Retro Commercials

I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) is a song composed and written by Jim Steinman, and recorded by Meat Loaf. The song was released in 1993 as the first single from the album Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell. The final verse features a female vocalist who was credited only as “Mrs. Loud” in the album notes. She was later identified as Lorraine Crosby, a club performer from North East England. She does not, however, appear in the video, in which her vocals are lipsynched by Dana Patrick. Meat Loaf promoted the single with American vocalist Patti Russo performing the live female vocals. The title of the song confused some listeners, who did not realize that each “that” is a reference to the particular promise that he made earlier in the same verse. The song was a commercial success, reaching number one in twenty-eight countries. The single was certified platinum in the United States and became Meat Loaf’s first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and on the UK singles chart. The song earned Meat Loaf a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo.

Raised in Belzoni, Mississippi, she sang in local churches before moving to Chicago in the early 1960s. She sat in with R&B musicians and wrote songs, influenced by country music as well as the blues, before winning a recording contract with Chess Records in 1967. Her first single, “A Love Reputation” was a modest regional hit.[2] After establishing an independent production company, Crajon, with her then husband Bill Jones,[2] her first major success came in 1971 when her self-penned song, “Trapped By A Thing Called Love”, released on Westbound Records, made #1 on the national R&B chart and #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The RIAA gold disc award was made on 30 November 1971 for a million sales.[3] Follow-ups “Now Run And Tell That” and “Man Sized Job” also made the R&B Top Ten, and she continued to have hits on Westbound and then on ABC Records through the mid 1970s. She also carried on as a record producer and live performer. Her co-penned song “Married, But Not to Each Other” was included in the 1979, The Best of Barbara Mandrell, compilation album. In 1980 she signed as a singer and songwriter with Malaco Records, for whom she released a string of critically acclaimed albums through the 1980s and 1990s, starting with Lady in the Street (1986) and Right Place, Right Time (1984). Both albums became major successes among soul blues, R&B and soul fans and on urban radio stations. In 1985 she enjoyed her only recognition in the UK Singles Chart, when her cover version …