{"id":3933,"date":"2026-07-14T15:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T19:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/articles\/?p=3933"},"modified":"2026-07-14T15:28:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T19:28:17","slug":"the-original-meaning-behind-total-eclipse-of-the-heart-by-bonnie-tyler-was-a-vampire-romance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/articles\/the-original-meaning-behind-total-eclipse-of-the-heart-by-bonnie-tyler-was-a-vampire-romance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Original Meaning Behind \u201cTotal Eclipse Of The Heart\u201d by Bonnie Tyler Was a Vampire Romance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On July 8, 2026, Welsh singer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/songs\/bonnie-tyler\" id=\"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/songs\/bonnie-tyler\">Bonnie Tyler<\/a> died at the age of 75. She was best known for her 1980s hits &#8220;Total Eclipse Of The Heart&#8221; and &#8220;Holding Out For A Hero&#8221;. Her 1983 hit &#8220;Total Eclipse Of The Heart&#8221; peaked at No. 1 in multiple countries, including the US. The song was written by Jim Steinman, also known for his work on Meat Loaf&#8217;s <em>Bat Out Of Hell<\/em>. It was his production work with Meat Loaf that caught Tyler&#8217;s attention. She approached Steinman shortly after seeing Meat Loaf on the <em>Old Grey Whistle Test<\/em>. Steinman began presenting songs to Tyler for an upcoming album, one of them being &#8220;Total Eclip<em>se Of The Heart.&#8221; <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/facts\/bonnie-tyler\/total-eclipse-of-the-heart\" id=\"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/facts\/bonnie-tyler\/total-eclipse-of-the-heart\">&#8220;Total Eclipse Of The Heart&#8221;<\/a> was the first single released from Bonnie Tyler&#8217;s<em> Faster Than The Speed Of Night<\/em> album, produced by Steinman. The album peaked at No. 4 on the US <em>Billboard<\/em> 200 and No. 1 in the UK. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The song makes a lot more sense when you find out it was written from a vampire&#8217;s perspective. Originally, Steinman wrote the song for a vampire musical. He detailed the origin of the song in <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140313031549\/http:\/\/www.playbill.com\/news\/article\/72168-Rando-Steinman-Talk-About-Dance-of-the-Vampires-at-Press-Preview-Sept-18\" id=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140313031549\/http:\/\/www.playbill.com\/news\/article\/72168-Rando-Steinman-Talk-About-Dance-of-the-Vampires-at-Press-Preview-Sept-18\">an interview with <em>Playbill<\/em> in 1999<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;With &#8216;Total Eclipse Of The Heart&#8217;, I was trying to come up with a love song, and I remembered I actually wrote that to be a vampire love song. Its original title was &#8216;Vampires in Love&#8217; because I was working on a musical of&nbsp;Nosferatu, the other great vampire story. If anyone listens to the lyrics, they&#8217;re really like vampire lines. It&#8217;s all about the darkness, the power of darkness and love&#8217;s place in the dark.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Vampires in Love<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart (Turn Around) (Official Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lcOxhH8N3Bo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The song opens with &#8220;turn around&#8221; and a series of &#8220;every now and then&#8221; scenarios. After Steinman&#8217;s revealing of the original lyrical meaning, it&#8217;s evident that many of the lines refer to vampires. The narrator is tired of loneliness and sadness, fearing that their best days are beyond them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>And I need you now tonight<br>And I need you more than ever<br>And if you only hold me tight<br>We&#8217;ll be holding on forever<br>And we&#8217;ll only be making it right<br>&#8216;Cause we&#8217;ll never be wrong<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Together we can take it to the end of the line<br>Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time (all of the time)<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The mention of the shadow draws the focus back to the vampire origins of the song. Once you hear of the original meaning, it&#8217;s hard not to see the song as a vampire&#8217;s love letter. Regardless, the song was easily accessible to a mass audience with its lyrics detailing a longing for someone. This was what made it a smash hit for Bonnie Tyler and Jim Steinman in 1983. Their partnership on this record was a massive success, and &#8220;Total Eclipse Of The Heart&#8221; became one of the best-selling singles of all time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Photo by Jean-Jacques BERNIER\/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Total Eclipse Of The Heart&#8221; by Bonnie Tyler was originally meant to be a vampire love song for a musical based on Nosferatu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":595065,"featured_media":3942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"byline":{"profiles":[{"type":"byline_id","atts":{"term_id":52,"post_id":228}}]},"savage_platform_role_ideator":[],"savage_platform_role_editor":[],"savage_platform_role_senior_editor":[],"savage_platform_role_photographer":[],"savage_platform_role_illustrator":[],"savage_platform_role_translator":[],"savage_platform_role_as-told-to":[],"savage_platform_role_reviewed-by":[],"savage_platform_disable_recirculation":false,"savage_platform_article_type":"news","savage_platform_vice_article_type":"article","savage_platform_article_intent":"","savage_platform_show_affiliate_disclaimer":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"wp_curate_deduplication":false,"wp_curate_unique_pinned_posts":false,"savage_platform_featured_image_caption":"Photo by Jean-Jacques BERNIER\/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"savage_platform_subheadline":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[61,102,36],"byline":[52],"class_list":["post-3933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-1980s","tag-bonnie-tyler","tag-pop-music"],"savage_platform_primary_term":{"category":{"term_name":"Features","term_id":12,"term_link":"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/articles\/category\/features\/"},"post_tag":{"term_name":"1980s","term_id":61,"term_link":"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/articles\/tag\/1980s\/"}},"hide_from_homepage":false,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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