Bonnie Tyler is best known for her song “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and, this week, it was announced that she gets to sing it on a cruise during an actual eclipse. I thought it was the coolest thing I’ve heard in a long time.
The song has been one of my all-time favorites for a long time. I’d been hearing it on those golden / guilty pleasure hours on the radio while growing up and, later, ended up hearing the album it was originally on, “Faster Than The Speed Of Night”. I must have played that album on repeat. I loved it and couldn’t resist getting a greatest hits collection of hers, much later down the line, to get the best of what followed.
I’ve always had a thing for this type of rock / pop music. It’s got drama to it, which is heaven as a performer. You can just lose it in the storytelling and go completely overboard with it.
To a certain extent, I actually think it’s a shame that most people only know this song by her and perhaps are even familiar with “Holding Out For A Hero”, but are missing some of her other repertoire. Even the album with “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” contains real gems like the very fast paced (and therefore ahead of its time) title track “Faster Than The Speed of Night” and “If You Were A Woman”, which in topic is timeless.
Bonnie’s distinct voice is actually suited for so many things outside of rock. With that husk in it, she can pull off soul, blues, and that old rhythm and blues that sort of sways to country sometimes (like Bonnie Raitt). It would actually be cool if she did a little dance as well (hey, it worked for people like Jocelyn Brown). What you may actually not know is that most big hits for others were originally recorded and released by Bonnie. In some cases, this is even for such a signature song for an artist like “The Best” for Tina Turner.
I could go on and be negative and say that she had to settle for second best for her own career, but anyone who’s been able to make a good living off of music is in no way a loser, of any kind. And there’s no one better to soundtrack an eclipse on a cruise.
