Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse Of The Heart Took The No. 1 Spot In 1983 — Now It's Hit Another Mega-Milestone

For four weeks in 1983, the No. 1 song in the United States was "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler, a track that just kept amassing awards in the 40-plus years since its release, including a rare, 10-figure achievement in the streaming sector. It was something of an unlikely hit for its performer and represented a major comeback for its creator. First positioned as a country singer in the 1970s and enjoying only limited success, Tyler ditched her old record label and managers in the early 1980s and was able to find collaborators to make the kind of music she actually wanted to make: big-sounding, dramatic, sweeping sagas. The only person doing that at the time was Jim Steinman, the writer-producer behind the big professional successes of Meat Loaf. Steinman concocted for Tyler "Total Eclipse of the Heart," originally written for a musical about the vampire Nosferatu and then adapted from a section of the score he composed for the 1980 movie "A Small Circle of Friends."

After debuting on the Hot 100 in July 1983, the irresistibly melodramatic and overwrought "Total Eclipse of the Heart" hit No. 1 just eight weeks later. And just slightly less than 43 years later, "Total Eclipse of the Heart" made news again when it was streamed for the one billionth time.

While a No. 1 hit in 1983, it wasn't until 2001 that the iconic '80s love song went platinum, selling 1 million copies as a single by 2001 in the U.S. In the year it was released, though, besides its month at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, the song also went to No. 1 in both the U.K. and Canada, and it was the first No. 1 ever on Australia's standard ARIA chart. 

"Total Eclipse of the Heart" garnered a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. The album on which the song first appeared, "Faster Than the Speed of Night," got a nod in the Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female category, and sold half a million copies thanks in large part to "Total Eclipse of the Heart." 

It's also an undeniable smash when 21st century music consumption methods are logged. Streaming services are where most people listen to music in the 2020s, and a lot of them still listen to Bonnie Tyler. In January 2026, "Total Eclipse of the Heart" joined an exclusive club when it reached one billion plays on Spotify. Tyler found out when she was sent an award disc by the online giant. "I'm really happy," Tyler told the BBC of what it feels like to reach one billion streams. "When you think about it, there's only 8.3 billion people in the world."