His work included songs in the adult contemporary, rock, dance, pop, musical theater, and film score genres.

His most successful chart singles include Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart", Air Supply's "Making Love Out of Nothing at All", Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)", the Sisters of Mercy's "This Corrosion" and "More", Barry Manilow's "Read 'Em and Weep", Take That's "Never Forget", Celine Dion's cover of "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (originally released by Steinman's project Pandora's Box) and Boyzone's "No Matter What".

The Dream Engine, set in a satirical-dystopian 1969, is the story of a young boy named Baal who, along with his rebel fellows, doesn't accept the restraints and limits of their society.

[11] Multiple esoteric references to "silver" and "gold" also occur first, throughout the book, and appear in numerous later Steinman works, and the full monologue that was later recorded to open "You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)" is delivered in a love scene between Baal and The Girl.

[13] In 1972, Steinman worked with college friend Barry Keating on a musical titled Rhinegold at the Mercer Arts Center, based on Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold.

In 1975, while working for Joseph Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Steinman contributed music and lyrics to Thomas Babe's Kid Champion, which starred Christopher Walken.

[29] The motifs of this orchestral score match the melodies of numerous songs Steinman later released, including "Total Eclipse of the Heart", "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" and "Für Sarah" from Tanz der Vampire.

[30] Early in the production of a follow-up album to Bat Out of Hell, Meat Loaf developed vocal problems and was unable to continue on the project.

Rory Dodd and Eric Troyer, two singers who often sang on Steinman's studio work, were credited with "additional background vocals".

Steinman produced the selection and is credited with composing the music, and Dean Pitchford, who had written the film itself directly for the screen, for writing the lyrics.

Jim Steinman wrote a song titled "Vaults of Heaven" which has the same melody as "Milady" from The Confidence Man and "Für Sarah" from Tanz der Vampire.

The selection has no lead vocals, and it matches much of the non-vocal parts of the track of "Ravishing" that appeared on Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire.

The official four female singers were Ellen Foley, Elaine Caswell, Gina Taylor and Deliria Wilde[57] (with Holly Sherwood doing lead vocals on "Good Girls Go to Heaven").

[60] In the late 1980s, Jim Steinman was working on an adaptation of the 1974 movie Phantom of the Paradise by writer and director Brian De Palma.

"[citation needed] In the late 1980s, Jim Steinman was preparing to produce an album for ELO Part II, a spin-off of the group Electric Light Orchestra.

Steinman made a demo of Rory Dodd singing the song Kiss Me Red by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly.

Eric Troyer, a frequent background vocalist on Steinman productions, sang the lead vocal on ELO Part II's released recording of "Kiss Me Red".

[citation needed] With Andrew Eldritch, Steinman co-wrote and co-produced the track "More" for the album Vision Thing (1990) by the group the Sisters of Mercy.

After a series of financial and legal disputes during the 1980s, Steinman and Meat Loaf met at the singer's house in Connecticut at Christmas 1989[64] or 1990[65] and sang Bat out of Hell on piano.

[citation needed] Steinman provided lyrics for Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Whistle Down the Wind, which opened in Washington, D.C. in December 1996.

Those performers include Tom Jones, Tina Arena, Boyzone, Elaine Paige, Donny Osmond, The Everly Brothers, Meat Loaf, Boy George, Sounds of Blackness, Bonnie Tyler, Michael Ball, and Lottie Mayor.

[82] As of 2019, Boyzone's 1998 recording of "No Matter What" is the most recent new song or project written at least in part by Steinman, or to contain any new work of his at all, to achieve major, chart-topping success.

This includes the song "Total Eclipse of the Heart", the melody of "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer than They Are", and many other parts of earlier works.

[85] The included recording of the song "Life Is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back" was a new remix made by Steinman's production team.

It included a recording, produced by Steinman and Andrew Lloyd Webber, and also co-produced by Steven Rinkoff and Nigel Wright, of the Steinman/Webber song "A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing to Waste", from Whistle Down the Wind.

It also includes the first-ever release of the song "If It Ain't Broke (Break It)", written by Steinman, with lead vocals by Mike Vogel.

Steinman's demo of "In the Land of the Pig, the Butcher is King", with Rob Evan singing lead vocal, was part of the preparations for the unrealized Batman: The Musical project.

Like Desmond Child's Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose, this album was made separately from the production team of Jim Steinman and Steven Rinkoff.

The tracks "Who Needs The Young", "Souvenirs", "Godz", "Skull of Your Country", and "Train of Love" are all covers of unreleased recordings that Steinman made in the 1970s.

Of this original cast, only Andrew Polec, Christina Bennington and Danielle Steers remained with the show from opening in Manchester in 2017 through to complete the NYC run in 2019.