‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ is the quintessential Power Ballad – NO !! …it’s the Nuclear-Power Ballad of all time – one that can make even burly hockey players sing the chorus. 🤗

“Once upon a time I was falling in love / Now I’m only falling apart / 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“

Unfortunately, this incredibly dramatic, heart wrenching , knock-your-socks-off ballad always reminds me of one particular burly hockey player  – Sahai ! Yup, every time I listen to ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’, its one of my best friends that pops into my mind. Problem you see is that once you’ve seen and heard Sahai, on his way to the White House D-Mid loo for his morning ablutions, very cheerfully singing,  “Once upon a time I was falling in love / Now I’m only falling apart/ There’s nothing I can do / A total eclipse of the heart’ – You can never un-see it!😆 Don’t know where he heard it – probably on one of the many mix cassettes playing in my room 😂. But to be fair to him , Sahai also sang Jethro Tull on his way to the loo !😂

The song was global smash. I first heard it on the Grammys Show in early 1984. The song has an operatic majesty to it – something that ballads don’t usually have, right? They are usually soft and dreamy …but this one, it’s Wagnerian! Absolutely, blows the roof off! And that video – bloody hell! I don’t think you could make that video today – Bonnie Tyler would be struck off the education department’s teacher register for it 😳. I almost never remember the video though, despite it having 789M views on YouTube. Bonnie’s voice and the lyrics have all the drama, emotion and story-telling you could ever need – a video is just sensory overload with this one. And the lyrics are amazing – from that “Turn Around, bright eyes” at the beginning through the “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” to “Forever’s gonna start tonight” and, of course, the incredible chorus.

I first heard Bonnie Tyler in 1979 when my one of best friends in school, Sujata, moved to Delhi from Canada, and brought with her a treasure trove of fabtastic music – including a set of 7 or 8 cassettes on which she had recorded the 1978 year-end Top 100 Countdown (It might have been Casey Kasem’s Top 100, I think🤔). And somewhere near the top of that list, was this incredible female voice singing “It’s A Heartache” – husky & raw, like she had been crying all night, while smoking cheap cigarettes and and drinking whiskey …..that rasp was brilliant! It made her sound like a female Rod Stewart or John Fogerty.  And the lyrics of ‘It’s a heartache’ were pretty intense as well – all about heartache (yes, we did gather that from the title I’m sure🙃) in all its dark despair. Loved it then, love it now. The song did make it onto ‘A Date With You’ as well and was a much requested staple on the radio, usually accompanied by a mushy message to a lost love.

“It’s a heartache/Nothing but a heartache/Hits you when it’s too late/ Hits you when you’re down
It’s a fool’s game / Nothing but a fool’s game / Standing in the cold rain /Feeling like a clown”

Bonnie has done a really nice version of CCR’s ‘Have You Ever Seen The Rain’ as well – here it is! 

For some reason, these two songs have started me down a bit of a power ballads /love songs path – do you remember Billy Ocean? He’s up next !