Couldn't Have Said It Better is a 2003 album by Meat Loaf.
Only for the third time in his career, Meat Loaf released an album without any songs written by Jim Steinman (not counting the bonus tracks). Although Meat Loaf claimed that Couldn't Have Said It Better was "the most perfect album did since Bat out of Hell", it wasn't quite as successful.
Three singles were released, "Did I Say That", "Couldn't Have Said It Better" and "Man of Steel", all with little chart impact. The album was recorded for Universal Music Germany's Polydor division and was licenced to Mercury Records for UK release and Sanctuary Records for US release, while global distribution was handled by parent company Universal Music Group. Most of this was caused by poor promotion on behalf of Sanctuary Records, the company that released the album in the US, and few actual singles being distributed, especially in the UK - his biggest market. However, "Couldn't Have Said It Better" feat. Patti Russo reached #1 on the UK rock charts. The duet also charted on the AC Top 40 in the USA (the only song to do so since "I'd Lie for You"). The videos also had low budgets, in stark contrast to his 1990s videos.
However, the album was a minor success worldwide and reached #4 in the UK charts. There were many writers for the album including Diane Warren and James Michael. Diane Warren has written for Meat Loaf in the past and had some very big hits. James Michael had never written for Meat Loaf before and it was only his songs that were released as singles from the album.
Several versions of the album have been released, some with bonus-material. Also, the color of the album cover is different in the UK (blue) from the other territories (red).
Read more about Couldn't Have Said It Better: Tour, Track Listing, Australian Edition Bonus Special Live CD, Special Edition Bonus CD
Famous quotes containing the words have, said and/or better:
“Let it not your wonder move,
Less your laughter, that I love.
Though I now write fifty years,
I have had, and have, my peers;
Poets, though divine, are men:
Some have loved as old again.
And it is not always face,
Clothes, or fortune gives the grace,
Or the feature, or the youth;
But the language, and the truth,
With the ardour and the passion,
Gives the lover weight and fashion.”
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637)
“I hate to be defended in a newspaper. As long as all that is said is said against me, I feel a certain assurance of success. But as soon as honeyed words of praise are spoken for me, I feel as one that lies unprotected before his enemies.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“To me, literature is a calling, even a kind of salvation. It connects me with an enterprise that is over 2,000 years old. What do we have from the past? Art and thought. That’s what lasts. That’s what continues to feed people and given them an idea of something better. A better state of one’s feelings or simply the idea of a silence in one’s self that allows one to think or to feel. Which to me is the same.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)