Every song has a story. We, as fans, try to make sense of what the artist is trying to say in the song, to conjure up our own version of that story, but that doesn’t mean we always know what happened. Sometimes it’s easy to predict said stories; for example, if an artist recently underwent a bad breakup and then released a song reeking of gloom and sadness, then it won’t be hard to put the finger on the inspiration behind the song. However, sometimes, even when the meaning of a song feels very obvious, it’s in reality entirely different. After all, we only know so much about the lives of the artists we love. To that end, here are a few iconic songs which have very different backstories than the one we have believed for a long time:
Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler
Total Eclipse of The Heart is one of the greatest love songs ever written. Period. It was composed, produced and written by Jim Steinman. He thought the song was very similar in terms of sound and emotion to Wagnerian music. However, there are some things that you probably don’t know about the song…
Source: YouTube
The song was initially meant to be a vampire love song. Steinman even featured the song, originally titled “Vampires in Love” in his musical “Dance of the Vampires” in 2002, which, by the way, ended up being a massive failure. When you think about it, the song does sound like a power ballad involving vehement vampires.