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

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).

Look at how I originally spelled "artificially".

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

W T F

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

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?

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.

Thank fuck I'm not in my right mind.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

*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

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.

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

this song reminds me of my mom

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

xpost

Well, it depends on the girl, I suppose

"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.

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

Hero

39 years on and I still can't explain this pic.twitter.com/y3RY9Z51bz

— Bonnie Tyler (@BonnieTOfficial) September 20, 2022

dud atp

Madness

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

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

<3 lovely post

absolute classic btw, especially for drunk karaoke

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

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.”

Wish I'd been there!

lol, that's amazing.

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

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