MEAT LOAF (1947 - 2022)

The singer with the big, powerful voice, Meat Loaf passed away on January 20th at the age of seventy-four. Best known for the 1977 theatrical rock album, "Bat Out of Hell", the singer/actor died from an undisclosed cause although members of his family had revealed that had been diagnosed with COVID earlier in the month.

Born Marvin Lee Aday (but later legally changed his name to Michael) in Dallas, he appeared in school plays and played football as a teenager which was when he first got the nickname "Meat Loaf" due to his weight gain. After attending college, Aday headed to Los Angeles to try his luck as a performer. He first formed a blues-rock band called Meat Loaf Soul with the band going through personnel and name changes over time. Aday decided to get involved in musical theater and won a role in a local production of "Hair". This lead to Meat Loaf being signed to a Motown subsidiary, Rare Earth and the label teamed him up with female vocalist, Shaun "Stoney" Murphy. This duo released the album, "Stoney & Meatloaf" in 1971, a collection of soul and psychedelic pop songs. It wasn't much of a success and after the singers decided to part ways, Meat Loaf headed East to try his luck on Broadway.

He appeared in several shows Off-Broadway and Broadway including "Hair". After producer, Lou Adler secured the rights in 1974, Meat Loaf was cast in the American premiere of a new hit West End musical, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in Los Angeles. When Adler adapted the show into a movie musical the following year, Meat Loaf made a brief appearance as "Eddie" and performed, "Hot Patootie – Bless My Soul". "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" has gone on to become a very popular stage show and cinematic cult classic.

Meat Loaf first met composer, Jim Steinman (who passed away last year in April) while he was working in the theater in New York and the two maintained a friendship. They had begun working on what would later become "Bat Out of Hell" in 1972 but did not get serious until two years later. They had shopped the demos around to several record labels but nobody was interested. Todd Rundgren heard the songs and decided to produce the album, leading to an indie label, Cleveland International Records to take a chance and release the project. The album was hardly an immediate success but overtime, due to Steinman's operatic styled, rock songs and Meat Loaf's dramatically soaring vocals on "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" and "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad", "Bat Out of Hell" has gone on to sell over forty million copies. There were two 'sequels' to the album; "Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell" in 1993 (which features the single, "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)", reaching number one in an impressive twenty-eight countries) and "Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose" in 2006.

RONNIE SPECTOR (1943 - 2022)

Ronnie Spector, the voice behind the girl group, The Ronettes who had big hits in the 1960's with "Baby, I Love You" and "Be My Baby", has passed away on January 12th at the age of seventy-eight after a battle with cancer. Referred to as the "bad girl of rock and roll", Spector had a brief, volatile marriage to producer, Phil Spector who helped bring the group to great success with his unique production style.

Born Veronica Bennett in the Spanish Harlem section of New York, she began singing with her older sister, Estelle and their cousin, Nedra Talley as young girls, first forming a group called the Darling Sisters. The girls managed to get a recording contract with a local label, releasing a few singles that failed to chart. Unhappy at the label, the trio had Phil Spector on their radar and worked to audition for him. He was impressed with their sound, particularly Ronnie, and signed the group, now renamed "The Ronettes", to his label, Philles Records in 1963.

"Be My Baby", written by Spector and the songwriting team of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, was The Ronettes's first official single (after several of their early recordings were credited to "The Crystals") and was an immediate hit, peaking at number two on the the Billboard Top 100 chart. This began their meteoric rise with other hits, "Do I Love You?", "(The Best Part of) Breakin' Up" and "Walking in the Rain" before the group's first album, "Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes featuring Veronica" was released in late 1964 and would ultimately become their only studio album. 

With Spector falling in love with Ronnie, it seemed like he didn't want the Ronettes to become too popular, refusing to release some of their already recorded singles that would go on to be recorded by other groups. By 1967, due to a decline in popularity and internal problems within the group due to Spector's complete devotion to Ronnie, the Ronettes broke up. Not long after, Ronnie married Spector which began years of psychological abuse and being held captive in their Beverly Hills mansion before finally escaping him in 1972.

Spector first tried to restart her career by attempting to reunite with the Ronettes but Nedra and Estelle were not interested in returning to the group. She hired new singers and recorded some songs in 1975 before deciding to go on as a solo artist. After several attempts, Spector recorded her first solo album, "Siren" in 1980 but it didn't get much attention. It would not be until rocker, Eddie Money asked her to perform backing vocals on his 1986 song, "Take Me Home Tonight" and appeared in the music video that Spector enjoyed a brief moment of renewed popularity when the single reached the top-five on the pop chart. She recorded another solo album, "Unfinished Business" the following year but it failed to chart. Spector went on to write a memoir in 1990, "Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, Or, My Life as a Fabulous Ronette" and was inducted with the Ronettes into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.

MY FAVORITE MOMENTS IN MUSIC 2021

Another year has come and gone and during that time, I have shared the music that I have loved throughout. Here is a small collection of songs that were some of my favorites that I didn't get a chance to highlight:

THE MOST ANTICIPATED ALBUMS OF 2022

Live music seemed like it was on the verge of fully returning, with many artists planning major tours to begin in 2022. But this new COVID variant is creating a serious disruption, causing everyone to re-think and possibly delay those plans of bringing together large crowds of music fans. Hopefully this will be a short setback and by summer (at the latest) we will be able to be reunited together to hear music performed live by our favorite artists.

And even though we might not be able to go to a concert at this immediate moment, we can still look forward to some new music. Vulture runs down all of the (fairly) confirmed music releases planned through spring and some of the most highly anticipated albums that (hopefully) we will see in 2022. Those with actual release dates include The Weeknd (dropping this weekend), Cat Power, Years and Years, Charli XCX, Dolly Parton and Jack White with two albums(!!). And a round-up listing of potential new music by artists who have been teasing us for a while; Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Cardi B, Lizzo, Frank Ocean, Rihanna and the long-awaited debut albums from Normani and Saweetie.

Please click below to read:

The Most Anticipated Music of 2022