<P> Steinman is credited with the album cover concept, which was illustrated by Richard Corben . The cover depicts a motorcycle, ridden by a long - haired man, bursting out of the ground in a graveyard . In the background, a large bat perches atop a mausoleum that towers above the rest of the tombstones . In 2001, Q magazine listed the cover as number 71 in its list of "The Hundred Best Record Covers of All Time ." </P> <P> Steinman had wanted equal billing with Meat Loaf on the album's title; he wanted it to be called "Jim Steinman presents ..." or "Jim and Meat," or vice versa . For marketing reasons, the record company wished to make' Meat Loaf' the recognizable name . As a compromise, the words "Songs by Jim Steinman" appear relatively prominently on the cover . The singer believes that this was probably the beginning of their "ambivalent relationship ." </P> <P> The phrase "Bat Out of Hell" can be traced back to the Greek playwright Aristophanes' 414 B.C. work titled The Birds . In it is what is believed to be the first reference to a bat out of Hell: </P> <P> Near by the land of the Sciapodes there is a marsh, from the borders whereof the unwashed Socrates evokes the souls of men . Pisander came one day to see his soul, which he had left there when still alive . He offered a little victim, a camel, slit his throat and, following the example of Odysseus, stepped one pace backwards . Then that bat of a Chaerephon came up from hell to drink the camel's blood . </P>

Where did the term bat out of hell come from