How Musical Theatre and Nuclear Warfare Helped Shape Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”

Singer Bonnie Tyler scored her biggest hit in 1983 with “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. It’s a bombastic power ballad written by Jim Steinman, the master of bombastic power ballads. And only a Steinman song could have its roots in musical theatre and nuclear warfare.

“Total Eclipse of the Heart” began when Steinman was a senior at Amherst College in Massachusetts. The song started as part of an experimental musical called The Dream Engine. The musical included the lyric “turn around, bright eyes.” That is a reference to the light from a nuclear explosion, and it eventually made its way into the final version of the song.

Years later, after seeing singer Meat Loaf perform, Tyler approached Steinman to work as her producer. At the time, she was working on Faster Than the Speed of Night, her fifth album. Although he originally declined, he reconsidered. He later presented her with “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” which he had written specifically for her as a way to showcase her voice.

Originally, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” was eight minutes long, which Tyler felt would hurt its chances of being played. “When I recorded the song, I thought no one is going to end up playing this because it’s so long,” she said. The radio edit cut it in half, down to four minutes. It also features some members of Bruce Springsteen’s famous E Street Band. You’ll hear Roy Bittan on piano and Max Weinberg on drums.

Steinman later included “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in his 1997 musical Dance of the Vampires. He discussed its history with Playbill. “I was trying to come up with a love song and I remembered I actually wrote that to be a vampire love song,” he explained. “Its original title was ‘Vampires in Love’ because I was working on a musical of Nosferatu, the other great vampire story. If anyone listens to the lyrics, they’re really like vampire lines. It’s all about the darkness, the power of darkness and love’s place in the dark.”

The bold style and theatrics of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” are typical of Steinman’s work. While Steinman was best known for his work with Meat Loaf, he was also the mastermind behind other epic songs throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He worked with Céline Dion, Sisters of Mercy, and more. And his style is virtually unmistakable.