Album Title
Bonnie Tyler
Artist Icon Faster Than the Speed of Night (1983)
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Back Cover
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First Released

Calendar Icon 1983

Genre

Genre Icon Pop

Mood

Mood Icon Happy

Style

Style Icon Rock/Pop

Theme

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Tempo

Speed Icon Medium

Release Format

Release Format Icon Album

Record Label Release

Speed Icon earMUSIC

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Album Description
Available in: Country Icon
Faster Than the Speed of Night is a Platinum-plus album by Bonnie Tyler released on May 30, 1983. Her fifth album, and her most successful, it includes her classic global #1 hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart". The album entered the UK album charts at #1, a position it held for one week. It later reached #4 in the United States. Tyler performed the song live on the 1984 Grammy Awards, nominated alongside Linda Ronstadt, Donna Summer, Irene Cara, and Sheena Easton.

The album was produced by Jim Steinman, who also contributed the songs "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Faster Than the Speed of Night." Both were originally intended for the follow-up album to Meat Loaf's hugely successful Bat Out Of Hell, as was "Making Love (Out of Nothing At All)," which would get recorded by Air Supply. However, because Steinman and Meatloaf were not on speaking terms at that point, the first two tracks were given to Tyler (she would eventually record a version of "Making Love (Out of Nothing at All") as well).

The remainder of the album consists of dramatically re-worked cover songs, including the Creedence Clearwater Revival hit "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?". "Goin' Through the Motions" is a Blue Öyster Cult cover from their 1977 album Spectres, and the original version of "Straight from the Heart" was the breakout Top 10 hit - from the Platinum Cuts Like A Knife album - by Canadian rock singer/songwriter Bryan Adams.
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User Album Review
Although she had earned worldwide fame in 1978 with "It's a Heartache," Bonnie Tyler had trouble building on that success looked as if she were doomed to one-hit wonder status by the early 1980s. However, she returned to prominence in 1983 with Faster Than Speed of the Night, a bombastic opus that took her gift for heartbroken balladry to epic heights. The key to the this album's success is the production and writing chops of Jim Steinman. He applies the same gothic operatic touch that made his work with Meat Loaf so captivating (and successful), wrapping the songs in atmospheric, all-stops-out arrangements that blend drama and power chords in equal measure. The combination of Steinman's cinematic production style with Tyler's smoky vocals made Faster Than the Speed of Night her most successful album. It also spawned a huge hit single in "Total Eclipse of the Heart," an epic ballad about longing for a lost love that starts as a quiet piano-led piece and builds into a gargantuan production built on an equal balance of power chords and thick choral vocals. The title track, a romantic rocker that blends lighting-fast piano runs with metallic guitar soloing from Rick Derringer, also got a decent amount of radio play. The remainder of the album has Tyler turning her attention to cover versions, including a Phil Spector-styled remake of Bryan Adams' "Straight From the Heart" and a radically rearranged version of "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" that transforms the song into an arena rock tune built on a complex, classical-styled piano riff from Roy Bittan. The standout among the cover versions is "Tears," a heart-tugging power ballad that Tyler performs as a duet with its author, Frankie Miller. Since Miller's gruff voice is close in style to Tyler's, their duet has a special chemistry and they milk the song for every drop of drama it has to offer. This combination of bombast and melodrama could have worn thin quickly, but Steinman keeps things moving smoothly by carefully pacing all the songs and throwing in odd, ear-catching elements to keep things interesting (example: the chanting children's chorus that introduces "Goin' Through the Motions"). All in all, Faster Than Speed of the Night remains Bonnie Tyler's finest and most consistent achievement on record. It's a must for anyone interested in her work and a worthwhile purchase for anyone who enjoys rock at its most melodramatic.


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