Obit: Singer Bonnie Tyler (1951-2026)

Subject: Obit: Bonnie Tyler
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jul 26 - 05:32 AM

RIP Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler -Total Eclipse of the Heart

Bradfordian

Subject: RE: Obit: Bonnie Tyler
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 09 Jul 26 - 12:03 PM

Sorry to hear this. Great voice.

Subject: RE: Obit: Bonnie Tyler
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Jul 26 - 12:19 PM

I remember that song, it's lovely and has great phrases but makes no sense and the video is pretty creepy. Quite an earworm. I didn't know anything about Tyler as a singer or where she was from, so it has been an education to read her obituary.

Ms. Tyler reached her commercial zenith with a handful of hits at the peak of the MTV era, none more indelible than “Total Eclipse.”

That pounding power ballad, with its repeated plea to “turn around, bright eyes,” evoked the hunger of unrequited love and was written by Jim Steinman, whom Rolling Stone once called “the lord of mega-pop overkill.” Now firmly entrenched as a cultural mainstay, with listenership inevitably spiking during eclipses, it has over a billion streams on both Spotify and YouTube.

Megapop overkill sounds like a fair assessment of the song. Down the page is information that brings context to that song, intended to feature vampires:

Intrigued by her voice, Mr. Steinman invited her to his apartment in Manhattan to run through “Total Eclipse of the Heart” — which, he told her, he had originally written for an unfinished musical about the vampire Nosferatu.

With its rock-opera bombast bordering on the Wagnerian, the song seemed like a natural fit for Meat Loaf. But “around the time we were recording,” Ms. Tyler later told The Guardian, “Meat Loaf had lost his voice.”

So Mr. Steinman gave it to her instead, to use on her 1983 album “Faster Than the Speed of Night,” on which he was a producer.

And the particulars of her birth and name:

Gaynor Hopkins was born on June 8, 1951, in Skewen, a village in South Wales. She was one of seven children of Glyndwr Hopkins, a coal miner, and Elsie (Lewis) Hopkins. (She adopted her stage name in the 1970s to avoid being confused with another Welsh singer, Mary Hopkin.)

Subject: RE: Obit: Bonnie Tyler
From: Beer
Date: 09 Jul 26 - 12:41 PM

Loved her voice.

Subject: RE: Obit: Singer Bonnie Tyler (1951-2026)
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 09 Jul 26 - 03:38 PM

What a voice- always found her 'It's a Heartache' used to hit the spot in a pub audience without any folk hangups- RIP Bonnie T

Subject: RE: Obit: Singer Bonnie Tyler (1951-2026)
From: GerryM
Date: 09 Jul 26 - 06:48 PM

One month older than me (give or take a couple of days). First time I heard her sing, I thought it was Rod Stewart. R.I.P.

Subject: RE: Obit: Singer Bonnie Tyler (1951-2026)
From: GUEST,Rossey
Date: 11 Jul 26 - 06:26 PM

Nothing says 80's like big hair, big shoulder pads, and over the top Steinman 'Power Ballad' like Bonnie Tyler singing Total Eclipse Of the Heart.   Ignore that overplayed overwrought nonsense - and listen to the simple beauty of 'Lost In France' sung by Bonnie Tyler. Much more understated.. with a lovely guitar sustain, and a tasteful touch of accordion.

Subject: RE: Obit: Singer Bonnie Tyler (1951-2026)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jul 26 - 12:41 PM

You nailed it, Rossey, with the 80's observation. An era where the songs are silly but passionate so they got a lot of airplay.

Here is Lost in France, a search result a few down from the "official" remastered version that lost a lot of the vocal quality in the process. I think this is the version referred to above.

It's a Heartache displays that rasp/vocal fry whatever she had going on in her voice. Another catchy tune with one verse that repeats several times in the course of the 3:24. Same with the perched-on-the-Grand-Canyon-rim power ballad Holding Out for a Hero.