The Very Best of Meat Loaf

Infobox Album
Name = The Very Best of Meat Loaf
Type = Compilation album
Artist = Meat Loaf

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Released = November 24, 1998
Recorded = 1977 - 1998
Genre = Rock
Length = 116:57
Label = Virgin, Sony
Producer =
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:vgivad5ku8wo link]
Last album = "Live Around the World"
(1996)
This album = "The Very Best of Meat Loaf"
(1998)
Next album = ""
(2003)

"The Very Best of Meat Loaf" is a 1998 album spanning the first 21 years of Meat Loaf's recording career. Although not reaching the top ten in the UK, it recently went platinum, and was already platinum around the rest of the world just after its release. The album featured all of Meat Loaf's best-known songs as well as a few from his more unknown albums from the 1980s.

Besides hits like "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" and "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)", "The Very Best of Meat Loaf" contains three new tracks. Two of those are written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman and are adapted from their musical "Whistle Down The Wind". The third new track, "Is Nothing Sacred" is written by Steinman and lyricist Don Black (the single version of this song is a duet with Patti Russo, whereas the album version is a solo song by Meat Loaf. The single version would later appear on the VH1 Storytellers CD).

Both "Bat out of Hell" and "" are prominently featured with 5 tracks from the first and 4 from the second, while not a single song from his 1986 album "Blind Before I Stop" made the cut, the latter subjected to some criticism.

Track listing

*Disc One
#"Home by Now" / "No Matter What" – 8:25 (Andrew Lloyd Webber / Jim Steinman)
#"Life Is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back" (remix) – 8:07 (Steinman)
#"You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth" (Hot Summer Night) – 5:04 (Steinman)
#"Two out of Three Ain't Bad" – 5:23 (Steinman)
#"Modern Girl" – 4:24 (Paul Jacobs / Sarah Durkee)
#"Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" – 5:41 (Steinman)
#"Is Nothing Sacred" – 6:37 (Steinman / Don Black)
#"Paradise by the Dashboard Light" – 8:28 (Steinman)
#"Heaven Can Wait" – 4:36 (Steinman)

*Disc Two
#"I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" – 11:52 (Steinman) with Lorraine Crosby
#"A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing to Waste" – 7:37 (Webber / Steinman) Feat. Bonnie Tyler
#"I'd Lie for You (And That's the Truth)" – 6:48 (Diane Warren)Feat. Patti Russo
#"Not a Dry Eye in the House" – 5:54 (Warren)
#"Nocturnal Pleasure" – 0:38 (Steinman)
#"Dead Ringer for Love" – 4:21 (Steinman) duet with Cher
#"Midnight at the Lost and Found" – 3:36 (Marvin Lee Aday / Steve Buslowe / Paul Christie / Dan Peyronel)
#"Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer than They Are" – 9:45 (Steinman)
#"Bat out of Hell" – 9:48 (Steinman)
#"I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) (live)" (Japanese bonus track) – 12:58 (Steinman)

After the Greatest Hits

Following an appearance on VH1 Storytellers in 1999 (which was released as an album and a DVD) Meat Loaf's next studio album was the 2003 album, "Couldn't Have Said It Better".