Total Eclipse of the Heart

Total Eclipse of the Heart is a 1982 song performed by Bonnie Tyler , written and produced by Jim Steinman . The piece appeared on Tyler's album Faster Than the Speed of Night .

Emergence

The song was originally offered to singer Meat Loaf for his album Midnight at the Lost and Found . However, Meat Loaf's record company refused to pay Steinman for it, so Meat Loaf wrote the songs for his album himself.

The original album version of the song is more than seven minutes long, which is why a shortened version is usually played on the radio. The second and third verses were removed and the extended fade-out shortened so that the playing time is only 4:30 minutes. The version used for the music video, which has retained the second verse, is about five and a half minutes long.

Participating musicians

Bonnie Tyler - vocals
Rick Derringer - guitar
Steve Buslowe - bass
Roy Bittan - piano
Larry Fast - synthesizer
Steve Margoshes - additional synthesizers
Max Weinberg - drums
Jimmy Maelen - percussion
Rory Dodd - backing vocals , sings the line turn around
Eric Troyer - backing vocals

Video

The music video for Total Eclipse of the Heart was filmed in the Holloway Sanatorium in England. The storyboard comes from Jim Steinman, who was inspired by the film Futureworld - The Land of Tomorrow . Directed by Russell Mulcahy . The video shows Bonnie Tyler, dressed in white, who has a dream or fantasy about students in a boys' boarding school. The male protagonists dance and take part in various school activities such as swimming, fencing, football and singing in a choir. Jim Steinman had considered the title "Vampires In Love" for the song. Accordingly, he influenced director Russell Mulcahy to make the video look more like a vampire story. Bonnie Tyler was very dissatisfied with this interpretation, and a dispute arose between her and Russell Mulcahy and Jim Steinman as well.

successes

The song peaked at number one in the UK, US, Australia, Canada and Norway. In Sweden and Switzerland the single climbed to number three, in Germany the single reached number 16. In the Billboard annual charts for 1983 the title was number six. Tyler is the only singer from Wales to have a number one hit so far had in the US. The piece was the climax of Tyler's career and is considered Steinman's most successful song. Over five million records have been sold worldwide. In 1983 the song won the UK's Variety Club Award for Best Single of the Year.

In November 2002 the song was voted number 72 of the "Greatest Number 1 Hits of All Time" in Great Britain. Also in Great Britain, it reached 94th place in a poll for the “greatest music video of all time”. In October 2006, the song was voted number 56 of the “100 VH1's Greatest Hits of the 80s”. The song was the content of the trailer for the computer game Battlefield 4 .

Brian Molko , the lead singer of the band Placebo , describes the song as his "absolute favorite song".

A slightly modified version of the song ( Totale Finsternis ) plays a central role in the musical Tanz der Vampire , the melodies of which were also composed by Jim Steinmann.

Cover versions

The London Symphony Orchestra recorded an orchestral version of the piece in 1989, which can be heard on the album Rock Monuments .
Nicki French released a dance version in 1994 that became a worldwide success. This version made it to number two in the US and Australia, and number five in the UK.
In 1997 Michael Kunze rewrote the song for the musical Tanz der Vampire with the title Total Darkness . A Czech version (Úplné zatmění) now also exists.
In 2001 Jan Wayne had a great success with his dance version.
In December 2003, an English-French duet version entitled Si demain… (Turn Around) was published. It was sung by Bonnie Tyler and Kareen Antonn and reached number one in France and Belgium; in Switzerland the version made it to number seven and was sold around two million times worldwide.
The Norwegian band Hurra Torpedo released a cover version in 2005, which had a comparatively large range for the band due to the use of kitchen furniture as drums.
In 2006 Westlife recorded the song for their album The Love Album .
In January 2007, BabyPinkStar recorded the song with Bonnie Tyler in a punk / electro remix version.
In 2010 the song was covered in the television series Glee .
In 2010 the song was covered by the British-Irish boy band One Direction on the British talent show X Factor .
In 2010, Zachary Gordon sang the song in Greg's diary - Surrounded by Idiots!
In 2011 there was an Italian version called Eclissi Del Cuore , sung by L'Aura feat. Nek .
In 2013 the song was used in the game Battlefield 4 .

Awards for music sales

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Australia (ARIA)	4 × platinum	280,000
Denmark (IFPI)	gold	45,000
France (SNEP)	gold	500,000
Italy (FIMI)	platinum	50,000
Canada (MC)	platinum	100,000
United States (RIAA)	platinum	1,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	gold	400,000
All in all	3 × gold 7 × platinum	2,375,000

Web links

Music video on YouTube

Individual evidence

↑ Meat Loaf's a Hell raiser

↑ Bonnie Tyler. Retrieved January 11, 2019 .

↑ hitparade.ch

↑ Top 100 Hits for 1983 . ( Memento of the original from November 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Longbored surfer. @1@ 2