When Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler passed on several weeks ago, there was the usual spate of condolences even from people who did not personally know her. Boomer and Gen X fans, mostly, who were already young adults or in their teens when Total Eclipse of the Heart hit the airwaves in 1983. Yes, airwaves. As in radio. Music streaming was still in the future.
I was among those people. I was captured by the power and energy of the song. Tyler’s husky voice and her gritty performance went perfectly with the sheer intensity of the haunting music in the background. Beautiful song performed by an extraordinary singer. Too bad that, these days, the song gets mercilessly mangled by every drunk with a karaoke microphone. Murderous, really.
Total Eclipse of the Heart was composed by Jim Steinman. But I didn’t know his name in 1983. I wouldn’t until my brother and I saw Streets of Fire the following year. Dubbed a “A Rock & Roll Fable”, the cast included a teenaged Diane Lane as the damsel in distress and a 20-something Willem Dafoe as the villain. The setting was a cross between the 1950s and a dystopian future. The soundtrack of ten songs was magnificent. The two I loved best, Tonight is What it Means to be Young and Nowhere Fast were written by Jim Steinman.
What do all of that have to do with vampires?
In 1997, Jim Steinman’s stage musical, Dance of the Vampires (Tanz der Vampire in the original German production) opened in Vienna. It went on tour around the world; the last revival was in 2025. Two of the songs in the musical score are remakes of Total Eclipse of the Heart and Tonight is What it Means to be Young. In a 2002 interview with Playbill, Steinman said:
… with ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart,’ 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 ‘Vampires in Love’ because I was working on a musical of ‘Nosferatu,’ the other great vampire story. If anyone listens to the lyrics, they’re really like vampire lines. It’s all about the darkness, the power of darkness and love’s place in dark…
Dance of the Vampires was never staged in the Philippines, and I was unaware of its existence until I read Steinman’s extensive biography after his death in 2021. I had since been listening and re-listening to both Total Eclipse of the Heart and Tonight is What it Means to be Young, approaching them with “vampire” in mind, and I have a difference appreciation for them today.
So, listen.
Total Eclipse of the Heart performed by Bonnie Tyler
Total Eclipse of the Heart (renamed Vampires in Love) in Dance of the Vampires
Tonight is What it Means to be Young in Streets of Fire
Tonight is What it Means to be Young in Dance of the Vampires
Discover more from Connie Veneracion
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
