10 Perfect Hit Songs That Are Insanely Long

Pop music has never really been that far away from showtunes at the best of times. Long before you had things like rock and roll and jazz taking over the charts, some of the biggest singles of all time normally came from stage shows, with people more than happy to sing along with songs that had intricate storylines behind them. So when rock became the new norm in pop music, who said you couldn’t put some of that bombast back into the picture?

Because most of Bat Out of Hell really feels like some sort of dark rock and roll Broadway show, with Meat Loaf being the disenchanted hero of the story hell bent on finding some sort of redemption arc. On Paradise by the Dashboard Light, you’re put in the middle of the action, where Meat comes across a lady friend and tries to…shall we say become a little bit more friendly with her later on in the night.

As we go through the whole song, you can feel the tension brewing in the backing band, all while Ellen Foley plays the girl in the situation. Though the actual sound of this song is enough to get you hooked, the story plays out like a bad one night stand, as Meat is left praying for the end of time with this woman as his wife and becoming more and more unhappy with the domestic life. It’s not necessarily the outcome that he would have wanted, but it’s probably a lot closer to what happens in the real world when these stories play out.