Once upon a time there was light in my life

But now there’s only love in the dark

Nothing I can say

A total eclipse of the heart

Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ is a love song for a vampire and was originally named ‘Vampires in Love’. Knowing this really helps to explain the central image of the heart’s total eclipse and the outlandishly gothic video featuring a school for vampires (eat your heart out Twilight fans). Valentine’s day might just be the time to give this another spin and embrace some eighties eerie…after all forever’s gonna start tonight!

The story goes that after seeing ‘Meat Loaf’ perform ‘Bat Out of Hell’ live on ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’ a relatively unknown Tyler approached his producer Jim Steinman who eventually wrote ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart” for her. He later confessed to have been writing a musical version of Nosferatu:

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 the dark’ (Steinman, ‘Dance of the Vampires’, Playbill, Sept 18th, 2002)

If you read the lyrics again the vampiric overtones are unmistakable! You can’t really out goth this for Valentine’s Day!!

Turn around, every now and then I get a little bit lonely

And you’re never coming round

Turn around, every now and then I get a little bit tired

Of listening to the sound of my tears

Turn around, every now and then I get a little bit nervous

That the best of all the years have gone by

Turn around, every now and then I get a little bit terrified

And then I see the look in your eyes

Turn around bright eyes, every now and then I fall apart

Turn around bright eyes, every now and then I fall apart

And I need you now tonight

And I need you more than ever

And if you only hold me tight

We’ll be holding on forever

And we’ll only be making it right

‘Cause we’ll never be wrong together

We can take it to the end of the line

Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time (all of the time)

I don’t know what to do and I’m always in the dark

We’re living in a powder keg and giving off sparks

I really need you tonight

Forever’s gonna start tonight

Forever’s gonna start tonight

Once upon a time I was falling in love

But now I’m only falling apart

And there’s nothing I can do

A total eclipse of the heart

Once upon a time there was light in my life

But now there’s only love in the dark

Nothing I can say

A total eclipse of the heart

Turn around bright eyes, every now and then I fall apart

Turn around bright eyes, every now and then I fall apart

And I need you now tonight (and I need you now)

And I need you more than ever

And if you only hold me tight (and if you only)

We’ll be holding on forever

And we’ll only be making it right (’cause we’ll never be wrong)

‘Cause we’ll never be wrong together

We can take it to the end of the line

Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time (all of the time)

I don’t know what to do and I’m always in the dark

We’re living in a powder keg and giving off sparks

I really need you tonight

Forever’s gonna start tonight

Forever’s gonna start tonight

Once upon a time I was falling in love

But now I’m only falling apart

And there’s nothing I can say

A total eclipse of the heart

A total eclipse of the heart

A total eclipse of the heart

Turn around bright eyes

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