Celine Dion’s ‘It’s All Coming Back to Me Now’ Is Based on a Classic Novel
Some of the best music was inspired by literature. For example, Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” is as over-the-top as a Victorian melodrama. That makes sense, considering it’s based on a classic novel from the Victorian era. Dion’s song makes a few changes to the book in question.
Celine Dion’s ‘It’s All Coming Back to Me Now’ is was inspired by a morbid book
Jim Steinman was behind many Meat Loaf songs. During an interview on his website, Steinman discussed the origins of “It’s All Coming Back to Me.” “‘It’s All Coming Back to Me Now’ is my attempt to write the most passionate, romantic song I could ever write,” he said. “I was writing it while under the influence of Wuthering Heights, which is one of my favorite books.” Wuthering Heights is a Gothic novel by Emily Brontë that had a huge impact on the genre of romantic fiction, even though it isn’t a model for healthy relationships.
Steinman called the song “extreme.” “This song is an erotic motorcycle,” he opined. “It’s like Heathcliff digging up Cathy’s corpse and dancing with it in the cold moonlight. You can’t get more extreme, operatic, or passionate than that.”
For context, Heathcliff and Catherine are the main couple in Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff obsesses over Catherine to the point where he has someone dig up her grave so that he can see her face again. However, he doesn’t dance with her corpse. Like many adaptations of Wuthering Heights, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” takes some liberties with the source material. While it could be interpreted as a song about Heathcliff and Catherine, many listeners probably understood it as a song about a melodramatic hookup.
Celine Dion’s ‘It’s All Coming Back to Me’ perfectly captures an unhealthy state of mind
Steinman discussed his interpretation of “It’s All Coming Back to Me.” “It’s about obsession, and that can be scary because you’re not in control and you don’t know where it’s going to stop,” he said. “It says that, at any point in somebody’s life, when they loved somebody strongly enough and that person returns, a certain touch, a certain physical gesture can turn them from being defiant and disgusted with this person to being subservient again. And it’s not just a pleasurable feeling that comes back, it’s the complete terror and loss of control that comes back. And I think that’s ultimately a great weapon.”
“It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” might not be the best adaptation of Wuthering Heights. However, it accomplished Steinman’s goal of capturing the feelings of obsession in a song. The full version of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” is a little over seven minutes long. To some, the track might seem a little drawn out and repetitive. That’s part of the point! All obsessions are drawn out and repetitive.
How the world reacted to the song
According to Billboard, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” became Dion’s second-biggest hit in the United States. Her only song that became more popular was the similarly dramatic “Because You Loved Me.” In retrospect, this is all interesting. Most listeners consider “My Heart Will Go On” Dion’s signature song, but it was only her sixth-biggest single. Perhaps “My Heart Will Go On” seems more prominent now because it’s part of Titanic, one of the most popular films of all time.
“It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” is no Wuthering Heights, but it’s a classic in its own right.
