# Who did the song "Total Eclipse of the Heart"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 31, 2001, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-did-the-song-total-eclipse-of-the-heart/90638 "2001-10-31T01:15:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-did-the-song-total-eclipse-of-the-heart/90638/21 "2001-10-31T21:04:18Z")
Hmmm . . . I would think that someone like Lieber & Stoller, or Holand/Dozier/Holland, or some similar songwriting group (Goffin & King?) might have had three Top 10 hits by different artists at once. Time for some research! ---
**Author:** ![Umbriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9de053/32.png) [@Umbriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Umbriel)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-did-the-song-total-eclipse-of-the-heart/90638/22 "2001-10-31T21:31:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kabbes \* > \*\*My dad’s best man was the drummer, if that helps you any. \*\* I thought the drummer on most of that Bonnie Tyler album was Max Weinberg, of E Street Band fame. Was he your dad’s best man, or am I mistaken? I know that lot of the keyboards were done by Paul Shaffer, now best known as David Letterman’s sidekick. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-did-the-song-total-eclipse-of-the-heart/90638/23 "2001-11-01T01:09:37Z")
I assume this is the same Max Wienberg who leads the band on Conan O’Brien’s show? ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-did-the-song-total-eclipse-of-the-heart/90638/24 "2001-11-01T04:00:18Z")
Bonnie Tyler originally did it, but I think Kim Karnes (one-hit-wonder w/“Bette Davis eyes”) covered it too. ---
**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-did-the-song-total-eclipse-of-the-heart/90638/25 "2001-11-01T04:59:44Z")
I was all ready to jump in and say, "Ha! You’re _all_ wrong - it was [Klaus Nomi](http://www.psychotica.net/evb/nomi/)! And then Mr. Mayo looked over my shoulder and said, “Nomi’s song was ‘Total Eclipse of the _Sun_.’” Rats. I hate it when he goes around being right and everything. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-did-the-song-total-eclipse-of-the-heart/90638/26 "2001-11-01T06:02:42Z")
Some years before Bonnie Tyler recorded “Total Eclipse,” Jim Steinman used the melody in its entirety as part of the soundtrack to a movie called “A Small Circle of Friends.” Perhaps, as an earlier poster mentioned, he had already written the tune for a proposed musical, and recycled it for the movie. Incidentally, I SWEAR, that the first 20 or 30 times I heard Bonnie Tyler sing “It’s A Heartache” on the radio, I thought it was Rod Stewart! ---
**Author:** ![Gaspode](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gaspode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaspode)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-did-the-song-total-eclipse-of-the-heart/90638/27 "2001-11-01T07:58:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Saltire \* > I think he’s the only writer to have three songs performed by different people in the top 40, let alone the top 10. > \*\* Nope, at least not if your not limiting yourself to the US. Barry Gibb did it, but I don’t remember the details. ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-did-the-song-total-eclipse-of-the-heart/90638/28 "2001-11-01T09:55:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Umbriel \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by kabbes \* > > \*\*My dad’s best man was the drummer, if that helps you any. \*\* > > I thought the drummer on most of that Bonnie Tyler album was Max Weinberg, of E Street Band fame. Was he your dad’s best man, or am I mistaken? > > I know that lot of the keyboards were done by Paul Shaffer, now best known as David Letterman’s sidekick. \*\* Nah - My dad’s best man was a session drummer frequently employed by Bonnie Tyler (or at least whoever was responsible for putting Bonnie Tyler’s songs). He did the drumming for that song. Boy would I be happy if my dad’s best man was Max Weinburg! pan ---
**Author:** ![Umbriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9de053/32.png) [@Umbriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Umbriel)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-did-the-song-total-eclipse-of-the-heart/90638/29 "2001-11-01T16:48:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astorian \* > \*\*Some years before Bonnie Tyler recorded “Total Eclipse,” Jim Steinman used the melody in its entirety as part of the soundtrack to a movie called “A Small Circle of Friends.” Perhaps, as an earlier poster mentioned, he had already written the tune for a proposed musical, and recycled it for the movie. > > Incidentally, I SWEAR, that the first 20 or 30 times I heard Bonnie Tyler sing “It’s A Heartache” on the radio, I thought it was Rod Stewart! \*\* The recycling is more than likely. I love Steinman’s work enormously, but if you took every album he has produced/created over the past 20 years and factored in all of the cover versions and other “recyclings”, you’d have about a quarter as many albums. His low productivity is kind of frustrating, but builds anticipation, I suppose. You can’t hurry crazed genius… Re the Bonnie/Rod similarity: it’s been commented on more than once in the press. In an amusing twist on it, there was a commercial for Pierre Cardin men’s cologne that ran around the holidays about 10 years ago, which I believe featured Bonnie singing Rod Stewart’s “You Wear It Well”. And yes, Saltire, Max Weinberg’s current full-time gig is as Conan O’Brian’s version of Paul Shaffer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-did-the-song-total-eclipse-of-the-heart/90638.md?page=1)