One of my many weaknesses is overwrought, bombastic pop, so I enjoy both Meatloaf and the soundtrack of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” though the movie itself bites the big one. Once, I heard someone suggest that Jim Steinman wrote the songs for “Rocky” as he does for Meatloaf and it was if I were thunderstruck–OF COURSE he did! It’s so obvious!
After sobering up, I’m not so sure, but the stylistic similarity is still striking. Am I huffing or is there some basis for that suspicion?
Jim Sharman, who directed the movie, also wrote some of it. It was mostly written by Richard O’Brien though. I suspect the person who talked to you confused Jim Steinman and Jim Sharman.
Richard O’Brien wrote The Rocky Horror Show (the play which later became the movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show) in London in 1973. Jim Steinman was working on musicals at this same time but in New York. Steinman didn’t even meet Meat Loaf until 1974.
I’m not seeing the song styles as all that similar. Overblown isn’t really a style. The arrangements are different enough, and Steinman in funny mostly in the unintentional way.
Considering how much well Rocky Horror has made, and how badly Dance of the Vampire did, I bet Steinman wishes he’d written the former instead of the latter.