If you guessed today’s song of the day would be Total Eclipse of the Heart, well, that would have been a great guess, especially after the BBC called it “the most dramatic pop song ever written.” Could have sworn it said “the most epic” when I first saw the article. But either way, that’s the song getting all the hype, and it’s a great song, but this one… You can ask five different people where they know this song and you might get five different answers. The song (radio, album), the music video, Footloose, or Shrek 2. Where do I know it from?

As a child of t he 70s and 80s, of course I’m going to say Footloose, but my favourite iteration of it was in Saints Row: The Third. The video game series started as Xbox’s answer to Grand Theft Auto (which was then exclusive to PlayStation) but it expanded to other platforms after the first one. The first two Saints Row games were just that, GTA clones. The third one took it in a bit different direction. You had this silly action adventure driving game that kinda resembled a purple GTA, but it was this big dumb game that never stopped trying to get you to have fun. While the first two tried to take themselves seriously as gangbanger simulators, the third dropped the pretense and accepted its role as a game that was meant to be fun.

Spoilers for the end of Saints Row: The Third: If you wanna see what that looks like, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94UdNGwWsts — the person playing it is obviously an amateur, as the only way to do it is to go into the settings and mute everything but the soundtrack and crank it up (you still get the dialogue subtitles), but, I don’t have the means to record my own video. I think I’d crash a bit less, but when the spotlight’s on, you tend to slip. I think we all tried to take that speed boat up those stairs though. (And if you think that’s wild, wait until you see the ending for Saints Row IV. When you get the power armour. Maybe I’ll feature that song one day and post that ending.)

If you’re a gamer and you missed Saints Row: The Third, it goes on deep discount all the time, and it’s one of the best games in its class. Might be a hot take, but I put it above GTA V. The controls are better and I like the characters and missions more. I think it’s a better story, too. And GTA games are awesome and all that, but sometimes they don’t get out of their own way to let you have fun. Saints Row nailed that formula. The games are downright stupid, but they never stop being fun, and isn’t that the point of a game?

Anyway, the song. This and Total Eclipse of the Heart were both written by the same guy, Jim Steinman, who also wrote a lot of Meat Loaf’s songs (if not all of them), including previous Song of the Day, I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That). He also wrote one of Céline Dion’s best songs. Let’s be real here, the Titanic and Beauty and the Beast songs absolutely top that list, no matter how overplayed they are. But right behind them is her song that Jim Steinman wrote for her. The man is not just on another level, he’s playing a whole different game. He could be writing songs for Japanese bands for all we know (I don’t think he is) because it seems like no one else in the west is really going for that theatrical production sound that defined Meat Loaf’s career.

I don’t know that much about Bonnie Tyler, but I do know her two best songs (and the only two I know) were written by that guy who wrote most/all of Meat Loaf’s songs, and he writes good songs. And I will continue to highlight them as I find them. And hey, everyone else is going with the other one, so I’m not too far off the mark here.

And now, for the bit of wisdom I like to add at the end of some of these: don’t hold out for a hero. Make one of yourself. Be the change you want to see in the world. Do the things you admire others for doing.