The Beauty of British Song: Bonnie Tyler

I'm not featuring Bonnie Tyler here because of her Jim Steinman-penned 1983 hit "Total Eclipse Of the Heart," which is easily one of the most laughable and embarrassing songs ever written. I'm not here to discuss its merits, because it has none. Got that? No, Bonnie Tyler is on this blog for one reason - her 1978 international hit "It's a Heartache." :-)

Bonnie Tyler - born Gaynor Hopkins in Wales - had been singing for years in her homeland, with different groups, when she signed with RCA in 1976 and recorded her first British hit, "Lost In France." When Tyler underwent surgery to remove nodules from her vocal cords shortly thereafter, she failed to give her voice a rest per doctor's orders and it took on a raspy quality. Ironically, that was what made "It's a Heartache" such a massive success; long a blue-eyed soul singer like Joss Stone would later become, Tyler was now drawing favorable comparisons to Rod Stewart, who was also known to sing raspy blues numbers.

Bonnie Tyler has mostly enjoyed success in continental Europe in the years since "It's a Heartache." And yes, Rod Stewart eventually covered that song.