Original Sin (Pandora's Box album)


Original Sin is a concept album performed by Pandora's Box and produced by Jim Steinman. Steinman wrote the majority of this album, although there are a couple of cover versions. It was the group's only album, and was a commercial flop.
Although the album was not a commercial success, many of the songs have gone platinum with other artists. Steinman is said to be very proud of the songs on this album, even though Original Sin sold very poorly in comparison with his highest selling albums and songs. The album charted at #43 in Sweden.
The album was rereleased in 2006 along with a DVD featuring the videos for "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" and "Good Girls Go to Heaven ", a featurette featuring interviews and performances by Steinman.

Videos

s were produced for the songs "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" and "Good Girls Go to Heaven".
Ken Russell directed the video for "It's All Coming Back to Me Now". It was filmed at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. Steinman wrote the script, based on Russell's segment in the compilation opera movie Aria. Elements include leather, snakes, tombstones and cockrings with shrunken heads, and the video featured Caswell as a girl near death—from a motorcycle crash—being ministered to by paramedics, fantasising and being 'sexually aroused by a large python and writhing on a bed that lit up in time with the music, while surrounded by a group of bemused, semi-naked dancers'. When Steinman's manager saw it, he responded 'It's a porno movie!' The two-day shoot ran over schedule and budget, costing £35,000 an hour. Russell and Steinman even designed a sequence where a motorcyclist would cycle up the steps of a local church-tower, jump out of the turrets at the top, and then explode; alas, the wardens of the church refused permission.
The video for "Good Girls Go to Heaven", directed by Brian Grant, was set in a prison. It shows the arrival of a new inmate called Jenny and her induction. As the song begins, the other inmates dance around her. As the prison is signposted as "Pandora's House Of Detention", matching the phrasing in the song "City Night" from Jim Steinman's Neverland / Bat 2100, we can assume this video was intended to depict something within Steinman's "Obsidian" mythos. The only member of Pandora's Box to appear in the video is Ellen Foley - although vocals for this song were performed by Holly Sherwood, not Ellen Foley.

Track listings and cover versions

Steinman regularly reworks previous material for a newer project, and much of Original Sin has been recycled, as listed in the table below. Some demo versions of tracks recorded by others are listed. Some tracks were intended to be released on The Dream Engine's debut album.
Track No.TitleMain VocalistSubsequent Cover VersionsLength
1The InvocationEllen FoleyFeatured in Jim Steinman's musical Neverland, and subsequently reused in '.0:21
2Original Sin Intro and outro by Laura Theodore; lead vocals by all the girls, primarily Gina Taylor and Ellen FoleyTaylor Dayne on the soundtrack to the 1994 movie version of The Shadow; Meat Loaf on Welcome to the Neighborhood; rewritten as "Gott ist tot" and "Einladung zum Ball" for Tanz der Vampire 6:27
3Twentieth Century FoxEllen FoleyCover version: The Doors, though the gender pronouns have been switched to indicate a male "fox". The song opens with the 20th Century Fox Fanfare and includes a snippet of "Light My Fire" at the end. A new lyric during the bridge refers to "In the Midnight Hour" by Wilson Pickett.5:32
4Safe SexGina TaylorA demo of "Safe Sex" performed by Canadian vocalist Karine Hannah has been leaked onto the internet from the period when she was working with Steinman on an ill-fated album; it was expected to appear on The Dream Engine's debut album6:24
5Good Girls Go to Heaven Holly SherwoodThe first version of this song ever released was in Japanese, by Megumi Shiina under the name 悲しみは続かない in 1986. Meat Loaf on '. Also performed in early Manchester previews of Bat Out Of Hell: The Musical and included in the Official Cast Recording.6:25
6Requiem MetalA sample from Verdi's Requiem MassRe-used as backing track for "Wasted Youth" on Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell0:52
7I've Been Dreaming up a Storm LatelyMonologue performed by Jim SteinmanAn earlier version of this piece featured in Steinman's 1969 musical The Dream Engine. Re-used in an early draft of Dance of the Vampires, and in Bat Out Of Hell: The Musical.3:03
8It's All Coming Back to Me NowElaine CaswellCéline Dion on Falling into You; Meat Loaf and Marion Raven on . Featured in all versions of Bat Out Of Hell: The Musical.8:22
9The Opening of the BoxAn extract from "The Storm", from Steinman's 1981 album Bad for GoodThe first incarnation of this melody was heard as the introduction to "Hymn To Fire" within Jim Steinman's play "The Dream Engine" in 1969. Re-used in Dance of the Vampires2:00
10The Want AdMonologue performed by Ellen FoleyFeatured in Jim Steinman's musicals The Dream Engine and Neverland 2:44
11My Little Red BookEllen FoleyThis is a cover version: written by Burt Bacharach; the arrangement closely follows the cover by Love on their first album.4:11
12It Just Won't QuitElaine CaswellMeat Loaf on Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell. Featured in Bat Out Of Hell: The Musical in the initial Manchester and London runs, and included in the Original Cast Recording.6:39
13Pray LewdSolo piano medley of "Original Sin", "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" and "It Just Won't Quit", performed by Steven MargoshesCovered at some Dream Engine/Over the Top concerts3:38
14The Future Ain't What It Used to BeGina TaylorErika Christensen on Wuthering Heights OST ; Meat Loaf and Jennifer Hudson on Bat Out of Hell III10:32

Rory Dodd mostly contributed background vocals and his voice was barely distinguishable in the songs, unlike that of Fire Inc, where he is definitely more audible in the background. Todd Rundgren also helped out with the background vocals this time. Another Bat Out of Hell veteran who contributed with her voice was Ellen Foley.
Note: When the song Safe Sex was released as a single, it was released under the title "Safe Sex ".

Personnel

Pandora's Box

In the slipstream of the release of Meat Loaf's , Virgin / EMI released a two disc special edition. The first disc contains the remastered original album, while the second disc is a DVD, containing the two promo videos, and some additional promotional footage.

DVD track listing

  1. "Jim Steinman Opens Pandora's Box" – 18:18
  2. "Prologue " – 0:58
  3. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" – 6:38
  4. "Good Girls Go to Heaven " – 6:12

    DVD credits

  5. Produced and Directed by Mark Wightwick, Executive Producer: Sue Winter
  6. Directed by Ken Russell, produced by Vasconcellos
  7. Directed by Ken Russell, produced by Vasconcellos
  8. Directed by Brian Grant, produced by Jonathan Cooke
DVD Produced by Abbey Road Interactive