[4] In the midst of the success of Bat Out of Hell, management and the record company put pressure on Steinman to stop touring in order to write a follow-up, provisionally titled Renegade Angel.

[5] Steinman joined Meat Loaf and his band for a live performance in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1978 with the intention of going through the songs for the new album after the show.

Many musicians and backing vocalists from Bat Out of Hell performed on Bad for Good, including Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.

Describing the cover, Sounds magazine says "the flesh, the puppy-fat on the mid-calf, the breasts, the upturned American nose ... Corben's evocation of teenage femininity is so right!

"[11] The composer says that Peter Pan has "always been about my favorite story and I've always looked at it from the perspective that it's a great rock 'n' roll myth because it's about – when you get right down to it – it's about a gang of lost boys who never grow up, who are going to be young forever and that's about as perfect an image for rock'n'roll as I can think of.

"[10] "Lost Boys and Golden Girls" is the basis for the musical Neverland, which Steinman says is "a rock 'n' roll science fiction version of Peter Pan that takes place in a city built on the ruins of Los Angeles after a series of chemical wars.

[12] The next track, "Love and Death and an American Guitar", is a spoken word fantasy monologue, performed by Steinman that he used to do in the Meat Loaf shows.

"[14] All tracks are written by Jim SteinmanOn the original vinyl release, "The Storm" and "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" were the A-side and B-side, respectively, of a 33-rpm 7" single, enclosed with the album.

Rolling Stone, who also gave a lukewarm review of the first Bat, said "Steinman's thin, reedy voice simply cannot carry the absurd precocity of the lyrics".

[22] AllMusic also said retrospectively that Steinman "simply does not have the vocal range or lung power necessary to make this dramatic style of rock and roll work.

[23] AllMusic also complained "that some of the songs repeat the Bat Out of Hell formula instead of building upon it; the obvious culprit in this arena is "Dance in My Pants", a duet that gratuitously recycles the battle of the sexes verbal sparring and the multi-part structure of Meat Loaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" to less-impressive effect".

[14] Rolling Stone criticized the "Wagnerian excess, feral "rock" playing and vile choristering," suggesting that "Todd Rundgren should have his wrists slapped for choking the upper end of his guitar's neck in a vainglorious approximation of epiphany".

Comedy duo Scharpling & Wurster, in their sketch "The Gas Station Dogs" from their album New Hope for the Ape-Eared, featured a delusional singer-songwriter promoting a song called "Rock n' Roll Dreams Will Come Through".