according to meat loaf, steinman had written the song, along with "making love out of nothing at all", for meat loaf's album "midnight at the lost and found"; however, meat loaf's record company refused to pay steinman and he wrote separate songs himself. "total eclipse of the heart" was then given to bonnie tyler and "making love out of nothing at all" to air supply. tyler has denied this claim. "meat loaf was apparently very annoyed that jim gave that to me," tyler stated. "but jim said he didn't write it for meat loaf, that he only finished it after meeting me."