One of the most iconic power ballads ever recorded was never originally meant for Bonnie Tyler – and it wasn't even penned as a standalone pop track. The Welsh pop legend, whose birth name was Gaynor Hopkins, has passed away at the age of 75, according to a statement released on her official website. Bonnie died just months after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery that resulted in her being placed in intensive care in an induced coma.
In conversation with The Guardian in 2023, Bonnie disclosed that Total Eclipse of the Heart, which became a worldwide chart hit in 1983, started out as part of a proposed musical based on the gothic vampire tale Nosferatu. Bonnie explained she had been resolute about reinventing herself after signing with Sony, abandoning country rock for a more substantial rock sound influenced by Meat Loaf and songwriter Jim Steinman.
"I'd just signed to Sony and wanted to change from country rock to rock. I'd seen Meat Loaf on the BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test doing Bat Out of Hell, so I told Muff Winwood at Sony that I wanted to work with Jim Steinman, who wrote for and produced Meat Loaf," the singer recounted.
She noted record executive Muff Winwood was sceptical it would materialise, but Jim was taken with her voice and extended an invitation to New York.
Following their initial meeting, Bonnie travelled back to Jim's apartment overlooking Central Park several weeks later, where he accompanied singer Rory Dodd on piano as they performed the track for the first time.
"I understood immediately what an incredible song it was," she said.
Bonnie revealed that Jim later disclosed the track had originally been written for a musical adaptation of Nosferatu, but had never been finished.
By the time recording got underway, Meat Loaf had temporarily lost his voice, leaving Bonnie to truly make the song her own.
She said: "He told me he had started writing the song for a prospective musical version of Nosferatu years before, but never finished it. Around the time we were recording, Meat Loaf had lost his voice, and after it was a hit he always used to say: 'Dang. That song should have been mine!'"
The recording sessions for Total Eclipse of the Heart were held at New York's Power Station studio, with Bonnie revealing that Jim favoured laying down multiple takes before constructing the track's sweeping, theatrical production around the strongest vocal performance.
The completed track initially ran to seven minutes in length, and Bonnie confessed she had serious doubts that radio stations would ever air it.
She said: "Recently a friend unearthed a letter I'd written to her from New York back then. It says: 'I recorded an incredible song today. The trouble is, it's so long, I don't think anybody will ever play it.'"
While it was trimmed to roughly four minutes for its release, Bonnie noted that numerous stations still embraced the full-length album version wholeheartedly.
In a statement released on the singer's official website today (July 9), her family said: "Bonnie's family and team are heartbroken to announce that Bonnie unexpectedly passed away last night in hospital in Portugal as a result of the illness that she was being treated for.
"We will issue a further statement shortly but for now ask for privacy to deal with this tragedy."
