Welcome to Music Friday, when we celebrate songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, we're revisiting Meat Loaf's 1977 hit, “Two Out of Three Ain't Bad,” a dramatic rock ballad that uses gold and rubies to illustrate a young man's inability to offer a woman the one thing she wants most: his love.
Written by Jim Steinman, the song features Meat Loaf portraying a man who is emotionally unavailable despite his obvious attraction to his girlfriend. He wants her and needs her, but, as he repeatedly confesses, “there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you.” His explanation? His heart was broken many years earlier by the only woman he ever truly loved, and he has never recovered.
Steinman uses the language of precious treasures to explain the emotional mismatch. “You'll never find your gold on a sandy beach,” Meat Loaf sings, before adding, “I know you're looking for a ruby in a mountain of rocks.” The imagery suggests that the woman is searching for something exceptionally rare and valuable — the idealized, all-encompassing love he simply cannot provide.
The song's other comparisons, including drilling for oil on a city street and expecting to find a Cadillac Coupe de Ville at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box, reinforce the point. Gold and rubies represent elusive perfection, while the singer insists that his limited emotional offerings are the best she can expect.
According to Steinman, his creative inspiration came after a friend challenged him to write a simple song. While Elvis Presley's “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You” was playing on the radio, Steinman recognized an opportunity to turn those three declarations into a bittersweet confession. The result became one of the standout tracks on Meat Loaf's landmark 1977 album, Bat Out of Hell.
“Two Out of Three Ain't Bad” was a major commercial success, spending 23 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaking at #11. It earned Platinum certification in the United States and helped establish Meat Loaf as one of rock's most distinctive voices.
Born Marvin Lee Aday in Dallas in 1947, Meat Loaf got his professional start in Los Angeles theater productions during the late 1960s before moving into recording and touring. His breakthrough came with Bat Out of Hell, produced by Todd Rundgren and featuring Steinman's theatrical, larger-than-life compositions. The album ultimately sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums in music history.
Meat Loaf enjoyed another enormous resurgence with 1993's Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell. Its blockbuster single, “I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That),” earned him a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo, in 1994. His career also included memorable film appearances in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Fight Club.
Meat Loaf died on January 20, 2022, at age 74. His powerful performances and unforgettable rock anthems remain part of his enduring legacy.
Please check out the audio track of Meat Loaf performing “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along.
“Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad”
Written by Jim Steinman. Performed by Meat Loaf.
Baby we can talk all night
But that ain’t gettin’ us nowhere
I told you everything I possibly can
There’s nothing left inside of here
And maybe you can cry all night
But that’ll never change the way that I feel
The snow is really piling up outside
I wish you wouldn’t make me leave here
I poured it on and I poured it out
I tried to show you just how much I care
I’m tired of words and I’m too hoarse to shout
But you’ve been cold to me so long
I’m cryin' icicles instead of tears
And all I can do is keep on telling you
I want you, I need you
But there ain’t no way I’m ever gonna love you
Now don’t be sad (Don’t be sad)
’Cause two out of three ain’t bad
Now don’t be sad
’Cause two out of three ain’t bad
You’ll never find your gold on a sandy beach
You’ll never drill for oil on a city street
I know you’re looking for a ruby in a mountain of rocks
But there ain’t no Coupe de Ville hiding at the bottom
Of a Cracker Jack box
I can’t lie, I can’t tell you that I’m something I’m not
No matter how I try
I’ll never be able to give you something
Something that I just haven’t got
Well, there’s only one girl I’ll ever love
And that was so many years ago
And though I know I’ll never get her out of my heart
She never loved me back
Ooh I know
I remember how she left me on a stormy night
Oh, she kissed me and got out of our bed
And though I pleaded and I begged her not to walk out that door
She packed her bags and turned right away
And she kept on telling me
She kept on telling me
She kept on telling me
I want you (I want you), I need you (I need you)
But there ain’t no way I’m ever gonna love you
Now don’t be sad (Don’t be sad)
’Cause two out of three ain’t bad
I want you, (I want you), I need you (I need you)
But there ain’t no way I’m ever gonna love you
Now don’t be sad (Don’t be sad)
’Cause two out of three ain’t bad
Now don’t be sad
’Cause two out of three ain’t bad
Baby, we can talk all night
But that ain’t getting us nowhere
Credit: Screen capture via YouTube / SRF Unterhaltung.