Liner Notes · No. 032
"Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler: the B-side
Quick hall pass: the song you belted into a hairbrush got re-sung word for word by a parody, then the moon itself kept dragging it back up the charts. Here's the B-side.
📰 FAST FACTS
- It opens the 1998 slasher Urban Legend and turns up in Party Monster, Nip/Tuck, Austenland and Gloria Bell. (Autostraddle)
- IMDb tracks well over 100 soundtrack uses of the song. (Fangoria)
- David A. Scott made about two dozen literal video versions between 2009 and 2018. (David A. Scott)
On this record
TRACK 1 · The cameo
The literal video and three eclipses
A 2009 literal video finally asked what the fencers were doing, and every eclipse since 2017 has sent the song back up the charts.
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The parody: On May 25, 2009, David A. Scott, a commercial producer in upstate New York, posted a "literal video version" that re-sings every line to describe what's actually on screen, with vocals by his friend Felisha Noble. Within days it was linked by Entertainment Weekly, Ashton Kutcher and Perez Hilton. Time's Claire Suddath called it so incredible it's hard to know where to begin. Scott says it passed 16 million views within ten years. The original video spent 26 years daring someone to ask what the fencers were doing. Somebody finally asked.
2017, the first eclipse: In the week ending August 20, 2017, right before the Great American Eclipse, US downloads jumped 503% to 12,000, up from 2,000 the week before (Nielsen, via Billboard and Spin). It hit #1 on the US iTunes chart, ahead of "Despacito." A 34-year-old ballad beat the song of the summer because of astronomy. Your science teacher has never been so relevant.
2024, the sequel: On April 8, 2024, it went #1 on US iTunes again. A Luminate-based report said streams rose 652% that day to nearly 1.3 million, and the official video jumped from #82 to #2 among the most-watched music videos in the US (USA Today). The moon: still the best promo team in the business.
2026, Europe's turn: On August 12, 2026, during Europe's total eclipse, Euronews reported Spotify streams up 14% worldwide and 94% in the UK, compared with the daily average earlier that month. It topped Euronews's list of "celestial" tracks.
That's the sky. Now the time she sang it under one. Quiz time.
During the 2017 solar eclipse, Bonnie Tyler sang "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on a cruise ship. Which band backed her?
No Googling. We'll know.
That's Side A. Flip the tape.
Side B is where it gets weird:
- Totality on a cruise ship: Bonnie and DNCE in 2017, the timing problem nobody could fix, and her last tours.
- The covers: Nicki French's 1995 dance smash, a trance version, Westlife playing it safe, and the Glee cast on the floor.
- Remembering Bonnie Tyler, 1951-2026.
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▶ SIDE B
TRACK 2 · The live one
Totality on a cruise ship, and the last tours
In 2017 she sang it on a cruise ship as the eclipse began. She toured through 2025, and her 2026 shows were cancelled during her hospitalization.
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2017, the AquaTheater: On August 21, 2017, Bonnie Tyler sang it backed by DNCE in the open-air AquaTheater of Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, as the moon began to cross the sun. The "Total Eclipse Cruise" had sailed from Port Canaveral, Florida, the day before, and she also sang it from the ship live on CNN. She said the band rehearsed with her the day before and "did a wonderful version of it."
The math problem: Previews pointed out that totality lasted about 2 minutes 40 seconds and the song runs about four and a half. Tyler said the song was nearly eight minutes long before Jim Steinman cut it down. So the eclipse got the short version and still couldn't keep up. Neither could your Walkman batteries.
The 40th anniversary: The "40 Years Total Eclipse of the Heart" tour took her album The Best Is Yet to Come (2021) across Europe after the pandemic pushed it to late 2023. Forty years on, the song still headlined.
The last tours: In 2025 she played the Just Live Tour in Europe, May through July, supporting the 2024 live album In Berlin. Some shows earlier that year were rescheduled after emergency knee surgery. In summer 2026, during her hospitalization, her remaining shows were cancelled or postponed.
TRACK 3 · Cover watch
The covers (one of them is a club banger)
A dance hit, a trance remix, Westlife on stools and Glee on the floor. Play them, then vote.
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- 1995 · Nicki French. A dance version from her debut album Secrets that reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #5 in the UK. The same heartbreak, now at 130 beats per minute, played at every roller rink in America.
- 2002 · Jan Wayne. A trance version that reached #7 in Austria in 2002 and #28 in the UK in 2003. Glow sticks out, bright eyes.
- 2006 · Westlife. On The Love Album. One critic called it fine, but maybe a little too safe. Five men on stools, standing up for the key change.
- 2010 · Glee Cast. Reached #9 in the UK and #16 on the Hot 100 in May 2010. Autostraddle remembers Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff rolling around on the floor doing ballet. Steinman wrote it for vampires. The show choir got it instead.
▶ WATCH THE CONTENDERS
Battle of the versions: which "Total Eclipse" wins?
Cast your vote. Results in the next issue. Choose carefully: we're judging you.
TRACK 4 · Where are they now
Remembering Bonnie Tyler
Bonnie Tyler died on July 8, 2026, at 75. Jim Steinman, who wrote the song, died in 2021. He wrote it for vampires. She made it for everybody.
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Bonnie: Bonnie Tyler died on July 8, 2026, at 75, in a hospital in Faro, Portugal, where she had been treated since May. Her family said she died unexpectedly. Downing Street called her "one of Britain's greatest recording artists." She is survived by her husband, Robert Sullivan, whom she married in July 1973.
The goodbye: A Celebration of Life was reported for August 17, 2026, at St. Mary's Church in Swansea, back home in Wales.
The work: She was made an MBE in 2022 for services to music. Her last studio album, The Best Is Yet to Come, came out on February 26, 2021, followed by the live album In Berlin in 2024. The official video of this song passed one billion YouTube views on September 9, 2023.
Jim Steinman: The man who wrote and produced the song died on April 19, 2021, at 73, in Connecticut. He wrote it as a love song for vampires. She made it a love song for everybody.
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