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

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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)

Agree about Toto, from a certain angle can see the point of Asia, but never got into the Speedwagon.

Now, "Wishing You Were Here" by Chicago...

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 27 October 2003 16:19 (twenty-two years ago)

not so into "keep on loving you," but i have a secret gushy love for "i can't fight this feeling anymore."

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:21 (twenty-two years ago)

for some reason I always got this confused with 'There's Something Going On' by Frida. Maybe it was the huge production job.

― lawrence kansas (lawrence kansas), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:22 (twenty-two years ago)

The Beta Band sampled this once, and it was all very snide: like hurhur, the pop pap, you see, we've chained it to a bass sludge and done some 'singing' on it and now NME readers can dig it.

Bollocks to that and bollocks to anyone who like TEOTH and *not* 'Beautiful'.

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:24 (twenty-two years ago)

This was the first video I ever saw, and have loved the song ever since.

― Jonathan (Jonathan), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the Beta Band genuinely loved Total Eclipse Of The Heart, as all right-thinking people do, surely?

I am anticipating a ludicrous powerballad for The Darkness Christmas single.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Re: "Keep On Loving You" -- funny this one should come up. I was a high school kid in '82 - '83, when REO Speedwagon and Journey ruled the earth. I actively detested both bands -- the merest syllable from Kevin Cronin or Steve Perry would cause me to sprain my wrist changing the radio station, and the inescapability of both bands meant my wrists were pretty damned sore all the time. (That, and the fact that I was a teenaged boy...)

I recently gained an appreciation for "Keep On Loving You" based on its appearance in, of all things, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, where (if memory serves) it's in rotation on the "Emotion FM" station. I'd never really listened to it in detail before, and it struck me how weird, airless, and alien the production is. Sonically, its as synthetic as anything Kraftwerk ever released: it's got this total untouched-by-human-hands vibe. The vocals and guitars have been run through a million different delays, harmonizers, and compressers, until everything becomes this huge, reverbing whooooosh. Of course there's zero low-end (perfect for AM radio.) In short, it's a work of genius. I still hate the fuck out of Journey, though.

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

I think they'll go more for a Slade effect.

A good way to work out how TEOTH is great is to listen to it next to Jennifer Rush's "The Power Of Love".

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

FUCK! "I Know There's Something Going On" by Frida! More evidence for Phil Collins' occasional greatness.

Oh, Enrique, the Beta Band were not being sardonic or ironic in appropriating the TEOTH quote, and Steinman himself approved it. And "Beautiful" is a stinking assortment of Clinton Card cliches sung nasally by a pretend anorexic, so bollocks to you too, sir.

(so much for the Oxford FAP then!)

Re. J Rush "Power Of Love"; influenced very clearly by Ultravox's "Vienna" which itself was influenced very clearly by Scott Walker's "The Electrician." Is there a theory here somewhere about the gradual dilution of "difficult" music before people will buy it?

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 27 October 2003 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Do we all agree that Tom has to download REO Speedwagon's "Keep on Loving You" right now?

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

destroy.

x-post: sorry for not being a 'right-thinking person'.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't much like "total eclipse of the heart", I'm afraid. "keep on lovin' you" is great, but this whole genre is owned for me by asia's "sole survivor" and boston's "more than a feeling". The best bit in the latter is where the singer (brad delpy?) hits this impossibly high not, holds it for a seemingly impossible length of time, then goes even higher!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Do we all agree that Tom has to download REO Speedwagon's "Keep on Loving You" right now?

yes!!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Oi! "Baby Come Back" by Player! "Harden My Heart" by Quarterflash!

and we all know about the More Than A Feeling/Smells Like Teen Spirit interface (via Debaser?).

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 27 October 2003 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

>I think they'll go more for a Slade effect
'My Oh My' was a KILLER power ballad and trumps the lot.

I have to say I re-discovered 'Keep On Loving You' by REO Speedwagon when Mark Kozelek & his merry Red House Painters covered it. Like all his covers, it is twisted and lovely.

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Journey completely wins these stakes, BTW.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:35 (twenty-two years ago)

(so much for the Oxford FAP then!)

Ow, fuck, yeah probably, then -- NME readers I knew (=me) didn't know that. I still think their versh stinks; as for Xtina, oh come now we can't be slagging power ballads for their lyrical infelicities! + I know nothing of singing technique, so point conceded, but I quite like the idea of being a 'pretend anorexic' -- wearing baggy clothes in a kind of double-bluff, that's quite good.

I'm a miss the FAP anyway cos I'm in the big smoke watching some old new bollox about the red brigade and/or robbing all yourn houses. Might send a ringer.

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:35 (twenty-two years ago)

the bassline from "carry on wayward son" which is better than almost any other record ever made, fits really well under the guitar choirds from "smells like teen spirit".

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Snarling hate for "Beautiful" is evidence that your ears are wonky.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Soulseek is oddly reluctant to give me a copy of Keep On Loving You.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Dan: Well said!

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Journey completely wins these stakes, BTW.

Quite right. Listening to "Any Way You Want It" on my iPod recently gave me the sudden realization that said song trumps (in retrospect) both the Electric Six and Andrew WK at their own game, all at once.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Soulseek is oddly reluctant to give me a copy of Keep On Loving You.

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

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 October 2003 16:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Skipping 113 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

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 (eighteen 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 (eighteen years ago)

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

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

this song reminds me of my mom

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

xpost

Well, it depends on the girl, I suppose

― Mule, Monday, 16 May 2011 23:47 (fifteen 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 (fifteen 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 (fifteen 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 (one year 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 (one year ago)

ooh, nice

― fact checking cuz, Monday, 19 May 2025 15:09 (one year ago)

eleven months pass...

oof https://deadline.com/2026/05/bonnie-tyler-coma-surgery-1236886983/

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 8 May 2026 03:36 (one month ago)

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