Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler

About

“Total Eclipse of the Heart” was written by Jim Steinman and released by Bonnie Tyler in 1983. It reached number 1 in several countries, including the UK and US. The “turn around, bright eyes” refrain originates from ‘The Dream Engine’, a musical that Steinman composed in 1969. The melody from the verses originally appeared in his score for the 1980 film ‘A Small Circle of Friends’. Tyler met Steinman in 1982 after she signed with CBS Records. He was initially reulctant to work with Tyler, but found they had a similar taste in music and a shared interest in Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound technique. After their initial meeting, Tyler returned to Steinman’s New York apartment a few weeks later where he performed the song with Rory Dodd. Steinman did not provide Tyler with a demo tape; she learned the song beside him at the piano. “Total Eclipse of the Heart” features on Tyler’s studio album ‘Faster Than the Speed of Night’, which Steinman produced. He picked the backing band, which included members of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and Rick Derringer. In 2003, Tyler recorded a bilingual version of the song with French singer Kareen Antonn. Their version spent ten weeks at number 1 in France. While the song remains an evergreen hit, it has experienced heightened popularity during real solar eclipses. In 2015, the song received a 214% increase of Spotify streams in the UK. During another solar eclipse in 2017, Tyler performed the song live aboard the Oasis of the Seas with DNCE, preceeding a 500% increase in digital sales internationally.