The same week Meat Loaf finally reached the summit of the British album chart, Garth Brooks was sitting on top of the American one with 'In Pieces'. That Nashville blockbuster spent 25 weeks on the chart, sold over 6 million copies, and still only managed second place in Britain. Meanwhile, a theatrical rock opera sequel that nobody expected to work was outselling everything the UK had to offer. On 18 September 1993, Meat Loaf's 'Bat Out Of Hell II' hit number one, proving that sixteen years of waiting could be turned into commercial gold.
The gap between the first 'Bat Out of Hell' and its sequel was not a quiet period. Meat Loaf had spent the intervening years acting, rebuilding his voice, and watching his debut solo album become a phenomenon that never really stopped selling. That first record had arrived as his initial solo statement, a collaboration with songwriter Jim Steinman that fused teenage melodrama with Phil Spector-sized production. By the time the sequel appeared, the original had become a fixture in record collections across the English-speaking world, but a follow-up still felt like a gamble.
A nostalgia play that climbed
When 'Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell' finally landed, the industry treated it as a nostalgia play. The title suggested a direct continuation, and Steinman's songwriting remained as excessive as ever. The lead single ran nearly eight minutes, packed with motorcycle sound effects and spoken-word interludes. Radio programmers initially balked, but the public did not. The album climbed steadily through the autumn, and on 18 September 1993 it displaced everything above it to claim the top spot in the UK.
That chart-topping moment was not a one-off. It marked the first of five separate occasions when Meat Loaf would reach number one on the British album chart, a run that stretched across multiple decades and defied every expectation about the shelf life of theatrical hard rock. The UK had always been more receptive to his operatic excess than the American market, where Garth Brooks and the country boom dominated 1993. Britain wanted drama, and Meat Loaf delivered it in widescreen.
Britain wanted drama, and Meat Loaf delivered it in widescreen.
The date's rock milestones
The same date carries a strange weight across rock history. On 18 September 1983, KISS appeared on MTV without their makeup for the first time, promoting 'Lick It Up'. The unmasking tripled sales compared to their previous album 'Creatures of the Night'. Thirteen years earlier, on 18 September 1970, Jimi Hendrix died in the Samarkand hotel in London at the age of 27. Hendrix had been in the spotlight for only four years, yet his guitar technique and songs like 'Purple Haze' and 'Hey Joe' had already reshaped the instrument's possibilities.
Hendrix was not the only giant tied to this date. On 18 September 1971, The Who reached number one in Britain for the first and only time with 'Who's Next'. That album emerged from the wreckage of Lifehouse, an abandoned multimedia rock opera planned as a follow-up to 1969's 'Tommy'. Pete Townshend's grand concept collapsed under its own weight, but the salvage operation produced one of the most durable records The Who ever made. The date keeps accumulating ghosts and milestones.
Beatles, Dire Straits, and more
The Beatles also left fingerprints on 18 September. In 1968, they recorded 20 takes of 'Birthday' in a single session, pulling in friends and family to fill out the sound. Roadie Mal Evans added handclaps, while Yoko Ono and Patti Harrison contributed backing vocals. That looseness, captured in a single evening at Abbey Road, became part of the White Album's sprawling texture. The same date in 1982 found Dire Straits stuck at number two in the UK with 'Private Investigations', blocked by Survivor's 'Eye Of The Tiger'.
Meat Loaf's chart achievement in 1993 sits inside a broader pattern of risk-taking on this date. In 1981, Gary Numan set off on a round-the-world flight in a single-engine Cessna, an adventure that ended with a forced landing in India and an arrest by local police. In 1979, The Eagles released 'Heartache Tonight', born from a jam session where Glenn Frey phoned Bob Seger and sang him the first verse over the phone. Seger improvised the chorus on the spot. The date rewards ambition, even when it crashes.
Leonard Cohen collapsed on stage in Valencia on 18 September 2009, mid-way through 'Bird On The Wire', later diagnosed with food poisoning. Britney Spears married Kevin Federline on the same date in 2004, and was fired by her management company The Firm three years later. In 2006, Willie Nelson's tour bus was stopped near Lafayette, Louisiana, and police found marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Nelson was 73. The date keeps accumulating strange collisions between fame and consequence.
For Meat Loaf, the British number one on 18 September 1993 was vindication after sixteen years of being treated as a one-album curiosity. The sequel outsold its predecessor in several markets and launched another decade of arena tours. Garth Brooks may have ruled America that week with 'In Pieces', but in Britain the operatic excess of 'Bat Out Of Hell II' won outright. The first of his five UK chart-toppers arrived on a date crowded with rock history, and it held its ground.