Song:Total Eclipse Of The Heart
Album:The Very Best Of Bonnie Tyler
Bonnie Tyler's music in the early 80s is probably some of the most bombastic and melodramatic in pop music history. The man behind it all was producer songwriter Jim Steinman who also produced Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell. Total Eclipse Of The Heart was Bonnie Tyler's only number one hit. She was born Gaynor Hopkins June 8, 1951 in Skewen, Wales. After placing well in a 1970 local talent contest, she joined Bobby Wayne & The Dixies and then started her own group Imagination. She took the stage name Sherene Davies. When she signed with RCA Records in 1975, they wanted a new stage name and she chose Bonnie Tyler. She was spotted by the production team of Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe and they produced he first British top ten hit Lost In France in 1976. Scott had worked with British pop singer Marty Wilde in the 60s. But in 1977, Bonnie needed surgery to remove nodules from her vocal chords. She was ordered not to speak for six weeks but accidentally screamed one day and thought her voice was ruined. But instead she had her first US top five hit with It's A Heartache in 1977. The joke at the time was that she sounded like Rod Stewart. She recorded four albums for RCA with Scott & Wolfe attempting to produce her music for the country music market. It wasn't very successful and Bonnie didn't like it anyway. So when her contract ran out, she went looking for songwriter producer Jim Steinman who had a lot of success with Meatloaf. She signed with Columbia Records. Total Eclipse Of The Heart was the first single and it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in 1983. Steinman wrote the song for Meatloaf but it was rejected as too expensive by his record company. The male vocalist at the start of the song was Eric Troyer. He is a session keyboard player who was a member of ELO Part II in the late 80s. Bonnie Tyler had a couple more hits including Holding Out For A Hero but then faded. She continues to have some chart success in Europe. Two things you have to look for in a Bonnie Tyler comp. You want it to have Total Eclipse Of The Heart and It's A Heartache and you want it to have the full seven minute version of Total Eclipse Of The Heart. A lot of CDs have the four minute radio edit. This Sony Europe 1993 comp qualifies on both counts. Here's the video for Total Eclipse Of The Heart by Bonnie Tyler.
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