“Bat out of Hell” is the first song of Meat Loaf’s Bat out of Hell album trilogy. It was written by Jim Steinman, who had a love for “car crash songs”. He saw an operatic narrative within many of them, and decided to write one about a motorcycle instead.

In the 1999 documentary Classic Albums: Meat Loaf Bat Out of Hell, Steinman said he sat down to write “the most extreme crash song of all time" (refer to 21:13 for the quote).

The song’s protagonist is a boy who wants to take the girl he loves out of their dead-end town, but dies in the attempt. It is traditionally the last song played at Meat Loaf concerts.