Meat Loaf Tried To Sue To Record This Song (And He Eventually Released His Own Version)

When songwriter Jim Steinman was inspired by the novel Wuthering Heights, he set out to write “the most passionate, romantic song” he possibly could in 1986. The result was the power ballad “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now”. And longtime collaborator Meat Loaf desperately wanted it for himself.

“It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” was first recorded by Pandora’s Box, a girl group Steinman had put together, for their concept album Original Sin. But the most famous version was done by Céline Dion. She fell in love with the song a decade later and included it on her 1996 album Falling Into You. The song was a huge worldwide hit for her. Dion made a big, cinematic video to go along with it, rumored to be one of the most expensive made at the time.

But Meat Loaf wasn’t happy. He’d wanted to record “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” for Bat Out Of Hell III. He claimed Steinman had originally promised the song to him. But Steinman insisted the song was best suited for a woman to sing.

“That was my song,” Meat Loaf said at the time. “I wanted to record it for ‘Bat II’ and Jim said, ‘Let’s wait for ‘Bat III” and I took him at his word. The next [thing] you know, Celine Dion is recording it.”

The dispute ultimately ended up going to court. Meat Loaf argued “he had some level of dominion of the song,” but Steinman won.

“My Heart Never Sued Jim”

Meat Loaf later said of their legal disputes, including one involving the trademarking of the phrase “bat out of hell,” that he “never sued Jim.”

“Jim never sued me,” he continued. “Our managers sued each other. But my heart never sued Jim. And I know Jim’s heart never sued me.”

In the end, Meat Loaf got what he wanted. He recorded “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” as a duet with singer Marion Raven for Bat Out of Hell III in 2006, a decade after Dion’s version topped the charts.

“It was meant to be on ‘Bat III’, and so I’m-a put it on ‘Bat III’,” he said at the time.

But Meat Loaf also had a different interpretation of the lyrics. He felt “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” reflected his relationship with Steinman.

“To me it wasn’t a song about romance, it was about me and Jim Steinman,” Meat Loaf said. “We’d had a load of problems with managers in the early ’80s and all of a sudden after five years we started to communicate. After I’d been to his house, he sent me the song, and it was ‘It’s All Coming Back To Me Now.’ Not the line ‘When you kiss me like that’, but the emotional connection. It doesn’t have to be literal.”