The Inspiration Behind These Famous Songs Show That A Great Idea Can Come From Anywhere

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Photo by Debbie Hickey/Getty Images

“Total Eclipse of the Heart” is an iconic ’80s power ballad. The song comes from Bonnie Tyler’s fifth album Faster than the Speed of Light and is, without a doubt, her biggest hit. The man behind the song, Jim Steinman, is Meatloaf’s collaborator – and that’s a key piece of the puzzle. Basically, the song is exactly what you’d expect from someone in Meatloaf’s camp and is better suited towards the Twilight soundtrack than and ’80s rom-com.

In an interview with Playbill, Steinman admitted that the song is about vampires. “I remembered I actually wrote that to be a vampire love song,” he said. “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.”