"Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Jim Steinman and Bonnie Tyler

In music, a cannon can refer to a compositional technique where a melody is staggered across several melodic parts, creating an echoing layer to effect. However, a cannon doesn't always mean that. Sometimes a cannon is just a piece of artillery that you load with gunpowder and light on fire. [music] Welcome to Strong Songs, a podcast about music. I'm your host, Kirk Hamilton, and I'm so glad you've joined me to talk about music written to be a cannon, music written while listening to a cannon, and sometimes music that just involves firing off a cannon. This is a 100% independent podcast. I make every episode by myself, and I'm entirely supported by listeners like you. I'm annoyed by you, but I'm sick of watching things I like, be acquired and ruined, and thanks to all of you, that will not happen with Strong Songs. On this episode, we're firing up the Hurt Machine and turning the knobs to 10 for a melodramatic opus that helped define the power ballad for a generation. It's one of those songs that only could have happened in the 1980s. So let's dial up the reverb, load up the cannons, and do this thing. [music] I have talked about big songs on this show in the past. Songs with huge sounds mixed to evoke massive spaces, songs with equally massive lyrics, with huge emotions so broad and evocative that you feel invited to move in, stretch out, and find whatever meaning you want. Not coincidentally, a lot of the biggest songs that I've covered on Strong Songs were recorded in the 1980s. A decade when big was very much in, when new studio techniques, reverb technologies, and broader trends in popular taste all incentivized going bigger, wider, deeper, and broader. [music] So yeah, I've talked about a lot of big songs, but the song I'm going to talk about on this episode ranks among the biggest. Written by a self-proclaimed Vognirian songwriter sung by a woman with a voice the size of a building, it's a song that sounds big, sure. But it also feels big, each new, dramatic line of the lyrics, another building block, and a tower of harmony and emotion. Even just this isolated piano part, which you're hearing right now, even that sounds big, and it's really just a few notes, a handful of chords played end to end. You can hear it though, in the spaces between the notes. A massive space, waiting to be filled. [music] Yes, it is time to talk about one of the great power ballads of the 80s, Jim Steinman's total eclipse of the heart. [music] The song's so unforgettable by Bonnie Tyler, and scorched onto the hearts of millions of listeners who finally found a song with feelings as big as theirs could be. [music] And I got to say, when I set out to make this episode, I thought I knew what to expect from the song, but I was surprised over and over. [music] So let's rediscover it together. [music] There's a lot to say about this hugely popular and influential song, but I'm excited to spend some time listening to it not as the piece of foundational popular art that it would become, but as a song written, performed, and recorded by specific people, specific human beings at a specific moment in time. The feelings and sounds in this song are at times almost comically huge, but in every bar their humanity still comes through. [music] Total eclipse of the heart was the lead single off of Bonnie Tyler's 1983 album Faster Than the Speed of Night, and it quickly climbed faster than the speed of night to the top of the global charts and propelled the album to massive sales success. But the song and the partnership between its writer and producer Jim Steinman and Bonnie Tyler was far from faded. Jim Steinman is well known in music circles, but perhaps a little bit less well known among more casual music fans because, like many professional songwriters, his name doesn't usually get announced on the radio alongside the artist who recorded his song. But Steinman played a crucial role in popularizing a particular brand of theatrical, melodramatic, even operatic pop and rock and roll music in the late 70s and early 1980s. [music] Though he wrote hits for a number of artists, Steinman is most closely associated with his meatloaf, the theatrical rock singer with whom Steinman achieved his first major success, writing the songs for meatloaf's groundbreaking 1977 concept album "Bat Out of Hell." [music] "Bat Out of Hell" rules, obviously. It showcases a perfect fit between loafs, dynamic, and emotional vocal style, the vision of producer Todd Rungren and Steinman's overwhelming and theatrical writing and production style. This is paradise by the dashboard light, my and a lot of other people's favorite song, "Bat Out of Hell." [music] "Bat Out of Hell" [music] "Bat Out of Hell" [music] This song is a real showcase for meatloaf, but it's also a real showcase for Ellen Foley, who takes the female lead part and performs one of the great back and forths in a moment of, I guess let's call it, "Base Ballas Interrupt Us." [music] "Here's the throw, here's the play of the fight, Holy cow, I think he's gonna make it stop right there." [music] [music] There are a lot of songs that do this kind of sparring back and forth between two singers, but I always kind of compare them to this one. [music] "Bat Out of Hell" I will always love a song where two lovers argue with one another in front of a rock band. That might actually be the best way to argue with your significant other. [music] As Steinman was breaking new ground with meatloaf, Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler was kicking off her own career, making music that was stylistically at least on an entirely different continent from anything on "Bat Out of Hell." That same year, 1977, Tyler released the world's starts tonight, which is a very nice album, but has more of a chilled out, kind of, abba-inflected pop folk kind of sound. [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] As the story goes, Steinman originally offered total clips of the heart to meatloaf, but the two were unable to come to an agreement regarding payment for the song, though there is some dispute about the particulars there. Meanwhile, Tyler, whose career in the early 80s was seen as being in a bit of a lull after she had some early success, had seen meatloaf performing "Bat Out of Hell" and had approached Steinman about writing some music for her, a very smart call, and she was waiting in the wings to scoop up the song when it became available. quote, I always thought she had a great voice. Steinman told People magazine in 1983, quote, she reminds me of Creedence Clearwater Revival's John Fogherty. Probably my favorite male rock and roll singer. Her voice isn't pure and smooth. It sounds ravaged like it's been through a lot. It's what rock and roll is about. Unquote. [MUSIC PLAYING] One additional backstory fun fact before we get into our analysis. Like a lot of songwriters, Steinman would grab and reuse fragments of earlier songs, both published and unpublished, and use them in new songs that he was working on. That was certainly the case for Total Eclipse of the Heart, which shares ideas with a vampire musical that Steinman had been working on. So a lot of the lyrics and imagery in Total Eclipse of the Heart stem from its origins as a vampire love song. It's something that is both hilarious and also something that makes total sense. [MUSIC PLAYING] Turns out listeners love songs about vampires in love. Total Eclipse was a huge hit. It spent weeks atop the US billboard charts. And actually, for a while, was battling for the top spot with another Jim Steinman song, Making Love Out of Nothing At All, which he'd written for air supply. Definitely a big year for Jim Steinman, 1985. [Music] Total Eclipse's "Clime Up the Charts" was accompanied by a now legendary music video directed by Russell Mulcajee, a bizarre but unforgettable backlit phantasmagoria that features Bonnie Tyler running around on English boarding school. Well, I don't even know, while things happen. That video returned to the public consciousness in the 2010s thanks to a literal video version that went viral on YouTube with a singer who instead of singing the lyrics of the song just described what was happening at that moment in the video. And I do feel like I kind of have to at least mention that in this episode because to this day when I'm singing the song to myself instead of singing the actual lyrics, I usually wind up singing about how I was wearing a dress, but now they've got me wearing a suit. [Music] But okay, the idea here is to talk about the actual song and not the meme, so let's talk about the actual song. Total Eclipse of the Heart was primarily recorded at the power station in New York City and featured an all-star lineup of musicians, some of whom will be familiar to listeners of this show. First up is Rick Daringer, who among other artists worked extensively with Al Yankovik and produced previous strong song The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota. He played guitar on this track and actually also played the guitar solo on that air supply song. Eastreet band members Roy Bitten and Max Weinberg played piano and drums respectively and each brought a ton of creative energy to this song. They're both a huge part of why it sounds as good as it does. Steve Busslow played bass, Jimmy Nailin played percussion and the synth parts were recorded later by Larry Fast and Steve Margotius. Finally, there were the backup singers who played a pivotal role in the power of the finished recording. Vocal pros Eric Troyer and Holly Sherwood recorded the many layered backup choir parts and Canadian vocalist Rory Dodd played an unusual co-lead vocal role, singing what amounts to a duet with Bonnie Tyler. His is the voice that both begins and closes out the song. So with all of that established, let's get into it. Let's take this song apart and look at all the different parts that make it work. Total eclipse of the heart begins very small or rather it begins as a small sound in a large space that might eventually be filled. It begins with Roy Bitten's simple yet inimitable piano part, standing alone on a vast darkened stage. Let's listen to the first verse in its entirety and I want you to try to strip away your preconceptions of this song all the times that you've heard it in the past and just pay close attention to each musical element. The melodies, the harmonies and the arrangement. So that is the shape of the verse and it's an interesting one. Let's start with the chord movement since that outlines the general directional movement of the verse. I've talked a lot on strong songs about directionality in songwriting and this verse is a strong upward climb. However, the vocals do something a little bit more nuanced. Within that upward climb, they're actually doing this trade-off where Rory Dodd tends to move up while Bonnie Tyler tends to move back down. It's also interesting how their melodies interact and how they hand off. It's almost like they're singing two halves of a single part or doing a vocal relay race rather than a more standard duet. Dodd almost always begins the phrase and Tyler sort of picks it up from him starting on the same note and completing what he started. It's interesting and a little bit unusual. Total clips of the heart starts out in the key of D-flat major. It changes key as a couple of times throughout its form and these aren't key changes like I've talked about sometimes on the show before. At the end of Whitney Houston's version of I Will Always Love You, where the song changes keys and just represses the same melody or chorus in a new key. This is more like musical theater where a song will just change keys as a matter of course from section to section. But it starts out in the key of D-flat and the whole recording is also pitched up just a touch from the A440 standard. I've tuned my instruments about 10 cents sharp to get closer to the original just so that we can all be kind of in the same ballpark. This verse can be thought of as three subsections. Each one gets a little bit higher than the last one. This opening bit goes from B-flat minor to A-flat major. Now A-flat major also the key of the chorus but it's a whole journey from here to there and right now we are actually in the key of D-flat major. We're just starting with the 6 minor B-flat going to the 5 major A-flat. Roy Bitton's piano part always keeps to a similar shape. You can play it very easily. You start with a minor triad and then take the middle note, the third and you just jump that up the octave and you've got the shape. You do the same thing down a 7 A-flat major which is the second chord of the song. Same shape just in major. There you go. It's very simple yet somehow distinct and memorable and it's funny how often famous instrumental parts manage to do that. So we're going from B-flat minor to A-flat major and the melody here at the start outlines this harmony very clearly. Roy Bitton's opening line, "Turn around." Climes the first three notes of a B-flat minor scale, 1, 2, 3, and then Tyler enters and takes over for him, hovering around the top and then climbing back down. The second phrase repeats, then climbs. So the ascent is underway at this point that first section B-flat minor going to A-flat major has climbed to a brighter major key second section, D-flat major descending to B major with a sharp 4 in the melody that bright yet mysterious lydian sound that turns up so often in songs that I talk about on this show. I think it's just commonly used. I don't think it's that I'm drawn to songs with lydian in them but I suppose you never know. The change to major in this second section, particularly major with a sharp 4, actually gives this bright urgency to this second phrase and that matches with the lyrics which I'll talk more about in a second. Roy Dodd has also climbed into his mix here. He's singing now the first three notes of a D-flat major scale so his voice is much more clarion and intense. He has a beautiful singing voice as you'll hear throughout the analysis and as he climbs into his upper register it becomes more piercing and urgent. All that urgency builds up to the songs first big shift and first key change. For this final pair of chords the song changes keys to E major, landing first on an E major chord and then on an A major, the four chord. It's a key change that feels totally natural and it's perfectly supported by the arrangement. Steve Busslow leads them into the new key with this tasty little bass dive up high on the neck. It's a trick-hill employ more than once on this recording. As you can hear in the new key, Roy Dodd really gets to unleash his upper register. He's still singing the first three notes of the corresponding major scale but this time it's an E and F sharp and a G sharp and he really gets to let that G# sing out as he sings, turn around bright eyes, and as Tyler sings, every now and then I fall apart. So let's talk about those lyrics a little bit. This Steinman's lyrics are a huge part of what makes this song hit as hard as it does. Almost every line in total eclipse of the heart is expressing some kind of incredibly intense feeling. It's adolescent in a way and I don't mean that as an insult at all. It's just so intense. The narrator is so desperate to be in love, so terrified of being alone, that she becomes an almost archetypal character. I was talking about this song with a therapist friend of mine and she said that she actually uses the lyrics of this song to explain attachment theory to her graduate students, which I thought was interesting. This song is such an odyssey, lyrically as much as musically, and you can see that reflected in this first verse that we've been talking about. It's all built around lyrical repetition. For most of the verse, Dodd simply sings the same two words over and over again, turn around. Similarly, Tyler's part has a lot of repetition. She begins every phrase the same way. Every now and then I get a little bit, only changing the final word, a little bit lonely, a little bit tired, and so on. The words that she says there at the end match the emotional feeling of each section. The minor key opening section is morose and inward facing. I get a little bit lonely, a little bit tired. The second, more agitated major key section matches that energy in the lyrics. I get a little bit nervous. I get a little bit terrified. And then, finally at the key change, both parts unfold somewhat. Dodd's part goes beyond the two words that he's been repeating and becomes a whole phrase. Turn around, bright eyes. And Tyler's part arrives where it's been heading this whole time. Every now and then I fall apart. So now let's listen back to that first verse again in its entirety. And I hope that now you've got a little bit more of a picture in your mind of what's happening, harmonically, melodically, and lyrically. Pay attention to Roy Bitten's simple yet memorable piano part, to how the chords climb first in minor, then in major, and finally in major in a new key. And how the lyrics repeat while subtly changing and how the emotions Tyler is expressing escalate in intensity, from lonely to tired to nervous to terrified. Catch Steve Margot's tasty bass entrance at the key change, as well as just how great Roy Bitten sounds as his voice climbs into higher and higher registers. Here's on Here we go. The second verse follows the same form as the first one, but the arrangement is substantively different. Most obviously Max Weinberg's drums have entered, but Steve Busslow is also in on bass and Rick Daringer has entered on electric guitar. Margotian and fast synthesizers are also adding one effect here that is pretty cool. So yeah, bass is pretty straightforward here though. And Busslow is still adding some of those little high neck dives that he likes to add throughout this song. Here in Dr. guitar part is pretty straightforward too. In fact it's pretty much just Bitten's piano part, the two mixed together to just flesh out the piano part which we heard in the first verse. Steinman has said he was consciously going for a wall of sound approach to his arrangement on this song, which is an approach that we've talked about several times on the show where parts are doubled and tripled across the ensemble by multiple different instruments. On the instrumental end that leaves Max's drums, which are a real highlight of this recording. Max Weinberg of course known to many out there as the longtime drummer on late night with Conan O'Brien, and before that as Roy Bitten's bandmate in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band for many decades. Weinberg didn't actually play on Born to Run, the Springsteen song that I talked about last season on the show since that was just before his time with the E Street Band, but he's played that song countless times live with Bruce over the years. On total eclipse, Weinberg had set his drums up at the power station with a pretty straightforward drum setup and microphone setup, but the reverb applied to these drums is anything but straightforward. I'm not sure exactly what they were using. This is early enough that it's likely a lexicon digital reverb, though they might be combining that with some other effects. I know the power station had a variety of options on hand, both acoustic and digital, for creating various types of reverb. The lexicon though is capable of the kinds of long, tail, massive digital reverb that you'll hear on so many 80s records, and it's likely that's what they were using here. And I should say, if you want to learn more about the specific production and engineering techniques used to record this song, producer Warren Hart has a typically great video about it up at his publication, Produce Like a Pro. It's really good. I recommend checking it out and I'll link it in the show notes. This is my digital recreation of the lexicon 480, which gets kinda close. But there is something missing from those kick drum hits. Listen to the recording, and every so often, something much bigger will drop along side Weinberg's kick. Wasn't on those two hits, but on this one. So I believe that is actually a synthesizer doubling the kick drum on those downbeats, creating a canon-like sound that will definitely turn up again later in the song. So that's the instruments. Now let's talk about the vocal arrangement. Because the vocal arrangement on this tune is crazy. The isolated vocal tracks for total equips of the heart are easy to find on YouTube, and I really recommend sitting down and listening to them. Something so certainly opened my ears to a lot of new things in this song. It is remarkable listening to that with no other instruments competing for your attention. So let's listen back to that whole second verse and pay attention to all of those new musical elements. The bass supporting the band at the bottom, the guitar added in to double the piano, adding body to those broken piano arpeggios from the first verse. The drums ringing out with that massive reverb accentuated by synth canon hits, every few downbeats along with the kick drum, and on top of it all, that multi-tracked vocal recording, with Bonnie Tyler testifying before an increasingly packed congregation. Here we go. [Music] And after two pretty long verses of setup, it's finally time for the chorus. [Music] Okay, so this chorus. This chorus is unusually lengthy and involved, and it's really made up of three parts. There's the first part that's a little bit of a plateau, a high energy plateau. Then a second part where it begins to build the chords, begin climbing in the intensity build and the the third part, which is where they sing the title of the song, kind of the Daniumone or the Lament, or maybe just the post-chorus. It's great, we'll get to it. So let's start at the beginning because something interesting happens right at the beginning of this chorus. Remember the verse changed keys partway through. It was in D-flatted first, and then it went up a minor third to E major. And as the song transitions from there into the chorus at the end of that second verse, it changes keys again. It's actually a pretty cool key change. It goes from that E major into the key of A-flat. And then the chorus is squarely in the key of A-flat major. It all revolves around the note G sharp or A-flat. Same note. It's the third in E, and then the major seven in A, and then it becomes the root in the chorus's new key A-flat major. So that key change from E major to A-flat major, that's a particular sound, right? And just as a little music theory aside, the relationship between those two chords is interesting and I think striking. E major and A-flat major are separated by a major third, E to G sharp or A-flat. And the two other notes in each chord, B and E, in E major chord, and C and E flat in the A-flat major chord are each a half step apart from one another. So when you go from one to the other, it's a very juicy and dramatic effect. I am not actually a hardcore music theorist. I think this is somewhat related to the concept of a chromatic medium, but either way, I've always loved that kind of relationship between two different chords, where one note is shared and the other two are a half step apart. You can do the same thing with minor, like A minor going to G sharp major. It's a great sound. And that chord relationship is why the chorus to total eclipse of the heart lands as hard as it does. Listen to it in the actual recording and just try to catch how two key changes occur in relative proximity. First we change keys to E, and then we change keys again to A-flat. With the new key in place, the chorus chord progression is pretty familiar. It follows the four chords that are so common in so many pop songs. One A-flat major, six F minor, four major D-flat major, and then five E-flat major, one six four five. The rest of the arrangement is pretty straightforward at first, aside from one percussion element from Jimmy Maillan. Castonets, which he uses to set up the backbeat, throughout this whole first section. Max's snare drum is also so comically massive throughout this chorus. His drumming is a big part of what makes this song so dramatic. Let's listen to a couple of isolated stems here. First of all, just check out how hard Roy Bitten is going. The level of power and passion in his performance, it's easy to lose sight of in the full mix, but listen to this. Each musician on this recording is going hard. They're playing as powerfully as Roy is here. They've just been mixed down into something that can fit onto a record. The strength of his performance still comes across even when the part sits lower in the mix. Listen to that same piano part. It's in there. And while he's lower in the mix, the energy is still there. The same thing goes for the vocal arrangement. In the overall mix, it's possible to completely miss "Dodd" Troier and Sherwood's back in choir at the start of the chorus. But when you listen to the isolated vocal stem, you can hear how iridescent the vocals on this chorus are. I don't know what to do. Man, let's listen to that same section with everything in, and just try to really focus on those vocals in the full mix. They're doing the thing. It's just not quite as dramatic when they're just one part of a larger wall of sound mix. Here we go. The energy is really up here in this second section of the chorus, and they just keep building. [Music] Let's look a little closer at that second part of the chorus. This is where it gets much more dramatic, and it really begins to build. That build goes across every aspect of the arrangement. Let's start with the harmony, which climbs and then descends, and then does a little bit of both. This second part has three subsections harmonically anyways. The first part climbs starting on F minor, then going to E flat over G, which lets the bass just climb up a step from F to G, and then the bass gets to keep going to A flat for an E flat major chord, and then finally the song lands on a new chord, B flat major, which is a major two chord. Really, it's a two dominant seventh chord. If you take the melody into account, and a two seven is not uncommon in pop songwriting, and it is perfectly deployed here. Now that we've climbed, it's time to descend. With a variation of the same chord progression, you just swap the A flat major chord and the F minor chord. You start on A flat major, leave the E flat over G in the middle, and then play an F minor. You get the same progression going down with the bass moving down the same way that it just came up, and then end at the same chord. A B flat seven chord. First we climbed, then we descended, so the third phrase does a little bit of both. A flat over C, down to E flat over B flat back up, E flat over C, then up a little more to D flat, then keeps climbing to E flat, the five chord, and then it finally resolves to one at the start of the post-chorus. It's a little bit of a harmonic odyssey, but the important thing to keep in mind is the directionality of each phrase. So let's listen to that section of the song, and I'll play along with that bass movement, and just try to follow along with that part of the arrangement, catching how it climbs first, and then descends back the same way it came, and then does a little bit of both before finally resolving into the next section. You're reclining, and now we descend, and for the third phrase a little above. The counting on this section is interesting too. By and large, total eclipse of the heart is in four four time, the most common time signature there is, four beats for every bar, but during the chorus there are a couple of bars of six four, which have two extra beats, and that extends each phrase and adds to the feeling of tension before a given release. Each time the song goes to that two seven chord, that B flat seven chord, there is a bar of six. Listen as I count it. It's good to keep those bars of six in mind, partly because later on in the song they change that counting up, and that actually sets up the song's apex during the second chorus, but that's later on. Let's stick with the first chorus. Another thing I want to draw your ear to is the drums, which have really ramped things up on this second section. Weinberg is hitting the crash symbol with every snare backbeat, which is about as massive as you can get with this kind of power ballad drum feel. just. GAH! GAH! GAH! On every backbeat. I don't know what to do when I'm always in the. I think there's Bonnie Tyler and the backing choir. I really need it tonight! Forever's gonna start tonight! Bonnie Tyler's growling, belting delivery stands in such strong contrast with the crystal clarity of the backup vocals. And the lyrics here are going so hard. She's almost panicked. I'm always in the dark, she sings. Followed by one of my favorite lyrics in the song, "We're living in a powder cake and given off sparks." Hell yeah. And really all of this, every part of the chorus that we've been talking about so far, is just a setup for the song's hardest-hitting moment when it all drops out, when it all comes down and Tyler in her heartbreak delivers one of the great lyrics of the 1980s. ♪ Once upon a time I was falling in love, and now I'm only falling apart ♪ ♪ There's nothing I can do, a totally clips of the high ♪ So with that in mind, let's listen back to that whole section. And I want you to really try to hear it all fresh, like you haven't heard this song a thousand times before. Like you've never heard it before. The harmony moving up, and then down, and then back up. The melody invocals gradually growing more and more panicked and intense. Roy Bitton's piano doubling the melody as he hits the keys so hard, and Weinberg's drums first, with back beats joined by castenets, and then as the intensity builds by crash cymbal hits. All of its swelling, surging forward to a moment of release, and despair. Years on, let's go. ♪ Once upon a time I was falling in love, and now I'm only falling apart ♪ ♪ There's nothing I can do, a totally clips of the high ♪ And like a lot of things with this song, because one time wasn't enough, they decided to come back for seconds. ♪ Once upon a time there was light in my life, and now there's only love in the dark ♪ ♪ Nothing I can say, a totally clips of the high ♪ Once upon a time I was falling in love, now I'm only falling apart, I mean what a lyric, and of course they follow it with another doozy. Once upon a time there was light in my life, now there's only love in the dark. I mean, we've all felt that way, right? It's pretty relatable, considering that this song was originally about vampires. ♪ Once upon a time there was light in my life, and now there's only love in the dark ♪ There's a nice new chord here as well. It's a C chord that comes after the A-flat, descending to the F minor, C major, which is kind of the 5 and F minor, that then instead leads up a half step to D-flat major, the four chord. And Rory Dodd's harmony part really emphasizes that E leading up to F. ♪ Now there's only love in the dark ♪ ♪ And now there's only love in the dark ♪ Some very tasty vocal arranging right there. And then there's the song's title repeated twice here in the post-chorus, this unusual but undeniably striking image, a total eclipse of the heart. It's not a concept I ever would have thought of before I heard this song, but it makes perfect sense. ♪ There's nothing I can do, a total eclipse of the heart ♪ The fact that they sing the title not once, but twice into different lyrical formats is a real mark of how confident and how indulgent this song is. Unless you're on Broadway, they don't write them like this anymore. ♪ Nothing I can say, a total eclipse of the heart ♪ I just want to point out that during this section, you can hear the wind blowing. It must be the synthesizers, but whatever it is, I would love to hear more wind blowing in songs. And what's that saying on Broadway when the feeling is too big to sing, you got to dance? Well here, when the feelings are too big to sing, you got to bring out the artillery. ♪ ♪ This instrumental B section, which is actually just a trip back through the verse chord progression, is where Steve Margot's and Larry Fass synthesizers come to the fore. Not just with the synth and organ leaves, but with the cannons that fire every couple bars. ♪ ♪ It is not unheard of to put cannon fire in a piece of music, but if you do it, you're putting yourself in the rarefied company of composers and songwriters who were really willing to go for it. Only a few come to mind. There's Chikovsky, of course, who's 1812 Overture, often features actual cannons being fired on stage. ♪ ♪ 1812 Overture, pretty crazy if you haven't listened to it in a while. I recommend just sitting down and putting it on. Everyone knows this part, but it's an amazing piece of music. ♪ ♪ And then, of course, there's the rock band that, if you were just coming up with a list of rock bands that might have used a cannon in one of their songs, would probably be at the top of your list. ♪ ♪ Yes, AC/DC incorporated cannons. At the end of their now classic, for those about Tarak, Wii, Salute, and I'm kind of surprised that more AC/DC songs don't feature cannon fire, to be honest. ♪ ♪ So if you're gonna do it, you're gonna do it. And despite the fact that the cannons in total eclipse of the heart are synth cannons, I see the effect is about the same. ♪ ♪ Like I said, form-wise, this is actually just the verse again, but it feels like an instrumental bridge. And I think that's because of the key changes in this song. Total eclipse changes keys twice on its path from the start of the chorus. It's in D-flat, and then it's in E-major, and then it's an A-flat major. But the chorus is pretty long, and the post-chorus and the chorus are both all in the key of A-flat major. So even though the verse starts with a B-flat minor chord going to an A-flat major, it feels like you're in a new section, because you are in a new old key. ♪ ♪ There's also the fact that the energy is completely different. The arrangement has gone off the scale, not just with the synths and the cannons, but with everything. ♪ ♪ The drums are at their peak during this section. Weinberg's power-ballot fills augmented by an unusual but somehow perfect instrument. Slay bells, presumably played by percussionist Jimmy Malen, and, again, you don't whip out the slay bells for every song, so when you do, you are making a choice. ♪ ♪ And before Tyler's lead vocals return, Rory Dodd gets a much-deserved chance to lead the backup choir on his own. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And just a quick word here on Rory Dodd. I know I've mentioned him a few times through this episode, but he really deserves a lot of credit for how great this song sounds. Dodd was a Canadian singer-songwriter who was a regular Steinman hand. He was a backup singer for a bunch of meatloaf stuff, including Bat Out of Hell. And in many ways, he's a consummate backup singer. He is a technically masterful singer. He has a wonderful voice, but he works very well in contrast with someone with a more distinctive voice, like Bonnie Tyler on this recording. Tyler's voice is so rough, so immediately noticeable, and some of that is the mix, but a lot of it is just the timbre of her voice. This is every bit her song, but he is a big part of why it sounds so good, and that's really just what backup singing is all about. ♪ ♪ ♪ So if you sit down with the isolated vocal tracks and you listen to the sections where he takes the lead, you can really get a sense for what a technically masterful singer he is. "Turn around, right eyes. Turn around, right eyes. Turn around." There's the power of that section setting up the final verse, but there's also this bit that we heard earlier, which I just love as he sets up the first chorus. That flip up into his head voice, followed by a powerful return to his mix, that is just some beautiful singing. This choral lead section brings the interlude to a close, setting up the final, most tempestuous verse. This final verse, as the narrator laments how no one could ever be as good as the love she's lost, carries on several of the most dramatic musical elements from the previous sections. In particular, Weinberg is still hitting those power ballad fills and there are still cannons firing in the background. And Tyler is really vocally pushing herself. Oh man, and there's so much stuff in this final chorus. Listen to Weinberg's drumming as he keeps the drum fill that sets up the chorus going for another bar after the start of the chorus. And then there's the vocal arrangement which adds these cascading echoes in the back of vocals. It's fantastic, it adds so much more energy to this second chorus. Man some of that stuff is so much further down in the final mix that I didn't even realize it was there, like those counterpoint screams. Those are crazy, but I'd never notice them before and that's because they're much lower in the final mix. It's a good example of just how much power needed to be wrangled as they mixed this song every track was played with such overwhelming energy. The mixing on this record was overseen by the great Neil Dorseman, though it was a team effort with a bunch of other engineers as well as Steinman contributing to the final mix. And it must have been a real trick to get all of this to fit in a single coherent stereo mix. While this song has peaked a number of times already, there's still room for one more of Steinman employees a clever compositional trick to really draw out this build up one last time. I hope that mix-lebian scale feels special because scales never get to be this dramatic. After hitting that 2-7 chord, the B-flat 7 that we talked about the first time around, this second time the band, led by that mighty synth organ, simply climbs a 2-octave B-flat mix-lebian scale. It's an ecstatic couple of bars of music and that's because just this one time at the very end, Steinman has changed the counting on this part of the chorus and he's added two beats. If you remember, this part of the chorus is broken up with bars of 6-4, which sound like this the first time through. This last time through, however, he changes that this whole phrase is in 4-4, which gives the band two extra beats to fully play through both octaves of that ascending scale. It's a rare case of a song setting a precedent of unusual counting and then once the listener has gotten used to it, adding an element of drama and surprise by reverting to regular role 4-4 times. This is also just the crashing drums, the throbbing organ, the driving bass and guitarist and Tyler's voice, I mean, she is wailing at the heights of her range. The sun has been covered, the eclipse is total and darkness reigns. There's nothing left to say or do. And what more is there to say? This is such an unusual song of such abundance, each track overwhelming with verve and power, it's a final mix that could only just contain it into something that would fit on the radio airwaves. To this day, it remains an exemplar of the 80s power ballad and a karaoke staple and after spending a couple weeks climbing inside it, it's easy to see why. From its tallest, emotional peaks to its most hushed valleys, total eclipse of the heart is a journey of rare sonic proportions, but more than that, it's a song about feelings. Huge feelings, yes, but human feelings expressed with a raw vulnerability that still feels true, all these decades later. What a song. Once upon a time there was light in my life, and now there's only love in the dark, nothing I can say, a total eclipse of the heart. A total eclipse of the heart. To the round bit I. To the round bit I. It's to the round. And that'll do it for my episode on Jim Steinman and Bonnie Tyler's total eclipse of the heart. Definitely a song I thought I had a handle on, but that I learned a ton about the more I dug into it. I love episodes like this one that give me a new way of hearing and appreciating a song that I've heard a billion times. I hope you liked it too, and if you did, I hope you'll consider supporting Strong Songs by becoming a backer over on Patreon. I've been working really hard on season 7, but I can only afford to do that because so many of you chip in to support the creation of the show. So yeah, patreon.com/strongsongs. Go sign up, get episodes two weeks early and help support this totally independent show. I also hope you'll visit the Strong Songs store. It's a whole new thing since we launched season 7 thanks to a merch and design overhaul by my supremely capable spouse Emily. There's a lot of fun stuff on there, some great new designs, a lot of fun new types of merch, and we'll be adding some new products pretty soon too. So go check that out along with all the other good stuff that you can find linked in the show nuts. I also recommend sitting down and really listening to some other Jim Steinman records that I made albums unlike anyone else and there's so much fun to listen to. Strong Songs is recorded at the Caldera in Portland, Oregon with production and web support from Emily Williams. Our show art is by the great Tom DJ. For lists of all the tools and software I use to make this show, check out the link in the show notes where you'll also find social links from my newsletter, the Strong Songs Discord, playlists, and a bunch of other good stuff. Well do it for now, I'll see you all in two weeks, until then take care and keep listening. (upbeat music)