I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)

"I'd Do Anything for Love"
Song

"I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" is a Grammy Award winning 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. It reached number one in twenty-eight countries, the first being Australia on September 4, 1993, where it stayed for 8 weeks, becoming the highest selling single of the year there. It also stayed at number one for seven weeks in the United Kingdom. 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 also ranked at #44 on Blender's list of the "50 Worst Songs Ever".

It features a female vocalist who was credited only as "Mrs. Loud" in the album notes. She was later identified as Lorraine Crosby, a performer from North East England who regularly performs at holiday camps and social clubs. She does not, however, appear in the video, in which her vocals are lipsynched by Dana Patrick. Meat Loaf promoted the single as a deuett with American vocalist Patti Russo performing the live female vocals.

The title of the song is referenced in "Getting So Excited," a song on Bonnie Tyler's Steinman-produced album Faster Than the Speed of Night, where it is a piece of conversation overheard in a bar.

The single cover is a cropped version of the painting Leavetaking by fantasy illustrator Michael Whelan, who also painted the Bat out of Hell II cover.

Music and lyrics

The song opens with a guitar played to sound like a revving motorcycle. This is clearly a reference to Todd Rundgren's contribution in the middle of "Bat out of Hell". Roy Bittan's piano begins to play, along with the guitars. The vocals begin at the 1:50 point, which is where many pop songs are beginning their second chorus. Steinman "alternates... [a bombastic] style with mellow moments where the hard-hitting piano licks are fleshed out with ethereal synthesizer and choral-styled backing vocals."

And I would do anything for love

I'd run right into hell and back

These opening vocals are gentle, with piano and subtle backing vocals. The song then becomes much louder as the band, predominately piano, plays the main melody for twenty seconds. It remains loud for the first verse, and then quietening again for the chorus. The chorus continues, repeating the lines:

I would do anything for love

Anything you've been dreaming of

But I just won't do that

An instrumental section, lasting over 45 seconds, follows, with piano playing the title melody, accompanied by guitar and word-less background vocals by Todd Rundgren, Rory Dodd and Kasim Sulton. The lead vocals recommence with another verse. The popular phrase "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" was censored to become "Some days I just pray to the god of sex and drums and rock and roll." The second chorus begins in stadium rock style, with the "But I'd never do it better than I'll do it with you..." lines more subdued.

At the 9:28 point, the song transforms into a duet coda. The structure of the verses remain, but the female now asks what the male would do. He answers in the affirmative for the first four sections.

Girl:

Will you make me some magic with your own two hands?

Can you build an emerald city with these grains of sand?

Can you give me something I can take home?

Boy:

I can do that!

For the final two sections, the girl guesses that he would eventually do things to upset her and their relationship: firstly that he'd forget all of their memories and feelings between them and want "to move on", and, secondly, would be "screwing around." Both times, he responds "But I won't do that."

Allmusic said that "Meat Loaf sells the borderline-campy lyrics with a full-throated vocal whose stirring sense of conviction brings out the heart hidden behind the clever phrases."

Perceived ambiguity of "that"

Each verse mentions two things that he would do for love, followed by one thing that he will not do. The title phrase repetition reasserts that he "won't do that" previously stated one thing. Each mention of "that" is a reference to the particular promise that he made earlier in the same verse.

Jimmy always said, "You know what? Nobody's gonna get it." And he was right.

-Meat Loaf

• "But I'll never forget the way you feel right now ..."
• "But I'll never forgive myself if we don't go all the way tonight ..."
• "But I'll never do it better than I do it with you ..."
• "But I'll never stop dreaming of you every night of my life ..."

In addition, the female vocalist predicts two other things that he will do: "You'll see that it's time to move on" and "You'll be screwing around". To both of these, he emphatically responds, "I won't do that!"

Some people misunderstand the lyrics, claiming that the singer never identifies what "that" thing is, which he will not do. Steinman predicted this confusion during production. An early episode of the VH1 program Pop-up Video made this claim at the end of the song's video: "Exactly what Meat Loaf won't do for love remains a mystery to this day." A reviewer writing for Allmusic commented that "The lyrics build suspense by portraying a romance-consumed lover who pledges to do anything in the name of love except 'that,' a mysterious thing that he will not specify." The reviewer concludes that the mystery is revealed during the closing stages of the song, incorrectly implying that all references of "that" refer to the female vocalist's predictions at the end. Others assume that "that" is a reference to a sex act.

Meat Loaf says that the question, "What is 'that'?" is one of the most popular questions he is asked. In his 1998 VH1 Storytellers special, he even explained it on stage using a blackboard and a pointing stick. In a 1993 promotional interview, Steinman states that the definition of "that" is fully revealed in the song in each of the several verses in which it is mentioned.

It's sort of is a little puzzle and I guess it goes by - but they're all great things. 'I won't stop doing beautiful things and I won't do bad things.' It's very noble. I'm very proud of that song because it's very much like out of the world of Excalibur. To me, it's like Sir Lancelot or something - very noble and chivalrous. That's my favorite song on the record - it's very ambitious.

Length

Steinman's songs are usually much longer than most other songs, and "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" is no exception. The song is a full twelve minutes, and Steinman cried when executives advised him that he had to cut it down to get radio play. Manager Allen Kovac warned that any song over five minutes would not be played on radio, saying that if Steinman and the group didn't make the cuts then the stations would. Even after they made the cuts, Steinman sent his own version to the stations.

The single version was whittled down to almost six minutes, where the entire motorcycle introduction is omitted. The video version was whittled down to seven minutes and thirty-eight seconds, where the motorcycle intro remains, but not in its entirety. In the video version and single version, the lengthy instrumental break is completely omitted. In the video and single versions, the refrain, which reads "I'd do anything for love, anything you've been dreaming of, but I just won't do that", which is sung before the instrumental bridge, is to have been sung a repeated three times, but was whittled down to having the one line sung a repeated two times. That same refrain is sung again (only in the video version, where the line was omitted out of the single version, having appeared only once) before the "But I'll never stop dreaming of you..." verse, where the refrain is sung a repeated seven times, but was whittled down the line being sung only a repeated three times.

In the single and video versions, the line that reads, "And some nights, I lose the feeling. And some nights I lose control. Some nights, I just lose it all when I watch you dance and the thunder rolls" is omitted. Lorraine Crosby sings six verses in the complete song. In the video version, the second and third verses are omitted. In the single versions, the second, third, and fifth verses are omitted.

Music video

Michael Bay directed the music video. He also directed the videos for "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer than They Are" and "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through", also from Bat out of Hell II. Filming took place in Los Angeles County, California in July 1993; the opening chase was filmed at Chávez Ravine, with the interior mansion scenes filmed at Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. The cinematographer was Daniel Pearl, particularly known for filming The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in 1973. Pearl says that this video "is one of my personal all-time favorite projects... I think the cinematography is pure, and it tells a story about the song." He would later film the Chainsaw remake, which was produced by Bay.

The video is based on Beauty and the Beast and The Phantom of the Opera. Bob Keane did Meat Loaf's make-up, which took up to two hours to apply. The make-up was designed to be simple and scary, yet "with the ability to make him sympathetic." It went over budget, and was filmed in 90°F heat, across four days. According to one executive, it "probably had the budget of Four Weddings and a Funeral." It is the abridged seven minute single version, rather than the twelve minute (11:58) album version.

The actress in the video, Dana Patrick, is miming to Crosby's vocals, however, as she would to Patti Russo's in the 1995 song. According to the captions aired on Pop-up Video, Patrick received several offers for record deals after the video aired, by executives who assumed she was actually singing in the video.

Plot

The video opens with a caption: "I have travelled across the universe through the years to find her. Sometimes going all the way is just a start..." A police car and helicopter chase a motorcycle into a gothic mansion, a tone similar to the opening to the "Bat out of Hell" video. The police search the decrepit mansion with flashlights. Suddenly a motorcycle crashes through the wall, causing a policeman's gun to go off, shooting a chandelier, which falls on the man (the same actor featured in Bud Light's "I Love You, Man" advertising campaign).

The Beast runs through dark woods, spying on a young woman (Dana Patrick) in a fountain. She senses that she is being watched when the sunlight from his pendant reflects in her hand mirror. He drops the pendant as he flees, whereupon she picks it up and follows.

Both characters are seen running through the woods, in lit in high key with a blue tint. This cuts to the Beast sitting in the old mansion holding a chalice, in which he sees the reflection of the girl's face. As she runs through the woods, she comes across the mansion.

A group of police officers and vehicles seal off the mansion with yellow caution tape. The police officer's hand from the earlier sequence is shown, along with a blood-stained shard from the chandelier.

Different scenes become interspersed, some with Meat Loaf in and out of make-up, some with the girl bathing, then lying on a bed with three muses who appear to prepare her for meeting the Beast. This has overtones of Ken Russell's video for Steinman's 1989 Pandora's Box production of "It's All Coming Back to Me Now". (Blue and yellow tints are used for different time periods, in the same way that they would be used sixteen years later in the video for Meat Loaf and Marion Raven's version of "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", which takes place in a similar gothic mansion, and also uses reflections.)

The Beast angrily smashes mirrors after seeing his reflection. The girl sits on a chair, which begins to rise above the ground, controlled by the Beast using a kinetoscope. This was replicated in the 2004 live performance with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. She begins to sing her lines:

Will you raise me up, would you help me down

Will you get me right out of this godforsaken town?

During the duet sequence, the Beast and the girl are not seen in the same space of time; then, the group of policemen enter the mansion, looking for the Beast. The kinetoscope shatters, the chair falls, and the Beast and the girl join each other as they run from the room.

As they stop in a corridor, with the line "And you'll see that it's time to move on", the girl sees the Beast's face for the first time. Then, as she embraces him, his face is transformed into human form. The couple fade from the mansion as he declares "But I won't do that", and are seen riding into the sunset on a motorcycle. (This final shot later becomes the first shot in the "I'd Lie for You (And That's the Truth)" music video.)

Track listing

UK CD single

1. "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)"
2. "Back into Hell"
3. "Everything Louder than Everything Else"

Chart performance

The song reached number one in the charts in 28 countries. It was Meat Loaf's first, and only, number one solo single. It was number one in the US five weeks. In the UK, it topped the singles chart, becoming the longest running song on top there since The Beatles' hit "Hey Jude". This was then broken when Oasis released their 1997 hit "All Around The World", clocking in at 9 minutes and 20 seconds.

In the UK, this was the biggest hit of 1993, selling 761,200 copies and staying at number one for seven weeks. As a result of its success, "Bat out of Hell" was reissued in the UK, this time reaching the top ten (which it didn't achieve on its first release in 1979), meaning Meat Loaf achieved the rare feat of having two singles in the UK Top Ten at the same time.

Meat Loaf won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo for the song.

Cultural impact

The song's huge commercial success has meant that it has had an impact on popular culture.

In his cameo in the film Spice World, Meat Loaf is asked to fix a toilet for the Spice Girls. He declines, saying that he would do anything for them, but he won't do that. The 2009 episode "Simple Explanation" of the television show House MD, shows Eddie (played by Meat Loaf) and his wife Charlotte, going through intense medical procedures for each other's love.

The rock band Evanescence formed when lead singer Amy Lee was playing and singing the song on piano at a youth camp. Ben Moody saw her and was enthused by her rendition of the song. They subsequently began their musical collaboration.

The song was featured in a 2005 advertising campaign for the soft drink Dr Pepper in the United States. The ad shows two lovers together. The boyfriend is prepared to buy tampons for his girlfriend, go to yoga classes with her, and fold her lingerie at the laundromat, all of which are stereotypically dreaded by men. The scene is romantic until the woman reaches for her boyfriend's Dr Pepper. At this point, the boyfriend runs out of the house and the song's chorus plays.

Stephen Colbert's 2007 book I Am America (And So Can You!) featured a humorous questionnaire asking "What would you do for love?", with the options being "Anything" and "Not That".

Filipina singer Sarah Geronimo released a cover of this song on her 2003 album Popstar: A Dream Come True.