Todd Rundgren - ...and on guitar (1980)

After departing Nazz in 1969, the 21-year-old Todd Rundgren briefly considered working as a computer programmer, and then decided that his calling was as a producer. He moved to New York in the summer of 1969 and involved himself with the clubs of Greenwich Village, particularly Steve Paul's Scene, and met a number of Manhattan musicians and fashion designers. Michael Friedman, a former assistant of Nazz manager John Kurland, offered him a job as staff engineer and producer under Albert Grossman, which he accepted. Grossman, known for his management of folk rock acts, had just founded Ampex Records, a joint business venture with the tape company of the same name, and built Bearsville Studios near Woodstock, with the Bearsville name soon becoming its own record label. One of Rundgren's first gigs as a producer was engineering and mixing for The Band, and in 1970, while producing one of the artists in Grossman's stable, he added guitar to James Cotton's 'Taking Care Of Business' album, although generally he stuck to engineering and producing artists such as Jesse Winchester, The American Dream, Great Speckled Bird, Jericho, Halfnelson (later Sparks), and Badfinger. In 1972 he added guitar, keyboards, drums and even lead vocals to future band-mate Mark "Moogy" Klingman's eponymous album, and from then on he was much more hands-on with his productions, adding his guitar if he felt it was needed. In 1973 he was part of the 'Music From Free Creek' album, which brought together a multitude of stars to play what was pretty much a jam session, with Rundgren's contribution being the superb instrumental 'Cissy Strut'. 
In 1974 he provided some screaming guitar-work to 'I Am Free' from Felix Cavaliere's self-titled album, and the same year he played on Grand Funk's 'Shinin' On' record. 1974 also saw him collaborate with Daryl Hall and John Oates, to take the soft blue-eyed soul that they were known for and turn it into the hard-edged, political album 'War Babies'. 1976 was a quiet year, just producing Steve Hillage's 'L' and Bette Midler's 'Songs For The New Depression' records, but 1977 brought perhaps his most acclaimed production work, on Meatloaf's classic 'Bat Out Of Hell' album. He limited his guest appearances to one a year over the next few years, as he was still busy recording and releasing solo albums, as well as records with his band Utopia. In 1979 he played on The Tubes 'Remote Control' album, and we end with a somewhat surprising collaboration with Shaun Cassidy (half-brother of heart-throb David Cassidy), writing and playing on songs on an album which has been pretty much universally condemned as being the strangest and worst record of Cassidy's career, although I have managed to find perhaps the one song that is not that bad. Rundgren redeemed himself in 1981 by producing, arranging and engineering Jim Steinman's 'Bad For Good' album, and then moved on to produce bands like The Psychedelic Furs, Ian Hunter, Cheap Trick and Dragon throughout the 80's, and he continues to release solo albums and produce other artists to this day, although the production work has tailed off recently. Looking through his credits on albums from the last 50 years as writer, singer, multi-instrumentalist, engineer, producer and mixer, it all just confirms that Todd Rundgren truly is a genius of modern music.      

Track listing

01 The Sky Is Falling (from 'Taking Care Of Business' by James Cotton Blues Band 1970)
02 Kindness (from 'Mark "Moogy" Klingman' by Mark "Moogy" Klingman 1972)
03 Cissy Strut (from 'Music From Free Creek' 1973)
04 I Am Free (from 'Felix Cavaliere' by Felix Cavaliere 1974)
05 Carry Me Through (from 'Shinin' On' by Grand Funk 1974)
06 Screaming Through December (from 'War Babies' by Daryl Hall & John Oates 1974)
07 Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad (from 'Bat Out Of Hell' by Meat Loaf 1977)
08 Late In My Bed (from 'Elizabeth Barraclough' by Elizabeth Barraclough 1978)
09 Telecide (from 'Remote Control' by The Tubes 1979)
10 Morning Chorus (from 'Air Pocket' by Roger Powell 1980)
11 Selfless Love (from 'Wasp' by Shaun Cassidy 1980)

Brian May - ...and on guitar (1999)

By the mid-70's Queen had become an established and world-famous band, and around this time some other artists began to realise that Brian May had a very distinctive guitar sound, and that it might enhance their recordings if they could get him to play on their records. The first person to nab the guitarist was Eddie Howell, who persuaded May to play on his 'Man From Manhatten' single, although that wasn't that hard as the song was already being produced by band-mate Freddie Mercury, who also played piano and sang backing vocals. The production is so Queen-like that it's almost like 'A Night At The Opera' out-take, and although it received considerable airplay in the UK, just as it was about to take off it was discovered that the bass-player had been working in the UK without a work permit, and the Musicians Union banned further airplay, which effectively killed any chance of chart success. A couple of years later he was asked to perform on Lonnie Donnegan's 'Puttin' On The Style' album, alongside Rory Gallagher, Albert Lee, Peter Banks, Ronnie Wood, and Mick Ralphs, where he added a distinctive solo to 'Digging My Potatoes'. Quartz were a heavy metal band, who had already released their first Tony Iommi-produced album in 1977, and they toured with Black Sabbath to support it. May offered to do his 'Queen' style editing of the song 'Circles', but after several attempts he admitted that he thought the original version with Ozzy Osbourne on backing vocals was still better, and so his contribution was cut from the final mix by Iommi. However, the recording was not dumped, and was resurrected to appear as the b-side to the 'Stoking The Fires Of Hell' single in 1980. When Jeffrey Osborne was recording his second album, May was asked to contribute solos to a couple of the tracks, and this became a fairly regular occurrence, with requests also coming from Billie Squier, Chris Thompson, and Meat Loaf over the next few years. 
In 1986 May was asked to write a couple of songs in English and Japanese for established Japanese singer Minako Honda, who he had met when she was already a star, even though she was still young enough to have to be chaperoned when she traveled to another country. He quickly wrote 'Golden Days' and 'Crazy Nights', and sent her the demos, and it was arranged for her to come to London to record them. As well as writing the songs, May played most of the instruments on the recordings, and although Minako didn't speak the language, she managed a pretty good English version of both songs. She sadly passed away in 2005, aged just 38. In 1988 May teamed up with band-mate Roger Taylor to add some un-credited guitar to 'Love Lies Bleeding' from The Cross's 'Shove It' album, and in 1989 he again contributed an un-credited solo to 'Self' by Fuzzbox, and when it was released as a single it charted both in the UK and the US. Lastly, for this album, he was invited to help out Holly Johnson with his debut solo album 'Blast', where he added a solo to 'Love Train', which was then released as a single, resulting in a top 5 UK chart placing. You can immediately recognise May's contribution to all of these songs, as his guitar sound is unique, making him one of the UK's best and most well-respected musicians.    

Track listing

01 Man From Manhattan (single by Eddie Howell 1976)
02 Circles (b-side of 'Stoking The Fires Of Hell' single by Quartz 1980)
03 Digging My Potatoes (from 'Puttin' On The Style' by Lonnie Donnegan 1978)
04 Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right (from 'Stay With Me Tonight' by Jeffrey Osborne 1983)
05 (Another) 1984 (from 'Signs Of Life' by Billie Squier 1984)
06 A Shift In The Wind, Parts 1 & 2 (from 'Radio Voices' by Chris Thompson 1985)
07 Golden Days (single by Minako Honda 1986)
08 A Time For Heroes (single by Meat Loaf 1987)
09 Love Lies Bleeding (She Was A Wicked, Wily Waitress) (from 'Shove It' by The Cross 1988)
10 Self! (from 'Big Bang' by Fuzzbox 1989)
11 Love Train (from 'Blast' by Holly Johnson 1989)

Meat Loaf with Bonnie Tyler - Midnight At The Lost And Found (1983)

Following a comment from WestVirginiaRebel on Paul's Albumsthatshouldexist site, I thought I'd give his suggestion a try, and attempt to construct a 1983 Meat Loaf album if he hadn't fallen out with Jim Steinman. Their acrimony was so bad that they ended up suing each other, and as they couldn't bear to work together then Meat Loaf had to find other writers for the 'Midnight At The Lost And Found' album that he owed to the record company. He was also involved in the writing of some of the songs himself. and possibly because of this change in style and material, it was generally received as one of his poorer releases. Some sources insist that Steinman had intended that the songs 'Total Eclipse Of The Heart' and 'Making Love (Out Of Nothing at All)' were to be given to Meat Loaf for this album, but as his record company refused to pay Steinman for them, they were passed on to Bonnie Tyler instead, who then had a massive hit with the former. Other sources say that neither of these songs were actually offered to Meat Loaf, but whatever the truth, he never recorded either of them. Therefore, in order to put together a coherent album of the period, the answer is to make it a collaboration with Bonnie Tyler, and allow her to sing both of her songs. Even though Steinman was not involved in the writing of any of the songs from the released 'Midnight At The Lost And Found' album, I've used WestVirginiaRebel's suggested track listing anyway, as it includes most of the songs that Meat Loaf co-wrote, plus a couple of Steinman songs which he did later record. The only one I've omitted is 'All Of The Good Ones Are Taken', as this was only ever recorded by Ian Hunter, and I wanted to keep the collaboration just between Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler.

Track listing

01 Total Eclipse Of The Heart (Steinman)

02 Razor's Edge (Buslowe, Christie, Doyle, Mark Aday)

03 Midnight At The Lost And Found (Buslowe, Christie, Mark Aday, Peyronel)
04 Read 'Em And Weep (Steinman)
05 Wolf At Your Door (Buslowe, Leslie Aday)

06 Making Love (Out Of Nothing At All) (Steinman)

07 Keep Driving (Christie, Jacobs, Mark Aday)

08 Left In The Dark (Steinman)

09 If You Really Want To (Meyer, Neeley)

I hope that this is something like WestVirginaRebel envisaged, and if so, then

Meat Loaf - Renegade Angel (1981)

'Bat Out Of Hell' was a surprise hit for Meat Loaf in 1977, and the following year Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf began working on the follow-up, to be called 'Renegade Angel'. The sessions were plagued by bad luck, including the theft of Steinman's lyrics and Meat Loaf losing his voice. As Meat Loaf couldn't sing his songs, Steinman had no choice but to sing them himself, finally releasing the retitled 'Bad for Good' album in 1981. Although fans knew of Steinman's involvement in 'Bat Out Of Hell', they didn't buy his new record, and it failed to even make a dent in the charts. Over the next couple of decades Meat Loaf did record all but two of those songs for his albums, and so here they all are collected together, for a Meat Loaf version of 'Renegade Angel'. I've kept the same running order as the original Steinman album, and substituted Meat Loaf's versions for Steinman's wherever possible, with just Steinman's take of 'Stark Raving Love' remaining, as Meat Loaf never recorded this song. 'Bad for Good' included an additional 7" single of 'The Storm' and 'Rock and Roll Dreams Come True', intended to act as a prelude and epilogue, and so they are now used to bookend the album. 'Dance in My Pants' featured a duet with Karla DeVito, and as Meat Loaf never recorded this song, either as a duet or on his own, I've left it off this reimagining as it didn't really fit, and for 'Left in the Dark' I've grafted Jim Steinman's spoken word intro onto Meat Loaf's vocal. These edits have allowed me to keep the length of the album to a reasonable 52 minutes.

Track listing

01 The Storm 
02 Bad For Good
03 Lost Boys And Golden Girls
04 Love And Death And An American Guitar
05 Stark Raving Love
06 Out Of The Frying Pan (And Into The Fire)
07 Surf's Up
08 Left In The Dark
09 Rock And Roll Dreams Come True