Never mind, it’s not that good.
Every teen in the 90s was hopelessly misunderstood and nobody had ever felt that way before. I love 90s music but I have to cop to our legacy as the most melodramatic generation.
Also, because we’re talking about Steinman and musical theatre, people might not know that he did use “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in a musical. It’s called Dance of the Vampires, and it tanked on Broadway. According to him, he wrote it years ago as a “vampire love song”, and stuck it in the show when he ran out of time to write the score:
“[For the original production] in Vienna, I had only a month and a half to write this whole show and we needed a big love duet… But with Total Eclipse of the Heart, I was trying to come up with a love song and I remembered I actually wrote that to be a vampire love song. 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 dark. And so I figured ‘Who’s ever going to know; it’s Vienna!’ And then it was just hard to take it out.”
Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.”?
His album Bad For Good, Meat Loaf’s albums, and Bonnie Tyler’s albums all make up the core of my playlist called “Fantastic Bombastic”. It is my favorite musical subgenre. 
Honorable mentions: “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” and “Tonight is What It Means to be Young”.
To write one of these songs, you simply follow this formula
Oh, God yes.
Oh, that’s an easy one.
George Michael and Elton John doing "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"I always point to this song when this topic comes up in my world, so I’ll contribute any other sappy 70s “message” songs, including, but not limited to, Sometimes When We Touch,, by Dan Hill (for some reason, I wanted to write “Dan Wheldon”, but that’s not right. And RIP Mr. Wheldon).
Another is All by Myself by Eric Carmen.
I could also include Debby Boone, and…and…and…
Anything by U2.
B-but at least he knows he’s free!
OMG, look what I found! A 12 year old Dana Carvey!. I remember the SNL skit version of this song really getting into the “chopping broccoli! chopping broccoli. CHOPPING BroCColi!!!” part.
P.S. Do you think this was a Carvey audition video?
It’s not the song, it’s the singer.
Just to be clear, consider Dolly Parton’s original version of I Will Always Love You.
Would Bobby Vinton’s Dick and Jane qualify? It’s more understated than most of these, but it makes up for it in emotional manipulation.
Wind Beneath My Wings, Bette Midler
Angel of the Morning, Juice Newton
I Can’t Make You Love Me, Bonnie Raitt
Trying to decide if Elton John, Candle in the Wind (either version) would count.
I was going to post The Rose but hearing it again made me realize it was its placement in the movie that made it seem overly dramatic. Wind Beneath My Wings is a much better example.
Anything by Michael “Suck the Soul Outta This Song” Bolton, especially, “How am I Supposed to Live Without You,” which was barely tolerable from the late Laura Brannigan.
Debby Boone-- “You Light Up My Life”
Michael Bolton–well, anything, really, but “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You”
And it’s going back a long, long way, but you can’t beat Gene Pitney’s “I’m Gonna Be Strong” for over-the-top, chest-beating vocals. Great voice, though.
Oops! Biggirl beat me to it on Bolton.
Current example: Kesha’s Praying. And I actually LIKE Kesha and I totally understand why she’d write that song, but … put it side by side with, say ‘Fighter’ and there’s a pretty clear melodrama-winner