after her contract with rca records ended in 1981, tyler found a new manager in david aspden and after seeing meat loaf perform "bat out of hell" live on "the old grey whistle test", approached meat loaf's producer jim steinman and asked him to be her producer. tyler visited steinman in his apartment in new york in april 1982 with her manager, where she was presented with two tracks: "have you ever seen the rain?" and "goin' through the motions". she stated that had she not liked the songs steinman played for her, he would have rejected tyler's invitation to collaborate. she returned to his studio apartment weeks later, where steinman and rory dodd performed "total eclipse of the heart" for her. he also hand-picked the recording band for the song.