Bonny Tyler's Total Eclipse Of The Heart: classic or dud?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I had an epiphany on Saturday night. I was at a party, it was three o'clock in the morning when a luscious drag queen staged a dramatic entry down the stairs into the lounge. On the stereo was Total Eclipse Of The Heart, a song that has always made my skin crawl and my stomach heave. And yet suddenly I realised that it was, in fact, nothing but the purest of genius...

― Fred Zed, Monday, 27 October 2003 14:32 (twenty-two years ago)

― Alan (Alan), Monday, 27 October 2003 14:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Fuckin' classic, of course. Anyone who says otherwise is a humorless enemy of joy.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 October 2003 14:38 (twenty-two years ago)

TOTAL CLASSIC. Biggest ballad ever to stalk the Earth, surely! You can hear them really pushing the available limits to make the most colossal pop possible, plus it's a great vocal performance.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 27 October 2003 14:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Synchronicity or what?

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 27 October 2003 14:39 (twenty-two years ago)

This is one of the few songs I really detested when I was 10 which I love now. "Pass The Dutchie" is another.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 27 October 2003 14:41 (twenty-two years ago)

But is the latter only because of Missy Elliott?

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 27 October 2003 14:45 (twenty-two years ago)

No, it's because it's great (unlike "Pass That Dutch" alas)! I didn't like reggae much at all until quite recently and then like a lot of other dabblers I was converted by Soul Jazz.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 27 October 2003 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)

That new Britfunk comp from Soul Jazz is quite magnificent.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 27 October 2003 14:53 (twenty-two years ago)

i'm with Tom here, except i can't help but love 'Pass That Dutch' (it's Missy, it's 'Work it' with drug refs, duh)

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 27 October 2003 14:54 (twenty-two years ago)

stevem blueski OTM. I am beginning to suspect we share a brain.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 October 2003 14:55 (twenty-two years ago)

It's "Work It" without a good hook :(

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 27 October 2003 14:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Best "Work It" sequel around at the moment = Blazing Squad's "Flip Reverse"

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 27 October 2003 14:55 (twenty-two years ago)

It's "Work It" with a De La Soul quote and even more extreme booty shaking!

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 October 2003 14:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Work It > Pass That Dutch obv. but i like the latter cos it feels a bit heavier than the former and is also a little faster.

back to Bonnie though, isn't 'turn around bright eyes' an interesting line?

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 27 October 2003 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Sadly I don't think much of Miss E or "Work It," nor indeed of the new Sugababes or new Kylie or new Ellix-Bextor or new Holly Valance or new Rachel S Club records either, and my most played CDs at home, apart from the aforementioned Britfunk comp, are currently Camera Obscura and Belle & Sebastian. No doubt I have finally turned into Nick Hornby, and even less doubt that this is the prelude to the chap in the white coat in ten years' time asking me if I know the name of the Prime Minister.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 27 October 2003 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)

oh but Scooter are genius ;)

no-one mention Nikki French (oh shit)

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 27 October 2003 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)

pointless perhaps but Work It > Total Eclipse Of The Heart > Pass That Dutch > Sweet Dreams My La Ex > Slow > Mixed Up World > Hole In The Head (which i think is just OKAY)

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Nikki French was one of my college crushes, despite the fact that I had no idea what she looked like.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

To vaguely drag the thread back on topic - where did megaballads like Total Eclipse vanish to? Who now does them?

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Xtina! (See the song she put on the "Honey" soundtrack.)

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah I was thinking Xtina, "Beautiful" is certainly fairly large.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm getting to the point where I think I would rather have had Liam Watson producing the new Sugababes album down at Toerag instead of handing them over to Diane bloody Warren or the 4 Friggin Non-Blondes.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 27 October 2003 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I hear Busted use guitars!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

People should re-evaluate Xtina's _Stripped_ album because it is secretly fantastic.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:17 (twenty-two years ago)

No they shouldn't; it is publicly rubbish, first single notwithstanding.

Julio to thread on how Busted should be using D Bailey and K Rowe's guitars.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 27 October 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

i think Celine Dion killed off the epic windswept ballad. I usually hate them so am not bothered - quite glad even, she had her uses after all.

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry Marcello, but I disagree (aka NYAH NYAH NYAH YOU ARE WRONG OMG!!!!11!!!).

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Any album with "Make-Over" and "Dirrty" on it must by definition be fantastic.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:23 (twenty-two years ago)

The cover makes me vomit.

Diane Warren killed off the windswept epic ballad - definitely the Michael Ray to Jim Steinman's Howard Hawks.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 27 October 2003 15:24 (twenty-two years ago)

but epic ballads were still popular and common up to the late 90s.

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

This was the first time I ever had a "favorite song." My dad had built a bonfire in the back yard for New Year's eve and my folks had let me bring out the radio for the Casey Kasem Top 40 Songs of the Year, and I was crushed when it didn't make #1. ("Every Breath You Take" beat it.)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

i...meant...artistically...

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 27 October 2003 15:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Diane Warren killed off the windswept epic ballad

OTfuckingM (and Marcello's right about Stripped as well though Dan is correct that "Make Over" is genius, very demented genius. Alas, there is nothing else on the album quite so good or gone, though "Beautiful" is sure as hell trying to be Jim Steinman, which takes us back to the subject of the thread, and said Bonnie Tyler song is great and the video is weird as hell).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:41 (twenty-two years ago)

yes, celine dion AND bryan adams have really taken the wind out of the epic ballads' sails by churning out such drivel. goddamn canadians.

TEOTH is an abolute classic. i second ned's comment about the video...

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:46 (twenty-two years ago)

classic. i loved this song so much as a kid. my dad and i would sit around making mix tapes off of mtv when we got a stereo hookup for the television, and i remember being so excited when it came on.
about the video, am i crazy or was there some fellow with glowing eyes in it?

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:47 (twenty-two years ago)

but WHYYY 'bright eyes'? i mean i guess that's part of the reason why he wants her to turn around, and 'turn around, sweet cheeks' would never have worked as well

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Heh, I like the way on your list Marcello you exhort us to admit TEOTH is a classic - everybody in the universe likes it and needs little prompting to say so! (NB I would have taken "They Don't Know" over "Breakaway" Ullman-wise though both are v.good)

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:50 (twenty-two years ago)

But I wonder how many people who've posted on this thread actually own a recording of TEOTH or have have given it a spin any time in the last 15 years. The enjoyment of songs such as this is essentially passive. Yes, I can get a little something out of it in a camp, ironic way, the way it might be played as a party entrance for a drag queen as per the original post, but essentially I don't have any time for power ballads. It may be uncool to say it, but say it I will: DUD

― H., Monday, 27 October 2003 15:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I last listened to it yesterday evening H!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:53 (twenty-two years ago)

There's an Air Supply song (also by Steinman?) which sounds just like TEOTH, but I can't remember what it is now.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 27 October 2003 15:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Fair enough, Tico! And yet I still say it's one big overripe absurd dud!

― H., Monday, 27 October 2003 15:57 (twenty-two years ago)

tracer, i think you're thinking of "making love out of nothing at all," which is even more over the top than "teoth" if that's possible. at one point, the singer declares that he can "make all the stadiums rock."

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:00 (twenty-two years ago)

speaking of over the top, let's not forget REO Speedwagon's 'Keep On Loving You', or anything by Toto, Asia... it's as if producers in the early 80s suddenly discovered multitrack recording and a magical effect called 'echo'.

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Is anyone going to stand up for 'Keep On Loving You'?

― H., Monday, 27 October 2003 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't know it!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:09 (twenty-two years ago)

And I meant, every word I said
When I said that I love you, I meant that I'd love you forever
And I'm gonna keep on loving you
Cause it's the only thing I wanna do
I don't wanna sleep
I just wanna keep on loving you

strangest punctuation ever: they put a comma in the pause in the firt line, but then fail to put one after 'keep' in the last.

Another vote for TEOTH being stone cold classic.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

i can't remember when i last heard TEOTH and i don't intend to listen to it now or in the near future either.

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I can remember when you last hear it Stevem.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:18 (twenty-two years ago)

But I wonder how many people who've posted on this thread actually own a recording of TEOTH or have have given it a spin any time in the last 15 years.

A friend of mine gave me the disc, Faster than the Speed of Night as a housewarming present in 1996. It gets an annual airing at least.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd800/d809/d80967c3i9w.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Skipping 112 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I can't believe that no-one has yet mentioned that militant Muslim groups allegedly love Bonnie Tyler and TEOFTH and listen to it while getting revved up for battle.

Total classic.

― Sarah Pedal (call mr. lee), Thursday, 30 October 2003 03:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't believe that no-one has yet mentioned that militant Muslim groups allegedly love Bonnie Tyler and TEOFTH and listen to it while getting revved up for battle.

Source?

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 30 October 2003 05:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, according to this, Mohammed died on the same day Bonnie Tyler was born hundreds of years later. Uh, yeah.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 30 October 2003 05:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Popbitch claimed that TEOTH was the number one choice listening for bosnian snipers or chechen rebels or something...

― Jacob (Jacob), Thursday, 30 October 2003 09:17 (twenty-two years ago)

"Basically it seems that liking this song or not is completely dependent upon how willing you are to let your emotions be artificcially manipulated by a pop single." - Dan

This should be in the FAQ!!!

I figure the reason I can't stomach power ballads like this one is that they're embarassing, though I don't mean that as a pejorative. Bonnie Tyler sounds so exposed, so naked when she sings TEOTH that I feel embarassed for her when I listen to it. It's the same feeling I get when hanging out with singers who frequently burst into song in public. In one sense I envy them for being so free and unrestrained, but I also know I'm not like that. When I want ballads, I listen to singers who sound timid or beaten down but still composed enough to sing their song with their head held high (Billie Holliday, Nick Drake, Robert Johnson, etc).

― Dave M. (rotten03), Thursday, 30 October 2003 10:25 (twenty-two years ago)

hey Dan your last thing confused me. Are you saying I don't let pop manipulate me or that I do? Cuz I'm SERIOUSLY pop's bitch.

Look at how I originally spelled "artificially".

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 30 October 2003 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

REVIVE! Been listening to this a lot in the last week, the full-length album version (which I'm not sure I'd heard before). Six and a half minutes of bliss.

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 5 October 2006 13:16 (nineteen years ago)

C L A S S I C !

― mister the guanoman (mister the guanoman), Thursday, 5 October 2006 13:25 (nineteen years ago)

Is this the original Guilty Pleasures thread?

Actually, come to think about it "Make Over" is pretty out there...

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 5 October 2006 13:29 (nineteen years ago)

That Steinman fantasy upthread!

W T F

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 5 October 2006 14:09 (nineteen years ago)

i don't like it, sorry

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Thursday, 5 October 2006 14:29 (nineteen years ago)

bye then.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 5 October 2006 14:30 (nineteen years ago)

the most absurd part of this song might be the 40-something second fadeout

― Jimmy Mod is like a child who walks into the middle of a movie (The Famous Jimmy, Thursday, 5 October 2006 15:44 (nineteen years ago)

to this day, I still comb the pages of every X-Men comic that comes out, in the hopes that this will finally be the issue where someone sneaks up behind Cyclops, holds a gun (or claw, or whatever) to his head, and says "Don't turn around, bright eyes."

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Thursday, 5 October 2006 15:48 (nineteen years ago)

I was SURE this thread was revived because of this:

Total Eclipse of the Lawsuit
He was a retiring co-pilot. She was an aging 80's rocker flying first class. No one expected her multi-platinum hit to "fall apart" but when Air France flight attendants awoke Bonnie Tyler and asked her to sing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in honor of a pilot making his final flight, passengers did more than just "turn around", they up and sued the airline. According to reports, a group of disgruntled travelers, believed to be Belgian, first lodged a complaint claiming they were traumatized by the experience, and are now alleging in a lawsuit, that Tyler's 1983 hit incited a celebration so raucous they feared for their safety. Good thing she didn't try "Holding Out For a Hero" or things might have really turned ugly.

By Emil Steiner | September 6, 2006; 2:29 PM ET

― chaki (chaki), Thursday, 5 October 2006 16:14 (nineteen years ago)

Personally my fave Steinman is "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That),"

You're a sick man. I see your broader point about JS though. As with Bat Out of Hell, I played the hell out of it for a while after buying it (the 7" in this case) but I don't know if I'll ever put it on again. Classic with a shelf life?

― Sundar (sundar), Thursday, 5 October 2006 19:56 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

I don't understand why anyone in their right mind would like this song now, despite the fact that I loved it when it came out.

― Bimble, Friday, 23 May 2008 10:46 (seventeen years ago)

Thank fuck I'm not in my right mind.

― Dingbod Kesterson, Friday, 23 May 2008 10:48 (seventeen years ago)

total classic. awesome beyond belief. age shall not wither her.

― m the g, Friday, 23 May 2008 10:52 (seventeen years ago)

I'm not sure I "like" it, in the traditional sense - it's not a song I'm going to go home and put on and soak in because I want to, ever - but one has t6o admire the sheer fucking structural power of it. It's a phenomenon.

― Scik Mouthy, Friday, 23 May 2008 10:56 (seventeen years ago)

Tyler's duet with Todd Rundgren on "Loving You Is a Dirty Job (But Somebody's Got To Do It)" is IMO Tyler and Steinman's best moment. Great title too.

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 23 May 2008 11:15 (seventeen years ago)

Great song, and I guess everyone's already seen awesome cover of it.

― Tuomas, Friday, 23 May 2008 11:26 (seventeen years ago)

I liked the Eurodance cover version of this song too. Actually, I think there were two Eurodance covers of it back in the nineties, but the first one was better.

― Tuomas, Friday, 23 May 2008 11:29 (seventeen years ago)

The Hurra Torpedo version is of course classic.

They actually did this as part of a project where they would "slaughter" various not-too-credible songs, mostly Norwegian language ones. But it's this cover version that has stuck and gotten international attention.

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 23 May 2008 11:32 (seventeen years ago)

oulseek must have a conscience after all, electing to spare you from the sonic blight that is the Speedwagon's excretion.

I suppose it's statements like this that get me in trouble.

― Alex in NYC, Friday, 23 May 2008 11:33 (seventeen years ago)

"It's a Heartache" is so much of a better song than this wanna-be Meatloaf song.

― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 23 May 2008 14:32 (seventeen years ago)

Just because Ronnie Scott co-wrote it doesn't make it so.

― Dingbod Kesterson, Friday, 23 May 2008 14:38 (seventeen years ago)

two years pass...

*yadadadadadadah!IREALLYNEEDYOUTONIGHT!*

It occurs to me that one day Kanye will fully remake the video if not the song. And maybe both.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=840B27zYfOk

Then again, Flight of the Conchords has already been there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vQuf49Ya30

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 4 May 2011 14:43 (fourteen years ago)

I'm concerned of what this says about me, but I fell semi-in love with a girl while slow dancing to TEOTH the other night. Jeez.. I've always liked the song, but only in the usaual ironic, waxing 80s nostalgia kind of way. But for a moment that night, all of that was gone, and what was left was the sheer power of that gigantic ballad. I may have been fooled, manipulated, whatever, but it felt pretty fucking great.

Classic.

― Mule, Monday, 16 May 2011 23:36 (fourteen years ago)

so you're trying to say that forever's gonna start tonight

― 2010 = the year of (exactly) 500 Rogers! (La Lechera), Monday, 16 May 2011 23:41 (fourteen years ago)

this song reminds me of my mom

― 2010 = the year of (exactly) 500 Rogers! (La Lechera), Monday, 16 May 2011 23:42 (fourteen years ago)

At this second someone is singing this in a karaoke bar.

― ginny thomas and tonic (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 16 May 2011 23:42 (fourteen years ago)

xpost

Well, it depends on the girl, I suppose

― Mule, Monday, 16 May 2011 23:47 (fourteen years ago)

"the sheer power of that gigantic ballad"

That why this song is freaking awesome and will rule forever. I hear it's out on Rock Band. Must investigate. Classic classic classic.

― \(^o\) (/o^)/ (ENBB), Tuesday, 17 May 2011 02:04 (fourteen years ago)

wow, don't know what drugs i was on 7 years ago as i re-read my posts and was shocked at how sounded snotty and dismissing i sounded,

love the song,

turn around bright eyes is brilliant and will feed into another post

― H in Addis, Wednesday, 18 May 2011 19:46 (fourteen years ago)

eleven years pass...

Hero

39 years on and I still can't explain this pic.twitter.com/y3RY9Z51bz
— Bonnie Tyler (@BonnieTOfficial) September 20, 2022

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 20 September 2022 21:52 (three years ago)

dud atp

― dyl, Tuesday, 20 September 2022 21:59 (three years ago)

Madness

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 20 September 2022 22:06 (three years ago)

It is one of the most perfectly overwrought songs ever written and performed. Total classic.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Tuesday, 20 September 2022 22:12 (three years ago)

I love Total Eclipse of the Heart. I had never paid it any attention, until this one time I was trying to get over a rough breakup and it came on the radio in the IHOP I was working at. I had to conceal actual tears while slinging pancakes. Very overwrought and cheesy, but it hit me like a missile.

Haven't knowingly listened to the rest of her music, except in the course of doing research for the Givin' It All You Got thread, when I came across this 1990 song of hers from German action sports film Fire, Ice, and Dynamite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nlWeTL4dtk

― peace, man, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 16:35 (three years ago)

<3 lovely post

absolute classic btw, especially for drunk karaoke

― nxd, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 17:33 (three years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsgWUq0fdKk

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 17:40 (three years ago)

When I was in high school a dance troupe came through to perform for the entire school. The lead dancer gracefully danced until one by one, her skills faltered as she shared a dance with different partners. Each partner was dressed completely in black and had a different word written on their back. ALCOHOL. MARIJUANA. COCAINE. HEROIN.

She eventually fell to the ground, at which point the blacked-out dancers lifted her up and placed in a Jesus Christ crucifix pose to the audience.

This entire performance was done to “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 17:45 (three years ago)

Wish I'd been there!

― bendy, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 18:08 (three years ago)

lol, that's amazing.

― peace, man, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 18:14 (three years ago)

one month passes...

xxp this isn't the one i witnessed but holy moly they were doing this bit in front of 5 year olds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoRL-xzdlVI

― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Thursday, 17 November 2022 05:43 (three years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl5PLKr-Zcc

― Josefa, Thursday, 17 November 2022 06:06 (three years ago)

two years pass...

i have no idea why the year 2025 grabbed me and demanded that i obsess on this song right now but it did and i am not mad. unbearably classic.

― fact checking cuz, Monday, 19 May 2025 14:53 (ten months ago)

Strong Songs podcast did an episode on it last week that was pretty fun.

https://strongsongspodcast.com/blogs/episodes/s07e06-total-eclipse-of-the-heart-by-jim-steinman-and-bonnie-tyler

If you don't feel up to listening to the whole episode, his suggestion to listen to the vocal stems on their own still holds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhnSw4CXb6o

― peace, man, Monday, 19 May 2025 15:02 (ten months ago)

ooh, nice

― fact checking cuz, Monday, 19 May 2025 15:09 (ten months ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.