Meat Loaf – A Time For Heroes (1987)

Song Story

It’s 1987, and something unexpected starts popping up in the pages of Marvel Comics: an illustrated version of Meat Loaf, standing onstage, proclaiming, “Special Olympians are the real heroes. I’m gonna give ’em everything I’ve got. But who’s gonna help me?”.

Cue the entrance of Marvel’s entire superhero roster — Hulk, Wolverine, and the rest — rallying behind him and offering help. The ad invites readers to fill out a mail-in coupon to order a charity single called ‘A Time for Heroes’, with proceeds going to the Special Olympics, the major sporting event for athletes with disabilities, held that year in Indiana.

“I was working at a marketing communications company, The Juhl Agency, as an account supervisor and occasionally wrote jingles for clients”, told me co-author of the song M. Scott Sotebeer. “I also played regularly in a blues band, The Sharks. The 1987 International Summer Special Olympics Games Committee was looking for theme music to go with the games marketing theme we had developed, ‘A Time for Heroes’, so I proposed a charity record project”.

Sotebeer reached out to an old childhood friend, Jon Lyons, a bassist who had moved to Los Angeles and joined Tommy Tutone, playing on their hit ‘867-5309/Jenny’. Lyons first composed an instrumental tune, also called ‘A Time For Heroes’, which went to Tangerine Dream, before the two began shaping the anthem itself: “I wrote the original words and music for the lyrical song, and we began to shop it to various artists, including Steve Perry, Triumph, and others. We met with Steve at his home, as Jon had produced a separate demo track for Steve to listen to. We were all excited about the project. However, Steve’s mother became very ill, and he decided he could not do the project”.

Next in line on their wishlist was Canadian band Triumph: “I went to Toronto to meet with Rik Emmet and Gil Moore at their studio. Rik wanted to change some lyrics and do a demo for MCA. We got some lyric changes approved – Emmet was indeed appointed a writing credit – and then I picked up the demo from the band in Cincinnati a few weeks later, while they were on tour. MCA ultimately told them they could not do the project”. 

Luckily, Sotebeer and Lyons kept other doors open in the meantime: “We had been talking to Meat Loaf about the project as well, and he was interested. He had European tour dates coming up and would be in NYC rehearsing. Jon and I went to his house in Connecticut for chili with his wife and kids, and ‘Meat’ agreed to do the project. We recorded the base tracks and lead vocal in New York. Then we sent tapes to Amsterdam for the background vocals while they were touring”.

The instrumental tracks were handled by Lyons alongside two of Meat Loaf’s trusted collaborators: Bob Kulick on guitar and Chuck Burgi on drums, both veterans with endless credits to their names. Then fate stepped in one last time: “We brought the tracks to L.A. for mixing. Jon and I were in the studio when the engineer told me that Brian May was recording in the suite next to us. I wrote a quick note and sent it in, asking Brian to help us with the International Special Olympics theme song featuring Meat Loaf, and would he put a lead track down. Brian came out and agreed after he heard the raw track. He recorded his track over the next several days, providing us with his classic and signature lead sound and style”. 

The campaign generated solid publicity around the time of the Special Olympics, but the song itself, a surprisingly strong slice of anthemic AOR, soon slipped into obscurity. For fans of Meat Loaf, Brian May, or just that glossy late-’80s rock sound, it’s a forgotten gem worth tracking down, either on the original 7” or CD single, or on one of the various compilations where it occasionally resurfaces (sometimes under the shorter title ‘Heroes’).

“After the games – Sotebeer wraps it up – Jon and I went on to form a band signed to Mica Records, George Michael’s short-lived label. He changed his name to Nathan Crow and we became Nathan Crow And The Wedding Band, doing shows and recording in NYC, Austin, and Los Angeles. Jon eventually moved on to Nashville for many years as a songwriter and producer. He then moved back to Santa Monica, where he died – in 2011 – after a bout with a serious illness“.

🟥 Song Story is a series of articles about famous hits and forgotten deep cuts, tracing their origins, detours, and legacy. A full index can be found here.