Ellen Foley's passionate and commanding voice, combined with her acting talent and dance moves, has paved the way for a long and diverse career. She moved from her hometown of St. Louis to New York City at age 21, and by the mid-1970s she was touring as a performer in That National Lampoon Show. It was during this period that she met fellow actors Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman, the singer and songwriter behind the soon-to-be Top 40 hit “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.” An eight-minute ode to teenage sex and romance, “Paradise” featured Foley’s voice assuming the female role to Meat Loaf’s lustful male lead. She also provided backing vocals on an additional trio of tracks on the resulting 'Bat Out of Hell' (1977), an album that has gone on to sell over 50 million copies worldwide (14 million in the U.S.).

After the success of 'Bat Out of Hell', Foley released a trio of solo albums in collaboration with such legends as Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson, and The Clash. She also kept busy with session work, singing on albums by Blue Öyster Cult, Joe Jackson, Dan Hartman, and Bonnie Tyler. Parallel to her rock career, Foley enjoyed steady work as both a stage and screen actress. Many of her fans know Foley as public defender Billie Young in the NBC-TV series 'Night Court', which she starred in for its first season (1984-1985).

In 2021, Foley released her fifth solo album, 'Fighting Words'. Classic Rock Magazine called the album “Vintage jukebox Americana” while American Songwriter proclaimed “Fighting Words is one of the greatest and most passionately true rock albums in recent times. Ellen Foley is a remarkable singer of multitudes: the only one in history to star in a Sondheim musical and also sing with The Clash and Meat Loaf.”