{"id":682208,"date":"2026-07-09T11:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/682208\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T11:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:45:10","slug":"bonnie-tyler-singer-of-total-eclipse-of-the-heart-dies-aged-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/682208\/","title":{"rendered":"Bonnie Tyler, singer of Total Eclipse of the Heart, dies aged 75"},"content":{"rendered":"

Total Eclipse of the Heart was her biggest song – but it almost never happenedpublished at 10:22 BST<\/p>\n

10:22 BST<\/p>\n

\"\"Mark Savage
Music correspondent<\/p>\n

\"BonnieImage source, Jakubaszek\/Redferns<\/p>\n

Bonnie Tyler\u2019s best-known song was undoubtedly Total Eclipse of the Heart \u2013 an overblown rock opera that burns with an almost religious zeal.<\/p>\n

It topped the charts in the US and the UK, as well as Ireland, Australia and Zimbabwe, and has been covered in both Spanish (Eclipse Total del Amor) and Italian (Eclissi del cuore). But it almost never happened.<\/p>\n

In 1983, Tyler had suffered a string of flop singles. Her record label wanted her to go back to the country-rock sound of It\u2019s a Heartache.<\/p>\n

But, after seeing Meat Loaf performing Bat Out Of Hell on the BBC\u2019s Old Grey Whistle Test, she\u2019d set her sights on working with his writer, Jim Steinman.<\/p>\n

Steinman was sceptical until Tyler\u2019s new manager sent him a cassette tape of her rock demos. <\/p>\n

Intrigued, he asked to meet her in New York and they immediately hit it off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought she one of the most passionate voices I\u2019d ever heard in rock\u2019n\u2019roll since Janis Joplin,\u201d Steinman said in a 1983 interview. That same night, he played Total Eclipse of the Heart to Tyler, sitting at his piano, and offered her the song.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how Tyler described the moment in Fred Bronson’s Billboard Book of Number One Hits: \u201cWhen he plays, he practically knocks [the piano] through the floor. He’s incredible!<\/p>\n

“He won’t give [the song] to you on tape. He has to tell you the big story and play it for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

It became the UK\u2019s fifth best-selling single of 1983; and cemented Tyler\u2019s place in rock history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Total Eclipse of the Heart was her biggest song – but it almost never happenedpublished at 10:22 BST…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-682208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}