Total Eclipse of the Heart is the most epic song

Prior to the release of Total Eclipse of the Heart, these rock-orientated power ballads were present but not dominant in the UK charts. Only a few had cracked the top 10 in the early '80s, including Styx's Babe (1980, peaked at number six), REO Speedwagon's Keep On Loving You (1981, peaked at number seven), Phil Collins's In the Air Tonight (1981, peaked at number two), Chicago's Hard to Say I'm Sorry (1982, peaked at number four), and Toto's Africa (1983, peaked at number three). Barbra Streisand's chart-topping soft rock hit Woman in Love (1980) skirts on the edge of power ballad status, but lacks the sufficient escalation. This would make Total Eclipse of the Heart, which reached number one on 12 March 1983, the first chart-topping rock "power ballad" of '80s Britain.