About The Song
“For Crying Out Loud” is a power ballad written by Jim Steinman and recorded by Meat Loaf for his 1977 album Bat Out of Hell. The song appears as the seventh and final track on the album, released on October 21, 1977 by Cleveland International/Epic. Studio and discography sources list its running time at about 8:45, making it the longest track on the record. Like the rest of the album, it was produced, engineered and mixed by Todd Rundgren, with all songs composed by Steinman.
The song’s origins predate the album. Steinman originally wrote “For Crying Out Loud” for the 1975 New York Shakespeare Festival musical Kid Champion, a rock-theatre production about a suddenly famous rock star; a demo recording from that period survives in archives. Later interviews and fan sources note that Steinman often referred to “For Crying Out Loud” as one of his favourite pieces in his own catalogue, describing it as a song about loving someone because they are not afraid to cry. When he and Meat Loaf developed the material that became Bat Out of Hell, Steinman reworked the song as the climactic closing track.
Recording took place during the long Bat Out of Hell sessions at Bearsville Sound and Utopia Sound in upstate New York and at additional New York studios. The album’s credits list Meat Loaf on lead vocals with a core band that drew on members of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and Rundgren’s group Utopia: Todd Rundgren on guitars and keyboards, Roy Bittan on piano, Jim Steinman and Roger Powell on keyboards, Kasim Sulton on bass and Max Weinberg and John “Willie” Wilcox on drums, among others. In this track, Bittan’s piano is especially prominent, opening the song alone before the arrangement gradually adds band and orchestral elements to a full, symphonic climax.
Lyrically, “For Crying Out Loud” is a love song that recounts how the narrator’s life changes through another person’s presence. Early verses describe falling “before I reached the bottom,” coldness answered by fire, and a “chilly California wind” as images of emotional emptiness. As the song progresses, the lyric lists the ways the partner has saved, guided or forgiven the singer, culminating in the repeated line “For crying out loud, you know I love you.” Commentators note that the text mixes romantic devotion with occasional sexual innuendo, particularly in the line “And can’t you see my faded Levi’s bursting apart,” which Steinman has singled out as one of his boldest lines on the album.
Musically, the track follows a long, theatrical arc typical of Steinman’s writing for Meat Loaf. It begins with a sparse piano-and-voice section, then gradually introduces bass, drums, guitar and orchestration, building toward an extended, almost hymn-like final section. Reviews and retrospective pieces often highlight Meat Loaf’s vocal performance here, moving from quiet phrases to sustained, full-voiced climaxes over the eight-and-a-half-minute structure. Some critics describe it as a more sedate or reflective counterweight to the high-energy rock of “Bat Out of Hell” and “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” while still retaining the album’s operatic scale.
In release terms, “For Crying Out Loud” was first heard as an album track when Bat Out of Hell appeared in 1977. A heavily edited version, running around three minutes, was used as the B-side of Meat Loaf’s single “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)” in some territories, and a further edit later served as the flip side to the 1978 hit “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.” These singles helped expose the song beyond album listeners, but at the time it did not appear as a separate entry on the U.S. Billboard charts; instead, it was associated with the chart performance of the A-sides, notably “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad,” which reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Decades later, individual track downloads and streaming briefly brought “For Crying Out Loud” into chart records under its own name. Following Meat Loaf’s death in January 2022, the song entered the UK Official Singles Sales Chart and Rock & Metal Singles Chart based on renewed interest, peaking at No. 56 on the sales and downloads charts and No. 10 on the Rock & Metal listing. Beyond charts, it has become a staple of Meat Loaf compilations such as Hits Out of Hell and has been performed in stage adaptations, including Jim Steinman’s Bat Out of Hell: The Musical, where a cast version appears on the original cast recording. Setlist statistics show it appearing regularly in Meat Loaf’s concert encores and in later tribute performances, confirming its role as a key closing number in the Bat Out of Hell repertoire.
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Lyric
I was lost ’til you were found
And I never knew how far down I was falling
Before I reached the bottom
I was cold and you were fire
And I never knew how the pyre could be burning
On the edge of the ice field
And now the chilly California wind
Is blowing down our bodies again
And we’re sinking
Deeper and deeper in the chilly California sand
Oh, I know you belong inside my aching heart
And can’t you see my faded Levis bursting apart
And don’t you here me crying, “Oh, babe, don’t go”?
And don’t you hear me screaming
“How was I to know?”
I’m in the middle of nowhere
Near the end of the line
But there’s a border to somewhere waiting
And there’s a tankful of time
Oh, give me just another moment
To see the light of the day
And take me to another land where
I don’t have to stay
And I’m gonna need somebody to make me feel like you do
And I will receive somebody with open arms, open eyes
Open up the sky, let the planet that I love shine through
For crying out loud, you know I love you
For crying out loud, you know I love you
For crying out loud, you know I love you
I was damned and you were saved
And I never knew how enslaved I was kneeling
In the chains of my master
I could laugh oh but you could cry
And I never knew just how high I was flying
Ah, with you right above me
And now the chilly California wind
Is blowing down our bodies again
And we’re sinking
Deeper and deeper in the chilly California sand
Oh, I know you belong inside my aching heart
And can’t you see my faded Levis bursting apart
And don’t you here me crying, “Oh Babe, don’t go”?
And don’t you hear me screaming
“How was I to know?”
I’m in the middle of nowhere
Near the end of the line
But there’s a border to somewhere waiting
And there’s a tankful of time
Oh, give me just another moment
To see the light of the day
And take me to another land where I don’t have to stay
And I’m gonna need somebody to make me feel like you do
And I will receive somebody with open arms, open eyes
Open up the sky and let the planet that I love shine through
For crying out loud, you know I love you
For crying out loud, you know I love you
Oh for crying out loud, you know I love you
For crying out loud, you know I love you
For taking in the rain when I’m feeling so dry
For giving me the answers when I’m asking you why
And my oh my, for that I thank you
For taking in the sun when I’m feeling so cold
For giving me a child when my body is old
And don’t you know for that I need you
For coming to my room when you know I’m alone
For finding me a highway, for driving me home
And you gotta know for that I serve you
For pulling me away when I’m starting to fall
For revving me up when I’m starting to stall
And all in all for that I want you
For taking and for giving and for playing the game
For praying for my future in the days that remain
Oh Lord, for that I hold you
Oh, but most of all
For crying out loud for that I love you
Woah, but most of all
For crying out loud for that I love you
Woh, but most of all
For crying out loud for that I love you
When you’re crying out loud
You know I love you