Her Biggest Hits Became Unlikely Players in Billboard History
(July 9, 2026) – Bonnie Tyler only had three Top 40 hits in America. Yet remarkably, all three became part of Billboard history in one way or another.
Tyler, the 75-year-old Welsh singing legend who passed away Wednesday (July 8) at a hospital in Portugal, will forever be remembered in the U.S. for her two most famous songs here — “It’s a Heartache” and “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” The two hits were separated by five years, during which the raspy-voiced singer went without any intervening chart action and had been all but forgotten.
Each song told of heartbreak and despair, yet with totally different arrangements. “Heartache” was a restrained country-rock ballad while “Eclipse” was an impassioned power-rock track with all the melodrama befitting a Jim Steinman production. But they each had a chart distinction that, when taken together, gave Tyler a unique place in Billboard history. One found her on the outside looking in; the other made her a central participant… and victor.
First was “It’s a Heartache,” the mid-tempo ballad that introduced pop fans to Tyler’s unique voice — the product of then-recent surgery to remove nodules on her vocal cords — in early 1978. The song slowly caught on with fans and made its way to the U.S. top ten, inching up to No. 3 in a highly competitive chart featuring hits by more established names like ABBA, Carly Simon, Eric Clapton, and the O’Jays.
But it was the two fellow U.K. artists waging war at the top of the chart — Andy Gibb and Gerry Rafferty — who kept Bonnie at bay in third place.
Gibb, little brother to The Bee Gees, was firmly entrenched at No. 1 in early June with his third big hit in less than a year, “Shadow Dancing.” Meanwhile, Rafferty was enjoying his first solo success with “Baker Street” at No. 2. With Tyler climbing to No. 3, she appeared poised to challenge the leaders and get that first No. 1 hit.
Those chances grew dimmer the following week when she remained at No. 3 while the top two didn’t budge. By mid-June, her climb had stalled, and “Heartache” began its descent before eventually exiting the Hot 100.
Meanwhile, “Shadow Dancing” and “Baker Street” remained embedded in their positions for four additional weeks — marking the first time in Hot 100 history that the same two songs had ruled for six consecutive weeks. What’s more, rumors abounded that RSO Records had placed its heavy thumb on the Billboard chart scale to keep their artist Gibb listed at No. 1 even while data and other trade press showed Rafferty with the lead.
While that allegation has never been proven, it has made for interesting Billboard folklore, a story in which Tyler had a courtside view for two weeks while “Heartache” sat at No. 3 behind the two behemoths.
Five years later, Tyler returned from what appeared to be a one-hit-wonder fate with one of the defining power ballads of the MTV era. It was in 1983 when Tyler finally had her own triumph with “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
That tune was written and produced by the late Steinman who had written hits for other artists. His work with Meat Loaf had caught Tyler’s attention when she was seeking a spark for her career. Little did she know that it would be a powder keg in the form of the bombastic “Total Eclipse,” which had been intended for Meat Loaf.
“Total Eclipse” struck a chord with fans during MTV’s third and arguably most expansive year. The song’s campy video featured the singer in a fantasy sequence surrounded by bright-eyed dancing boys in a boarding school. Debuting modestly in July, the classic tune began a slow climb that culminated in October with a four-week No. 1 run, making it the biggest hit of Tyler’s career and the only song by a Welsh singer to top the American charts.
The song still resurfaces during every major solar eclipse and later became the subject of one of the internet era’s most famous “literal video” parodies, in which Tyler’s campy MTV visuals were humorously narrated by a vocalist imitating her dramatic delivery.
But like the two songs that prevented “Heartache” from hitting the top in 1978, Tyler was part of a twosome that made its own history. While “Eclipse” scaled the top position, right behind it at No. 2 was Australian band Air Supply with another bombastic Steinman composition, “Making Love out of Nothing At All.”
The pairing produced another first. For three consecutive weeks, the top two songs in America were both written and produced by the same person — Steinman — even though he wasn’t the performing artist on either record.
As if all that weren’t enough, “Total Eclipse” gave Bonnie another distinction. With vocalist Rory Dodd singing the opening “Turn around,” “Eclipse” became the first No. 1 song in ten years to begin with a vocalist who was not the credited artist. The first had been Stevie Wonder’s 1973 smash, “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” with uncredited singer Jim Gilstrap providing the opening title line.
Even Tyler’s final major U.S. hit found its way into chart history. Her only other top 40 single in America was the Steinman tune “Holding Out for a Hero” from 1984’s Footloose soundtrack. While it wasn’t one of the album’s biggest hits, by its inclusion there, Tyler was again part of Billboard legend when Footloose became the album that finally knocked Michael Jackson’s Thriller from No. 1 and became the first of only four new chart topping albums in 1984, still the fewest in history.
Not many singers made as few appearances on the American charts while leaving such an outsized historical footprint. Bonnie Tyler wasn’t a constant chart presence, but whenever she arrived, history somehow seemed to arrive with her.
It’s safe to say that when Tyler made the charts, she went big… like a powder keg giving off sparks! She will definitely be missed.
R.I.P., Bonnie Tyler (June 8, 1951 – July 8, 2026).
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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