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It always amazes me that For Cryin' Out Loud is not considered as one of Meat Loaf's ‘greatest hits’, as in my opinion it is the best thing he ever released. It's on the original Bat Out of Hell album, so it was recorded back when he had that rare combination of precision, power, and outrageous range that Steinman songs demand. Considering how fond Steinman is of composition reuse, it's pretty odd that he has never written other songs with the same tune.

In form, the song is quite similar to the more popular Heaven Can Wait, from the same album, but with more oomph. It's in three parts. The first is some relatively delicate singing by Meat Loaf over a quiet and high piano melody. There is some echo added to the vocal, and Meat Loaf lets some of the long notes slide towards the end, acting like he is struggling somewhat to get them out. When we reach the chorus, there is a slight crescendo and he starts singing straight and with feeling. It dims at the end of the chorus.

The second part opens with Meat Loaf singing the second verse over some lazy (but again high) strings. They get louder over the course of the verse, until we reach the chorus at a spirited forte. Under the strings, a heavy drum line cuts in, and the pace picks up as Meat Loaf stops pulling his punches and the full orchestra joins in. (The piano by now is struggling to keep up with the strings and reverts to whacking out chords.)

At the end of the second chorus there is a sudden drop in volume, and we head to the coda. The soft style of the opening returns, and as Meat Loaf sings some repetitively structured and fluffy metaphors about his love, the dynamics, instrumentation, and speed recapitulate the first two parts. The song ends on a few repeats of the song's title line over some huge, full-orchestra-plus-piano chords.

The overall effect is that you get to experience the same tune (and singer) as both a delicate, airy first-gear ballad and a heavyweight, growling, rock song. It's a song ideally suited to Meat Loaf's voice as it was before years of live performance and the rock-and-roll lifestyle ruined it. (I bought a recording of him singing live with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and that is shockingly bad. He can't hold a note and won't even let his backing singers make up for it.) The song is great to listen to, or to sing along to, and the piano part is loads of fun to play, as the rhythm is quite simple and it starts out with feely and careful arpeggios and ends up with spread chords. No electric guitars appear at all, which for me is a huge selling point. The song was, when first I heard it, enough to convince me that all rock bands should have string sections.