Ellen Foley, Meat Loaf’s ‘Paradise by the Dashboard Light’ Sparring Partner, on the Making of Rock’s Greatest Duet

variety.com:

Chris Willman Music WriterIn the wake of Meat Loaf’s death Thursday, singer Ellen Foley described her working relationship with Meat Loaf in the 1970s as “a beautiful, feisty, joyful friendship.

Meat and Jim (Steinman) brought me into the consciousness of the rock ‘n’ roll world. And through ‘Paradise by the Dashboard Light,’ I get to be a horny teenager for all time.”Indeed, that duet in particular is still so much in the forefront of the collective rock imagination, it’s as if she said to time itself, “Stop right there” — and, just as Meat Loaf was forced to, time also obeyed.She, Meat Loaf and Steinman first worked together on a National Lampoon tour in the mid-’70s, then on the making of 1977’s “Bat Out of Hell,” one of the most popular albums of all time.

Foley left the camp when she declined to go out on the tour supporting the album, and was replaced not only on the road but in the “Paradise” music video by Karla DeVito (who lip-synched Foley’s part for the cameras).

Nevertheless, even if she hadn’t gone on to work with Ian Hunter and the Clash and make her own solo albums, or to act in “Night Court,” “Hair” and other film and TV projects, she would have gone down in history… just for asking Meat, and us, if we would love her forever.