Billboard Hot 100 - No. 1 Song of 1981

All the songs to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981

Flashback - Top 40 Cashbox Singles April 21 1984

Billboard #1 Song of the Week

This week our #1 song is "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler. This went to #1 October 1st 1983 and stayed there for 4 consecutive weeks.
This was a song written by super producer/writer Jim Steinman. He had the idea for this song as part of a theme for a musical he was writing called Small Circle of Friends but it never got off the drawing board. He wrote "Eclipse" and the song "Faster Than the Speed of Night" out of the remains of that musical.
Steinman put together an all star band for the recording of "Eclipse" that included Max Weinberg of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and legendary Edgar Winter guitarist and vocalist Rick Derringer. He added Rory Dodd as the backing vocalist for "turn around....", Rory had sang backup on Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell" album so he was a favorite of Steinman.
"Total Eclipse of the Heart" also went #1 in the U.K. and Bonnie Tyler was the first female to have an album , Faster Than the Speed of Night, debut at the top of the U.K. album charts.
After recording "Eclipse" and before Columbia records decided to release the song, Bonnie was asked to record "Holding Out For A Hero" for the soundtrack to Footloose. "Hero" was another Jim Steinman song it would crack the top 40 in 1985.