"Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" is a song composed and written by Jim Steinman, and recorded by Meat Loaf. The song was released in 1994 as the third single from the album Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell and it reached number 38 on US's Billboard Hot 100, and number 26 in the UK Top 40. With its chart success, this song became the hit with the longest un-bracketed title at fifty-two characters . The title is derived from the safety warning on car side mirrors in the US, "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear". Parts of the melody were adapted from Steinman's earlier tune "Surf's Up", which appears on Steinman's solo album Bad for Good. Steinman later reused the melody, with new lyrics by Michael Kunze, for "Die Unstillbare Gier", a song in the Tanz der Vampire productions, and for "Confession of a Vampire" in the ill-fated US version (Dance of the Vampires). Music and lyrics "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" is a three-part narrative, centred upon the seasons summer, winter and spring. Time describes the singer as "haunted by three pushy ghosts : a friend , a father , a long lost love." According to Allmusic, the song draws "its inspiration from the singer's often-tragic childhood. The lyrics portray a man who has overcome tragedies in his life yet still feels haunted by their memory." BBC.co.uk also says that the song about a "melancholy middle-aged man reminiscing about his youth... is in many ways uncomfortably close to home, dealing as it does with episodes uncannily similar to events in his own life." Steinman says that it was "the hardest song to write and get across." It's a very passionate song. It's really, I think maybe, the most passionate one on the record. I mean, I'm really proud of it because that's really one that goes over-the-top in the sense that it's got images – it has religious imagery of resurrection, it's got images of fertility and rebirth, it has really very good sexual images, images of cars – which I always like. During interviews in later years, Meat Loaf rejected the notion that the song was based on his own life. Writing for Investigate magazine, Ian Wishart "recalls seeing a video years ago where he [Meat Loaf] talked of the