Total Eclipse of the Heart

In February 1983, a Welsh singer with a husky, gravelly voice released a six-minute power ballad that would become one of the defining songs of the decade. Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was written and produced by Jim Steinman, the theatrical mastermind behind Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell. Tyler had specifically requested Steinman after being blown away by his work, and he delivered a track that built from a quiet piano figure into a roaring, operatic climax. The recording sessions at New York's Power Station featured members of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, Roy Bittan on piano and Max Weinberg on drums, along with guitarist Rick Derringer and a choir of backing vocalists. The result was a song that felt less like a pop single and more like a three-act drama.

The music video, directed by Russell Mulcahy, added to the mystique. Set in a dark, Gothic boarding school, it showed Tyler in a flowing white dress, surrounded by dancing boys and strange, dreamlike imagery. Mulcahy, who had directed the video for "Video Killed the Radio Star," created visuals that matched Steinman's oversized production. The single shot to number one in the UK, knocking Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" off the top spot, and then repeated the feat in the United States, where it held the Billboard Hot 100 top position for four weeks. It also topped charts in Australia, Canada, and several European countries. The parent album, Faster Than the Speed of Night, released in April 1983, became Tyler's biggest seller.

Critical reception at the time was mixed. Rock critic Trevor Dann wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that "Bonnie should be taken to see a Joni Mitchell concert," while The Guardian called it an "amusing, mildly camp curiosity." But the public disagreed. The song earned a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and has since been embraced as a quintessential power ballad. Over the years, it has found new life during real solar eclipses, Spotify streams in the UK jumped 214% during the 2015 eclipse, and digital sales rose 500% in 2017. Tyler celebrated the song's 40th anniversary with a tour in 2023. [edit]