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You might think Meat Loaf and Celine Dion have about as much in common as, say, Barry Manilow and Bonnie Tyler. And you'd be right: All have scored hits under the guidance of songwriter-producer Jim Steinman, the schlock maestro behind Meat Loaf's entire career and Dion's current hit ''It's All Coming Back to Me Now.'' But the parallels don't stop there. The videos for Loaf's 1993 smash ''I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)'' (top) and ''It's All Coming Back...'' (bottom) are suspiciously similar seven-and-a-half-minute tributes to romance-novel melodrama and the Bram Stoker school of interior design. Here's the recipe for success:

ELEMENT Start with Beauty and the Beast connection.

MEAT LOAF Video's story line loosely based on Beauty and the Beast fairy tale.

CELINE DION Sang theme song to Disney's Beauty and the Beast movie.

[ELEMENT]Add men on motorcycles and a tragedy by the dashboard light.

[MEAT LOAF]Video opens with Meat Loaf tearing through woods on a motorcycle, pursued by police. A piano tinkles, his bike rumbles ominously, and he crashes through a wall, killing a cop.

[CELINE DION]Video opens with Dion's true love cruising through a storm on his motorcycle. A piano tinkles, his bike rumbles ominously, and he crashes into a tree, killing himself.

[ELEMENT]Cut to castlelike house on a stormy night, where protagonist pines for lost love.

[MEAT LOAF]The longing Loaf, hungering for a mystery belle he can never have, drifts forlornly from room to candelabra-lit room as lightning crashes and candles flicker.

[CELINE DION]The grieving Dion, longing for the blown-up bike boy she can never have, drifts forlornly from room to candelabra-lit room as lightning crashes and candles flicker.

[ELEMENT]Objects in the mirror may be more significant than they appear.

[MEAT LOAF]Looks at himself in the mirror, gets upset, and, in a fit of Jacko-like glass smashing, breaks lots of mirrors, vastly improving his self-image.

[CELINE DION]Looks at herself in the mirror, gets upset, and, in a Ghost-like encounter with a lover from beyond, sees her lost love, vastly improving her mood.

[ELEMENT]Finish with fairy-tale ending.

[MEAT LOAF]Babe in the woods follows Meat Loaf into the castle, where he magically levitates the divan she's sitting on. This somehow inspires her to fall deeply in love with him. Now we know how David Copperfield won over Claudia Schiffer.

[CELINE DION]True love's ghost follows her to the bedroom, where they consummate their love in an embrace. Energized, he straddles his bike, kicks up the engine, and rides it around the house...just like Meat Loaf did in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.


Posted Nov 29, 1996 | Published in issue #355 Nov 29, 1996 | Order Article Reprints