Fact Check: Is 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' Really About Vampires or Heartbreak?
By Robert Thorne
Jim Steinman lived in a creative space dominated by thunder sheets, gothic gargoyles, and Wagnerian excess. In the late 1970s, fresh off the stratospheric commercial triumph of Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell, Steinman turned his sights toward theatrical adaptations. His primary fixation was F.W. Murnau’s seminal 1922 vampire film, Nosferatu. Working alongside playwright Michael Weller, Steinman spent months drafting a full-scale musical score under the project title Vampires in Love.
The centerpiece of that abandoned gothic production was an erotic, terrifying confrontation between a creature of the night and its intended thrall. When funding stalled and creative disputes shelved the stage play, Steinman kept the sheet music in his vault. He refused to let the soaring, minor-key chord progression die. By 1982, when Welsh vocalist Bonnie Tyler approached him seeking a radical departure from her country-rock material like "It’s a Heartache," Steinman pulled out the blood-soaked arrangement.
Robert Thorne covers electric vehicle innovations, autonomous driving systems, global mobility trends, and automotive engineering developments.
