Bonnie Tyler hit the pinnacle of her career when Meat Loaf’s songwriter Jim Steinman offered her “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”Bonnie recently talked about how all that happened.
Bonnie said that after leaving RCA Records, where had her first hit "It's a Heartache" in 1978, she then decided to sign with Columbia. Bonnie said she was blown away when she heard Meat Loaf on the car radio.
In a London meeting with Columbia, Bonnie asked A&R executive Muff Winwood to reach out to Meat’s songwriter Jim Steinman, the New York writer whose songs made him a star.
Winwood was skeptical that Steinman would work with Bonnie.She agreed to meet him in New York. The two of them had an instant connection and Tyler was offered "Total Eclipse of the Heart," which Steinman has begun writing earlier, but hadn’t finished.
Bonnie talked about the sound she wanted:
"I was on the way to the record company in London, in a taxi when on the radio came Meat Loaf. I loved this sound, you know? When I arrived there, Muff Winwood said to, 'What direction do you want to go in? Who'd you like to work with?' I said, 'Oh, my God. I just heard an amazing song in the taxi,' I said. 'Meat Loaf was singing it. I want to work with whoever Meat Loaf is recording with'."
Bonnie talked about asking Columbia Records exec Muff Winwood to work with her:
"Winwood looked at me like I had two heads, you know. He said, 'Are you crazy, Bonnie? That's Jim Steinman.' I said, 'So? Ask him if he would write for me? What can he say? You don't get if you don't ask.' He got in touch with Jim. Jim Steinman asked me if I'd go to America, to New York to meet him. I went to his apartment and we talked music and three weeks later, Jim Steinman finished off recording 'Total Eclipse of the Heart'."
Although there are not plans to work with Steinman these days, Bonnie says she’s grateful for the songs that Steinman wrote and gave her.
[courtesy of Classic Hits Today]