steinman said in an interview with "playbill", about the inclusion of the song in his 1997 musical "dance of the vampires":with 'total eclipse of the heart', i was trying to come up with a love song and i remembered i actually wrote that to be a vampire love song. its original title was 'vampires in love' because i was working on a musical of "nosferatu", the other great vampire story. if anyone listens to the lyrics, they're really like vampire lines. it's all about the darkness, the power of darkness and love's place in the dark...he also told "people" magazine that he thought tyler sounded like john fogerty, and wrote the song "to be a showpiece for her voice." tyler described the song as "a challenge [to sing]," stating that she "[doesn't] like songs that anybody can sing. i like songs that need a lot of energy." after steinman presented her with the song she told "the times", "i just had shivers right up my spine. ... i couldn't wait to actually get in and record it."