Song: It’s All Coming Back To Me Now
Artists: Celine Dion/Meat Loaf and Marion Raven
Original Artists: Pandora’s Box
If I were to put together a Top 10 of my most liked power ballads, I would almost
certainly find a place for this song.
It was written by Jim Steinman – the man behind so many of Meat Loaf’s major hits –
and was inspired by Emily Bronte’s book Wuthering Heights. Steinman viewed the
project as his attempt to write the “most passionate, romantic song” ever.
The history of It’s All Coming Back To Me Now is not without controversy. Meat Loaf
wanted to record it and took Steinman to court when he was denied the chance, losing
the case. Steinman said it was a song that needed to be sung by a woman hence in
1989 the all-girl group Pandora’s Box had first crack at it followed by Celine Dion. It was
also offered to Bonnie Tyler who wanted to record it, but her record company said “no”
as it did not wish to pay Steinman to produce it.
The Pandora’s Box version did not achieve chart success, but Dion’s very definitely did.
In the mid-90s the French-Canadian’s version reached No 2 in the USA and No 3 in the
UK. A decade later Meat Loaf teamed up with Norwegian Marion Raven because he felt
it would work better as a duet. Their version reached No 2 in the UK in 2006 and,
perhaps unsurprisingly, No 1 in Raven’s native Norway.
The Dion rendition met with mixed reviews. Impresario Andrew Lloyd Webb is quoted as
saying he thought it was the greatest love song ever written. The reviewer of the
Calgary Sun newspaper said it was “undoubtedly the highlight of her (Dion’s) English
language recording career”. But, on the other side of the coin, the Vancouver Sun said it
was “intensely self-indulgent, pompously self-important and mediocre beyond belief”.
The Toronto Sun said that “it sounds like a Meat Loaf reject”.
In promotional interviews Meat Loaf claimed that his version with Raven was “the
definitive one”. As stated earlier, it hit No 2 in the UK and was the last UK Top 40 hit in
his lifetime.
Three great versions. Which one is your favourite?
