Total Eclipse of the Heart

"Total Eclipse of the Heart" is a song recorded by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler. It was written and produced by Jim Steinman, and released on Tyler's fifth studio album, Faster Than the Speed of Night (1983). The song was released as a single by Columbia Records on 11 February 1983 in the United Kingdom and on 31 May 1983 in the United States.

The song became Tyler's biggest career hit, topping the UK Singles Chart, and becoming the fifth-best-selling single in 1983 in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the single spent four weeks at the top of the charts, and was Billboard's number-six song of the year for 1983. The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Worldwide, the single has sales in excess of 6 million copies[1]  and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over 1 million copies after its release, updated to Platinum in 2001 when the certification threshold changed.[2]  In 2015, the song was voted by the British public as the nation's third favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.[3]

Background and composition
After her contract with RCA Records ended in 1981, Tyler found a new manager in David Aspden and after seeing Meat Loaf perform "Bat Out of Hell" live on The Old Grey Whistle Test, approached Meat Loaf's producer Jim Steinman and asked him to be her producer.[4]  Tyler visited Steinman in his apartment in New York in April 1982 with her manager, where she was presented with two tracks: "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" and "Goin' Through the Motions". She stated that had she not liked the songs Steinman played for her, he would have rejected Tyler's invitation to collaborate.[4]  She returned to his studio apartment weeks later, where Steinman and Rory Dodd performed "Total Eclipse of the Heart" for her. He also hand-picked the recording band for the song.[5]

"Total Eclipse of the Heart" had to be shortened for radio play. Tyler did not believe that the song was radio-friendly at its full length; the song was reduced from seven minutes and two seconds to four minutes and thirty seconds.[6]

The power ballad[7]  became Tyler's highest charting song in several countries; peaking at No. 1 in the United States, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom. At its peak, it sold 60,000 copies per day, and approximately 6 million copies in total.[1]  It won the Variety Club award in the UK for best single of 1983.[8]  The song also made number 82 of VH1's top 100 love songs.

Tyler told Record Mirror that she thought the song was about "someone who wants to love so badly she's lying there in complete darkness."[9]

Steinman said in an interview with Playbill: with 'Total Eclipse of the Heart', I was trying to come up with a love song and I remembered I actually wrote that to be a vampire love song. Its original title was 'Vampires in Love' because I was working on a musical of Nosferatu, the other great vampire story. If anyone listens to the lyrics, they're really like vampire lines. It's all about the darkness, the power of darkness and love's place in the dark...[10] He also told People magazine that he thought Tyler sounded like John Fogerty, and wrote the song "to be a showpiece for her voice."[11]  Tyler described the song as "a challenge [to sing]," stating that she "[doesn't] like songs that anybody can sing. I like songs that need a lot of energy." After Steinman presented her with the song she told The Times, "I just had shivers right up my spine. ... I couldn't wait to actually get in and record it."[12]

According to Meat Loaf, Steinman had written the song, along with "Making Love Out of Nothing at All", for Meat Loaf's album Midnight at the Lost and Found; however, Meat Loaf's record company refused to pay Steinman and he wrote separate songs himself. "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was then given to Bonnie Tyler and "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" to Air Supply.[13]  Tyler has denied this claim.[14]  "Meat Loaf was apparently very annoyed that Jim gave that to me," Tyler stated. "But Jim said he didn't write it for Meat Loaf, that he only finished it after meeting me."<sup id="cite_ref-15">[15]

In an interview with journalist Mick Wall shortly after the release of Meat Loaf's 2006 album Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose, Steinman stated: "I didn't write [Total Eclipse of the Heart] for anyone but Bonnie." Steinman believed that CBS were expecting him to write something similar to "It's a Heartache", but he had different ideas.<sup id="cite_ref-16">[16]

Critical reception
Mike DeGagne from AllMusic retrospectively described "Total Eclipse of the Heart" as "one of the finest ballads ever to hit radio." He noted the "lush instrumentation" and said that Tyler's voice "produced the perfect type of 'desperate lovelorn' effect to suit the romantic lyrics." He described Roy Bittan's piano playing as "dreamy" and described Tyler's voice as "wonderfully gritty."<sup id="cite_ref-17">[17]  Donald A. Guarisco, also from AllMusic, retrospectively reviewed Faster Than the Speed of Night, and noted the song as an "epic ballad," describing the whole album as "rock at its most melodramatic."<sup id="cite_ref-18">[18]  Jim Beviglia from American Songwriter said that Tyler's raspy vocals helped to legitimize the "melodrama inherent in the lyrics," and described the song as a "garment-rending, chest-beating [and] emotionally exhausting ballad" that suits the throes of a turbulent relationship.<sup id="cite_ref-AmericanSongwriterReview_11-1">[11]

Music video
Holloway Sanatorium steps, which feature in the video

The music video for "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was directed by Russell Mulcahy<sup id="cite_ref-19">[19]  and was filmed on location at the Holloway Sanatorium, a large Victorian Gothic hospital near Virginia Water, Surrey, England.<sup id="cite_ref-20">[20]  The video features Bonnie Tyler clad in white, dreaming or fantasizing about her students in a boys' boarding school. Young men are seen dancing and participating in various school activities and singing in a choir.

The video received two nominations at the Billboard Video Music Awards in 1983 for Best Performance by a Female and Most Effective Use of Symbolism.<sup id="cite_ref-21">[21]

A long-running urban legend is that the boy who appears throughout the video and who shakes Tyler's hand at the end is former Italian footballer Gianfranco Zola. In a 2012 interview, Zola confirmed that he did not appear in the video.<sup id="cite_ref-22">[22]  As of August 2019, the video had more than 620 million views.<sup id="cite_ref-23">[23]

Live performances
Since the song's release, Tyler performs "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in every concert she performs.<sup id="cite_ref-24">[24]  "I sing it much better now than I used to," she told The Huffington Post. "I think my voice is probably not as husky as it was, I think it's mellowed a bit."<sup id="cite_ref-25">[25]  The song was performed at the 26th Annual Grammy Awards, held at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, on 28 February 1984.<sup id="cite_ref-26">[26]  Tyler performed a brief, live performance of this song on a Royal Caribbean cruise during the solar eclipse of 21 August 2017.<sup id="cite_ref-27">[27] <sup id="cite_ref-28">[28]

Live recordings of Tyler performing the song have been released on her live albums Bonnie Tyler Live (2006) and Live in Germany 1993 (2011). Video performances have also been released on Tyler's DVDs, Bonnie on Tour (2006) and the DVD edition of Live in Germany 1993.

Formats and track listings
UK 7" single<sup id="cite_ref-29">[29] US 7" single UK 12" single
 * 1) "Total Eclipse of the Heart" – 4:29
 * 2) "Take Me Back" – 5:05
 * 1) "Total Eclipse of the Heart" – 4:29
 * 2) "Straight from the Heart" – 3:38
 * 1) "Total Eclipse of the Heart" – 6:59
 * 2) "Take Me Back" – 5:22

Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from AllMusic (from the album, Faster Than the Speed of Night):<sup id="cite_ref-30">[30]
 * Bonnie Tyler – lead vocals
 * Rick Derringer – guitar
 * Steve Buslowe – bass guitar
 * Roy Bittan – piano
 * Larry Fast – synthesizers
 * Steve Margoshes – additional synthesizers
 * Max Weinberg – drums
 * Jimmy Maelen – percussion
 * Holly Sherwood – lead backing vocals
 * Rory Dodd – "Turn around" and backing vocals
 * Eric Troyer – backing vocals

Charts and certifications
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Sales and certifications[edit]

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Impact
In a 2013 UK survey, the song came first in a list of most popular songs to sing in the shower, above songs by Justin Bieber, Robbie Williams, One Direction and Elton John.<sup id="cite_ref-76">[76]  In 2015 the song was voted by the British public as the nation's third favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.<sup id="cite_ref-77">[77]

"Total Eclipse of the Heart" received substantial media attention during the solar eclipse of March 20, 2015. Tyler's version received a 214% increase of Spotify streams throughout the day.<sup id="cite_ref-78">[78]  A similar impact was experienced during the solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, when Nielsen Music reported a 503% increase in record sales.<sup id="cite_ref-79">[79]  Around that time, the song hit number one on the iTunes chart.<sup id="cite_ref-80">[80]  On 16 August 2017, it was announced that Tyler would perform the song aboard the MS Oasis of the Seas during the total solar eclipse, backed by American dance-rock band DNCE.<sup id="cite_ref-81">[81]

In 2014, the Electric Picnic festival announced Bonnie Tyler as part of the lineup.<sup id="cite_ref-82">[82]  Tickets were already sold out, though Irish rugby player Cian Healy won the Irish Women's rugby team extra tickets for a comic miming video published on Instagram.<sup id="cite_ref-83">[83]

Other versions by Bonnie Tyler
Since the original release in 1983, Tyler has re-recorded the song several times for albums and subsequent single releases. Her first and most successful re-recording of the song was released in 2003. Tyler recorded a French/English duet version called "Si demain... (Turn Around)" with Kareen Antonn. It peaked at number one in France and Belgium.<sup id="cite_ref-84">[84] <sup id="cite_ref-85">[85]  Tyler released another version of the song in 2004 as a duet with Peter Brocklehurst on his album For You.<sup id="cite_ref-86">[86]  A solo version of the recording was released on her studio album Wings in the following year.

BabyPinkStar recorded the song with Tyler in a punk/electronic remix version that was released as a single in the UK in January 2007.<sup id="cite_ref-87">[87]  In 2009, Tyler released another version of the song with Welsh choral group [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Only_Men_Aloud! Only Men Aloud!]<sup id="cite_ref-BBC_1-2">[1]  In 2011, Tyler re-recorded the song on an EP named after the song, released by Cleopatra Records.<sup id="cite_ref-88">[88]  Her most recent recording of the song appears as a bonus track on her album Rocks and Honey (2013).