd Rundgren (Bat Out of Hell’s producer) did a re-production which one could generously call ‘interesting’. YouTube is littered with covers, which mostly bore me to tears with their over-earnest country-tinted singer-songwritery stylings. (Which isn’t that weird as Steinman explains that it was written to be a country-pop single.)
It’s not as if it is a bad song, but, you know, it’s there and I’ll listen to it, but it doesn’t excite me.
There are exceptions through: years ago I came across a DJ Lobsterdust mash-up that sounded fresh to me. But the first version in years that really made me sit up and go all like, “now that’s what I like,” was sung by Constantine Maroulis at the Total Eclipse: The Songs of Jim Steinman show. The tempo was kicked up a bit, and that really brought the song to life.
Fast forward to February 2017, the opening show of Jim Steinman’s Bat Out of Hell — The Musical. Miss Danielle Steers completely had me the moment she opened her mouth and powerhoused it into the stratosphere. As far as I’m concerned, this is the definite version. (And that for a song that shouldn’t work as a duet.)