Music

Holding Out for a ‘Hero’ Bonnie Tyler, the Welsh singer whose husky yet commanding voice made songs such as Total Eclipse of the Heart into 1980s classics, has died aged 75. As well as 1983’s Total Eclipse of the Heart, which reached No 1 in the US and UK and is arguably the power ballad by which all others should be judged, Tyler’s hits included Holding Out for a Hero, which brought explosive panache to the Footloose soundtrack and reached No 2 in the UK charts in 1984; and the dolorous It’s a Heartache, which provided her breakout success in 1977. Her music career had a modest beginning: singing cover versions in local clubs while working in a grocery shop. But a talent scout heard her singing Freda Payne’s Band of Gold one evening, and she recorded a demo to pitch to record labels – after two years, RCA eventually signed her, and she took on her stage name Bonnie Tyler. Tyler proved to be supremely versatile, hopping between country-tinged ballads and disco-pop tracks such as 1979 hit (The World is Full of) Married Men, recorded for a film adaptation of the Jackie Collins novel of the same name. But Tyler wanted to branch into rock music, and courted Jim Steinman, who’d had huge success as Meat Loaf’s chief collaborator on Bat Out of Hell and more. Steinman was impressed by Tyler and gave her Total Eclipse of the Heart (reportedly provoking jealousy in Meat Loaf later on). Tyler told a friend at the time: “I recorded an incredible song today. The trouble is, it’s so long, I don’t think anybody will ever play it” – but after this seven-minute epic was shortened to a radio-friendly four, it became an enormous hit. With “turn around …” interjections from uncredited singer Rory Dodd, the duet dramatised the blotting out of a torrid love affair, and as well as becoming a karaoke favourite and a transatlantic No 1, it topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland and numerous other territories. “Some people think this song is about a vampire, but I’ve never understood that interpretation,” she later said. “Jim did once tell Playbill that he had been working on a musical interpretation of the silent film Nosferatu. I’ve always thought of Total Eclipse as an impassioned love song.” The accompanying album Faster Than the Speed of Night – including a spirited cover of John Fogerty’s Have You Ever Seen the Rain? – topped the UK album chart.