New compilation chronicles Meat Loaf’s time on Motown
Meat Loaf's tenure with Motown was no myth. And now fans can hear everything he did with the famed Detroit label.
Stoney & Meatloaf's (sic) “Everything Under the Sun — The Motown Recordings” comes out Friday, June 3, featuring all the material Meat Loaf (nee Marvin Lee Aday) and Shaun “Stoney” Murphy worked on during 1971. The two were discovered by Motown executives while in a Detroit production of the musical “Hair” and recorded an album, “Stoney & Meatloaf,” for the company's Rare Earth imprint. The new compilation includes that plus demos, outtakes and tracks the company recorded with Murphy as a solo artist, in Los Angeles.
“The intention was they were going to be two separate artists,” says Ralph Terrana, a Motown producer whose brother and recording engineer Russ first heard the two in “Hair.” “The more we thought about it we said: ‘Let's make this a duo,' and they became Stoney and Meatloaf.” (His name was spelled incorrectly on pressings of the album, and on his contract with the label.)
Meat Loaf, however, said he was the one who had the idea for the duo. “I was the one who said, ‘Why don't we do a duet record?' and they said, ‘That's exactly what we were thinking,'” he said before his appearance at the 2021 Motor City Comic Con, just three months before his death in January. “I said, ‘With Stoney' and they said, ‘That's exactly what we were thinking.'”
The album was not a success at the time, partly because Motown was more focused on its move to Los Angeles. Meat Loaf went on to star in “The Rocky Horror Show” on stage and its film adaptation, then launched a solo career with the landmark “Bat Out of Hell” album in 1977. Murphy, meanwhile, sang with Bob Seger, Eric Clapton and Little Feat and has an award-winning solo career of her own. At the time of Meat Loaf's death the two were planning to do some recording together for his next project.
“(The album) kind of got lost in the shuffle,” says Murphy, who now resides in Nashville. “But thrilled this new version is coming out so people can hear it.”