Flashback Friday - Total Eclipse Of The Heart.
Buy any 80s or soft rock compilation CD and the odds are that Total Eclipse Of The Heart will be on there. Regarded as a classic and written by Jim Steinman and with a frankly bonkers video by the guy who would direct Highlander it is certainly one of the most distinctive number ones of the 1980's, even if I have seen it described as "the audio equivalent of being covered in raven sh*t".
However the version being pulled out of young me's box of forgotten music dates from the mid 90's and is by Nicki French. For many years a session singer, she recorded this version with pop giants Stock, Aitken and Waterman. It took three separate re-releases for it to take off, but third time was the charm and it rocketed up the UK charts, reaching number 5 and spending three months in there, selling over 250,000 copies in the process.
For some reason though, she was even more popular abroad, reaching number 2 in America and spending an impressive 6 months on the Billboard Chart in the process. She also reached number 1 in Japan, Spain, Canada and Brazil, selling over 5 million copies in total.
Sadly though, that was about it as far as her career went. Her next single was another cover, but failed to reach the UK top 40 due to a barcode error and wasn't released in the US thanks to record company politics. Her debut album did well, managing to sell 50,000 copies but the label she was signed to was too small to capitalise on her early success and eventually went into liquidation.
She continued to make records, albeit with little success (apart from Brazil bizarrely enough, where she was still hitting the top 10 several years later). She was the UK's Eurovision entry in 2000 with the ominous sounding "Don't Play That Song Again". Voters agreed with her, and she only managed to place sixteenth.
From then on it was a case of limited releases or remixes of her biggest hit, although she has kept a very large gay following and has headlined Pride festivals, including the world's biggest in Australia as well as returning to her original job as a backing singer, appearing on stage and (paying those bills) in pantomine.
POLL TIME!
Poll Total Eclipse Of The Heart?
However the version being pulled out of young me's box of forgotten music dates from the mid 90's and is by Nicki French. For many years a session singer, she recorded this version with pop giants Stock, Aitken and Waterman. It took three separate re-releases for it to take off, but third time was the charm and it rocketed up the UK charts, reaching number 5 and spending three months in there, selling over 250,000 copies in the process.
For some reason though, she was even more popular abroad, reaching number 2 in America and spending an impressive 6 months on the Billboard Chart in the process. She also reached number 1 in Japan, Spain, Canada and Brazil, selling over 5 million copies in total.
Sadly though, that was about it as far as her career went. Her next single was another cover, but failed to reach the UK top 40 due to a barcode error and wasn't released in the US thanks to record company politics. Her debut album did well, managing to sell 50,000 copies but the label she was signed to was too small to capitalise on her early success and eventually went into liquidation.
She continued to make records, albeit with little success (apart from Brazil bizarrely enough, where she was still hitting the top 10 several years later). She was the UK's Eurovision entry in 2000 with the ominous sounding "Don't Play That Song Again". Voters agreed with her, and she only managed to place sixteenth.
From then on it was a case of limited releases or remixes of her biggest hit, although she has kept a very large gay following and has headlined Pride festivals, including the world's biggest in Australia as well as returning to her original job as a backing singer, appearing on stage and (paying those bills) in pantomine.
Click to viewPOLL TIME!
Poll Total Eclipse Of The Heart?