Total Eclipse of the Heart was performed by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler in 1983 and written/composed/produced by American, Jim Steinman. It is probably Steinman's most successful commercial composition to date and Bonnie Tyler's most successful song, going to No.1 on the Billboard Charts in the United States and Canada and to No.1 in the United Kingdom, and on the Australian record charts. At its peak, it sold 60 000 copies per day, and approximately 5-6 million copies in total, and was number 1 throughout (almost) the entire world charts according to Bonnie Tyler's greatest hits manual. It is therefore widely considered not just a hit, but a smash hit .

The song appears on Tyler's 1983 album, Faster Than the Speed of Night. At nearly seven minutes in length, an edited version was - and still is - most commonly played on radio. The radio version, clocks in at just under four minutes and 30 seconds, and removes the entire third verse and trims the extended fade-out ending. The video version is about one minut longer than the radio version.

Total Eclipse of the Heart is usually considered to be one of Steinman's greatest song and commercially, it most likely is. However, opinions on that differ sometimes. [1]

In 2003, the song was lampooned as a parody version in the movie Old School that featured Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Luke Wilson.

There is a popular anti-drug Christian skit based on this song, called the "Turn-Around Skit." [2][3][4]

See also

• Holly Sherwood, a vocalist that provided back-up vocals for Total Eclipse of the Heart
• Pandora's Box, an all girl musical band formed by Steinman in 1989 to sing his songs
• Bad for Good, Jim Steinman's to date only solo album features songs very similar to Total Eclipse of the Heart
• Tanz der Vampire, a very successful musical with music composed by Jim Steinman, includes german version called Totale Finsternis

External links

• Jim Steinman's official site
• Song lyrics from Bonnie Tyler's official website