It's All Coming Back to Me Now#Celine Dion version

{{Listen

|filename = It's All Coming Back to Me Now - Pandor'a Box.ogg

|title = Pandora's Box (1989)

|description = This sample features Elaine Caswell performing the first chorus alongside backing vocals.

|filename2 = CelineDionItsAllComingBackToMeNow.ogg

|title2 = Celine Dion (1996)

|description2 = This extract shows Dion's vocals, Bittan's grand piano, and the use of backing vocals in the first chorus.

|filename3 = It's All Coming Back to Me Now - Meat Loaf.ogg

|title3 = Meat Loaf featuring Marion Raven (2006)

|description3 = This clip features the end of the first chorus, displaying Raven's harmonies.

}}

Influenced by Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights, Steinman compared the song to 'Heathcliff digging up Cathy's corpse and dancing with it in the cold moonlight', a scene which does not exist in the novel. In this conceptualization, which Steinman imagines having been censored from the book, the strength of Heathcliff's obsession enables a dance with a corpse on the beach despite the West Yorkshire moors being landlocked (and therefore more than the laws of nature would allow):

This isn't the Wuthering Heights of Kate Bush—that little fanciful Wuthering Heights. The scene they always cut out is the scene when Heathcliff digs up Catherine's body and dances in the moonlight and on the beach with it. I think you can't get much more operatic or passionate than that. I was trying to write a song about dead things coming to life. I was trying to write a song about being enslaved and obsessed by love, not just enchanted and happy with it. It was about the dark side of love; about the ability to be resurrected by it... I just tried to put everything I could into it, and I'm real proud of it.{{cite video |people=Jim Steinman |date=1989 |title=Jim Steinman Opens Pandora's Box |medium=DVD |publisher=Virgin Records}}

In another interview, Steinman expands on his comments about the song being about the 'dark side of love'.

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. 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.

The website AllMusic called the song 'a tormented ballad about romantic loss and regret built on a spooky yet heart-wrenching piano melody'.{{cite web |last=Guarisco |first=Donald A. |title=Original Sin: Pandora's Box review |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/original-sin-mw0000546916 |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=29 March 2018}}

Eroticism is implied in the lines 'There were nights of endless pleasure' and 'The flesh and the fantasies: all coming back to me'. The song ends with a passionate, quiet reprise of the chorus. Critics have also identified Wagner, of whom Steinman was an admirer, as an inspiration. Specifying this song, The Sunday Times wrote that "the theme of Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde, with its extreme passions and obsessive love, informs all his best work".{{cite news |last=Bright |first=Spencer |title=Jim'll Fix It |url=http://www.jimsteinman.com/lontimes.htm |work=The Sunday Times |date=8 December 1996 |access-date=9 July 2007}}

A 2007 article in the Toronto Star claims that the song was written as Steinman's "tryout" as lyricist for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard.{{cite news |last=Ouzounian |first=Richard |title=Whistle blower |work=thestar.com |url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/288585 |date=29 December 2007 |access-date=30 December 2007 |location=Toronto}}

{{Infobox song

| name = It's All Coming Back to Me Now

| cover = Its All Coming Back To Me Now - Pandora's Box.jpg

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = Pandora's Box

| album = Original Sin

| B-side = I've Been Dreaming Up a Storm Lately

| released = {{start date|1989|10|2|df=y}}

| recorded = 1989

| studio =

| venue =

| genre = Soft rock

| length = 8:22

| label = Virgin

| writer = Jim Steinman

| producer = Jim Steinman

| prev_title =

| prev_year =

| next_title = Good Girls Go to Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere)

| next_year = 1990

| misc = {{External music video|{{YouTube|vLdYfx54OIg|"Pandora's Box – It's All Coming Back To Me Now"}}}}

}}

In 1989, Steinman produced the concept album Original Sin, with an all-female group named Pandora's Box. The album featured many tracks which would be recorded by other artists, particularly Meat Loaf.{{harvnb|Wall|2017|p=177-180}} Elaine Caswell was the lead vocalist for "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", who apparently collapsed five times during its recording.

For the track, Roy Bittan performed on the grand piano, with Steinman and Jeff Bova on keyboards. Guitars were by Eddie Martinez, with Steve Buslowe on bass guitar and Jimmy Bralower on drums. Todd Rundgren arranged the background vocals, which were performed by Ellen Foley, Gina Taylor, and Deliria Wilde.{{cite web |last=Murray |first=Richard |title=It's all coming back to me now |url=http://www.heyrick.co.uk/ricksworld/iacbtmn.html |work=Rick's World |access-date=20 September 2006}} The song was released as a single in the United Kingdom on 2 October 1989 and reached No. 51 in the UK Singles Chart.{{cite magazine|title=New Singles|magazine=Music Week|page=41|date=30 September 1989}}British Hit Singles, Guinness

The 7-inch, 12-inch, and CD singles featured Steven Margoshes's piano solo "Pray Lewd" (incorporating elements of "It's All Coming Back to Me Now"), Steinman's monologue "I've Been Dreaming Up a Storm Lately", and "Requiem Metal", a sample from Verdi's Requiem Mass, all from the album Original Sin.{{cite web |work=JimSteinman.com |title= Pandora's Box Discography & Collectibles |url=http://www.jimsteinman.com/pbdisco.htm |access-date=3 September 2006}}

Ken Russell directed the video, which was filmed at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.{{harvnb|Wall|2017|p=181}} Journalist Mick Wall observes that Russell's reputation for "mixing sex, fantasy, religion and death ... was the kind of director Jim Steinman had wished for in his various dream states."{{harvnb|Wall|2017|p=185-6}} Steinman wrote the script, based on Russell's "Nessun Dorma" segment in the compilation opera movie Aria.{{cite news |first=Sylvie |last=Simmons |title=Sex, Lies & Videotape |url=http://www.jimsteinman.com/sexlies.htm |format=Reprint on website |work=RAW magazine |year=1989 |access-date=4 September 2006}}{{cite book |title=Phallic Frenzy: Ken Russell and His Films |first=Joseph |last=Lanza |publisher=Chicago Review Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-55652-669-5 |url={{Google books|Be5kAAAAMAAJ|Phallic Frenzy: Ken Russell and His Films|plainurl=yes}}|page=299}} Scholar Joseph Lanza describes the video:

a woman's near-death experience [from a motorcycle crash] is set amid operatic excesses and black leather. In a simulated city engulfed by an apocalyptic blaze, British vocalist Elaine Caswell sings and participates in a ritual to celebrate the song's "nights of sacred pleasure"... [The soundstage] is stocked with gravestones, motorcycles, pythons and dancers (allegedly from the London production of Cats), strapped in chaps, studded bras, and spiked codpieces.

The girl, near death, is being ministered to by paramedics, fantasizing and being 'sexually aroused by a large python and writhing on a bed that lit up in time with the music, while surrounded by a group of bemused, semi-naked dancers'.{{cite news |first=Jon |last=Hotten |title=Bat Out Of Hell – The Story Behind The Album |url=http://www.jimsteinman.com/00classicr1.htm |format=Reprint on website |work=Classic Rock Magazine |date=September 2000 |access-date = 3 September 2006}} When Steinman's manager saw it, he responded 'It's a porno movie!' Russell and Steinman even designed a sequence where a motorcyclist would cycle up the steps of a local church-tower, jump out of the turrets at the top, and then explode; alas, the wardens of the church refused permission. The two-day shoot ran over schedule and budget, costing £35,000 an hour; Steinman himself paid for the overtime.

Upon its release, Music & Media described "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" as "passionate, full-blown pop/rock " which has "dramatic build-ups" and is "reminiscent" of T'Pau.{{cite magazine |title=Previews: Singles |magazine=Music & Media |date=October 21, 1989 |volume=6 |issue=42 |page=24 |oclc=29800226}} Mark Matthews of the Hartlepool Mail praised Caswell's "strong vocal" but felt the track is "very laboured" and "sounds like it could have been taken from an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical".{{cite news |last=Matthews |first=Mark |title=Background boy is out of the shadows |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000637/19891021/190/0014 |newspaper=Hartlepool Mail |date=October 21, 1989 |page=14 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |access-date=May 22, 2024}} Dave Jennings of Melody Maker was negative in his review, calling it "simply pompous and empty, like Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart', but with a shrill, mechanical session singer draped on top".{{cite magazine |last=Jennings |first=Dave |title=Singles |magazine=Melody Maker |date=October 7, 1989 |page=35 |issn=0025-9012}}

In a review of Original Sin, Neil Jeffries of Kerrang! called the song "excruciatingly operatic".{{cite magazine |last=Jeffries |first=Neil |title=Rekordz |magazine=Kerrang! |date=November 4, 1989 |issue=263 |page=18 |issn=0262-6624}} Donald A. Guarisco, writing for AllMusic, considered the "tormented ballad about romantic loss and regret" to be "built on a spooky yet heart-wrenching piano melody".{{cite web |last=Guarisco |first=Donald A. |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/original-sin-mw0000546916 |title=Original Sin – Pandora's Box – Album |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=May 22, 2024}}

Like the album, the Pandora's Box version of "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" was not a commercial success, which Steinman took as a "personal insult". He said "these songs are my children. I want them to do well, and if they don't, I don't just give up on them."{{harvnb|Wall|2017|p=243-4}}

{{Clear}}

{{Infobox song

| name = It's All Coming Back to Me Now

| cover = Its All Coming Back To Me Now - Celine Dion single cover.jpg

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = Celine Dion

| album = Falling into You

| B-side = The Power of the Dream

| released = {{start date|1996|7|30|df=y}}

| recorded =

| studio = The Hit Factory (New York City)

| venue =

| genre =

• Pop
• soft rock

| length = {{duration|m=7|s=37}}

| label =

• Columbia
• Epic
• 550

| writer = Jim Steinman

| producer =

• Jim Steinman
• Steven Rinkoff
• Roy Bittan

| prev_title = Because You Loved Me

| prev_year = 1996

| next_title = The Power of the Dream

| next_year = 1996

| misc = {{External music video|{{YouTube|j8fHNdrZTSI|"It's All Coming Back to Me Now"}}}}

}}

"It's All Coming Back to Me Now" is the first track on Canadian singer Celine Dion's fourth English-language studio album, Falling into You (1996). Jim Steinman produced the track, with Steven Rinkoff and Roy Bittan credited as co-producers. Bat Out of Hell and Meat Loaf collaborators Todd Rundgren, Eric Troyer, Rory Dodd, Glen Burtnick and Kasim Sulton provided backing vocals. This version utilized a modified version of the original Pandora's Box track with Caswell's vocals and certain instrumental passages removed.{{cite web |last1=Warner |first1=Andrea |title=Celine Dion, Meat Loaf, Jim Steinman and the weird, wonderful history of 'It's All Coming Back to me Now' |url=https://www.cbc.ca/music/celine-dion-meat-loaf-jim-steinman-and-the-weird-wonderful-history-of-it-s-all-coming-back-to-me-now-1.5086122 |website=CBC |access-date=4 May 2022 |date=21 February 2016}}

It peaked at number two on Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks, becoming the thirty-fourth biggest number two Hot 100 hit of all time.{{Cite magazine|last=Anderson|first=Trevor|date=2 February 2022|title=The Biggest No. 2 Hot 100 Hits of All Time|url=https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/biggest-number-2-hot-100-hits-all-time-1235026339/|access-date=3 February 2022|magazine=Billboard|language=en-US}} The full-length version of the song is the version that appears on Falling into You and is seven minutes and thirty-seven seconds long. A radio edit of the song was made, which appears on all editions of Dion's first English-language greatest hits album, All the Way... A Decade of Song (1999), and lasts for five minutes and thirty-one seconds.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

According to The Sunday Times, Andrew Lloyd Webber told Steinman he thought this song was "the greatest love song ever written," and on hearing Dion's version reportedly said: "This will be the record of the millennium". In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Elaine Caswell said that she expressed shock upon hearing Dion's version, often leaving a scene when the song came out in places such as laundromats in tears. Caswell later met Dion when she joined her to record a cover of "River Deep – Mountain High". The singer revealed that she had listened to Caswell's vocals in the original version and hoped she could match her voice.

The song was also included in Dion's 2008 greatest hits compilation My Love: Essential Collection. Live performances can be found on the A New Day... Live in Las Vegas and Taking Chances World Tour: The Concert albums. Dion performed this song during her Falling Into You: Around the World tour 1996/1997, Let's Talk About Love World Tour 1998/1999, Taking Chances World Tour 2008/2009, two Las Vegas residencies, A new Day... and Celine, Tournée Européenne 2013, Summer Tour 2016,{{cite web|url=http://www.chartsinfrance.net/Celine-Dion/news-101986.html|title=Celine Dion, bouleversée, lance sa tournée hommage à René (VIDÉOS)|website=Chartsinfrance.net}} 2017 European tour and her 2018 tour. She performed the song during her British Summer Time concert in London's Hyde Park on 5 July 2019, and also opened her 2019–2020 Courage World Tour show with the song.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

Dion's version received widespread critical acclaim. AllMusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine marked it as a standout along with "Falling into You", and praised it, "Celine shines on mock epics like Jim Steinman's 'It's All Coming Back to Me Now.'"{{cite web |first=Stephen Thomas |last=Erlewine |title=Falling Into You – Céline Dion – Songs, Reviews, Credits |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/falling-into-you-mw0000647077 |publisher=AllMusic |author-link=Stephen Thomas Erlewine}} Larry Flick from Billboard asked, "Is there a pop diva hotter than Dion right now?" He added, "Lesser talents might have been gobbled up by his melodramatic arrangements, but Dion rises to the occasion with a performance that soars above the instrumentation with deliciously theatrical flair."{{cite magazine|first=Larry|last=Flick|title=Reviews & Previews: Singles|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/90s/1996/BB-1996-08-10.pdf|magazine=Billboard|date=10 August 1996|page=41|accessdate=7 December 2022|author-link=Larry Flick}}

A reviewer from the Calgary Sun stated, "[The song] is undoubtedly the highlight of her English-language recording career. Celine's over-the-top vocals soar and swoop around Steinman's epic, ostentatious arrangement. Not surprisingly, everything else that follows... pales in comparison". Pip Ellwood-Hughes from Entertainment Focus called it "one of the finest songs the singer has ever recorded. It shows the power of her voice as well as the subtle emotion she can display in the quieter moments. The song is nothing short of a rock opera and Dion is the perfect person to sing it."{{cite web |last=Ellwood-Hughes |first=Pip |title=Celine Dion – Falling Into You vinyl review |url=https://www.entertainment-focus.com/music-section/music-reviews/vinyl/celine-dion-falling-into-you-vinyl-review/ |publisher=Entertainment Focus |date=11 October 2018 |access-date=7 April 2020}}

Toronto's Eye Weekly said Steinman's "fatal absence from the last Meat Loaf record is finally justified here."All of these quotations from reviews are borrowed from {{cite web |title=Hedonists & Heretics |url=http://www.jimsteinman.com/hedon.htm |work=JimSteinman.com |access-date=20 September 2006}} Dave Sholin from the Gavin Report felt that Steinman's "dramatic writing style melds perfectly with her powerful vocal, giving this production an incredibly passionate quality".{{cite magazine |last=Sholin |first=Dave |title=Gavin Picks > Singles |url=http://americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Gavin-Report/90/96/Gavin-1996-07-26.pdf |magazine=Gavin Report |issue=2115 |page=78 |date=26 July 1996 |access-date=16 April 2018}} The Miami Herald said Dion "knocks a couple out of the ballpark... [the song] features seven minutes of Wagnerian bombast, thunderclap piano chords and emoting that would wither an opera diva. Sure, it's over-the-top but it's passionate and musical".

British magazine Music Week rated it four out of five, picking it as Single of the Week. The reviewer added, "You don't need to be a musical genius to spot this melodramatic builder as a Jim Steinman number and, while the overblown style isn't to everyone's taste, this should be huge."{{cite magazine|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1996/Music-Week-1996-09-14.pdf|first=|last=|title=Reviews: Singles|magazine=Music Week|date=14 September 1995|page=26|access-date=5 September 2021}} Stephen Holden from The New York Times wrote, "The melodrama peaks with two overblown Jim Steinman productions: 'It's All Coming Back to Me Now', a romantic flashback replete with thunderclaps... "{{cite news |last=Holden |first=Stephen |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/14/arts/new-releases-073873.html?ref=stephenholden |work=The New York Times |title=New Releases |date=14 April 1996|author-link=Stephen Holden}} People magazine stated that literally, it "blasts off the CD with a booming piano chord followed by seven minutes of Wagnerian melodrama, Dion's crystalline soprano swelling and trembling with operatic abandon worthy of the Ring cycle's immolation scene."{{cite magazine|url= https://people.com/archive/picks-and-pans-review-falling-into-you-vol-45-no-11/ |title= Picks and Pans Review: Falling into You |magazine= People |date= 18 March 1996 |access-date= 15 November 2020}} Richmond Times-Dispatch picked it as one of the best tracks on the Falling into You album."CELINE DION". Richmond Times-Dispatch. 3 May 1996. Sun-Sentinel noted it as "lyrically and musically beautiful" and said that "this nearly eight-minute ballad sets the pace for this album with Dion's emotional singing.""Dion Better Than Ever In `Falling'". Sun-Sentinel. 27 September 1996. Christopher Smith from TalkAboutPopMusic called it "the biggest spectacle" of the album, and "a complete album in itself".{{cite web|author=Smith, Christopher|url=https://talkaboutpopmusic.com/2019/11/02/review-falling-into-you-celine-dion/|title=Review: 'Falling Into You' – Celine Dion|publisher=TalkAboutPopMusic|date=2 November 2019|access-date=7 April 2020}}

Some other reviews were less enthusiastic. After labelling Celine "a Madonna-meets-Meat Loaf vocal freak", The Vancouver Sun described the song as "intensely self-indulgent, pompously self-important and mediocre beyond belief, the song just never ends". The Ottawa Sun called it 'turgid', while The Toronto Sun, coincidentally, said that it "sounds like a Meat Loaf reject".

File:Zámek_Ploskovice_04.JPG where the video was filmed]]

British director Nigel Dick directed the music video for Dion's version, with Simon Archer as cinematographer and Jaromir Svarc as art director. It was shot between 29 June and 3 July 1996 in Castle Ploskovice, the summer palace of the Austrian Emperors, with additional interior shots done at Barandov Studios, both located in Prague, Czech Republic; it was later released in July 1996.{{cite web |work=Nigel Dick |title= Celine Dion "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" |url=http://www.nigeldick.com/ |access-date=25 September 2006}} Although Castle Ploskovice served as the exterior, the most notable areas featured in the music video are its entrance hall, ballroom, and the arched walkways.{{cite web |work=BOEHMISCHER KULTUR KLUB |title=Castle Ploskovice * A visit of the Castle * |url=http://www.schlosshotelhubertus.cz/kulturklub-cz/ploskovice-E.htm |access-date=6 September 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060502061543/http://www.schlosshotelhubertus.cz/kulturklub-cz/ploskovice-E.htm |archive-date=2 May 2006}} This site does not mention the video, but a comparison of the photographs on that site to the video are conclusive. There are two versions of this music video; the full version (about 7:44 in length) and the single version (about 6:00 in length). Both of them are included on Dion's 2001 DVD video collection All the Way... A Decade of Song & Video.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

The video opens with a man being thrown off his motorcycle, after lightning strikes a tree down in his path – eventually killing him in the process. Dion's character is haunted by her lover's image, which she sees through a mirror, and images of them together through picture frames. There are stylistic similarities to Russell Mulcahy's video for Steinman's "Total Eclipse of the Heart", to the extent that Slant Magazine calls Dick's video an update.{{cite web |work=Slant Magazine |title=100 Greatest Music Videos |url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/features/greatestmusicvideosi.asp |access-date=20 September 2006}} On 10 January 2020, the music video reached 100 million views on YouTube.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

Smooth Radio listed "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" at number 19 on their list of the "Greatest Power Ballads of All Time".{{cite web |title=19 of the greatest power ballads of all time |url=https://www.smoothradio.com/features/best-power-ballads/?__twitter_impression=true |access-date=3 May 2021 |website=amp.smoothradio.com}} Pitchfork listed the song as one of "The 250 Best Songs of the 1990s", saying, "Dion, the most successful balladeer of the ’90s, summons all the power in her soul and lungs to commune with the dead, the theatrically proggy arrangement crescendoing behind her."{{Cite web |date=27 September 2022 |title=The 250 Best Songs of the 1990s |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-best-songs-of-the-1990s/ |access-date=23 October 2022 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}

• Australian CD and cassette single

1. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Radio Edit) – 5:27
2. "To Love You More" – 5:29
3. "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" (Live Version) – 5:30
4. "Fly" – 2:58

• Australian and US CD single (Remixes)

1. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Classic Paradise Radio Mix #1) – 4:20
2. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Classic Paradise Radio Mix #2) – 3:47
3. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (The Moran Anthem 7" Edit) – 4:20
4. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Classic Paradise Mix) – 8:12
5. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (The Moran Anthem Mix Pt. 1) – 10:32

• Canadian, European, and US CD single; UK and US cassette single

1. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Radio Edit) – 5:27
2. "The Power of the Dream" – 4:31

• European CD single

1. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Radio Edit) – 5:27
2. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Classic Paradise Mix) – 4:22

• European CD single

1. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Radio Edit) – 5:27
2. "The Power of the Dream" – 4:31
3. "Fly" – 2:58
4. "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" (Live Version) – 5:30

• European and UK CD single (Love to Infinity mixes)

1. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Album Version) – 7:37
2. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Classic Paradise Mix) – 8:17
3. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Prophet Mix) – 7:04
4. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Aphrodisiac Mix) – 7:47
5. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Amnesia Mix) – 7:33

• UK CD single

1. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Radio Edit) – 5:27
2. "Le fils de Superman" – 4:35
3. "Fly" – 2:58
4. "The Power of the Dream" – 4:31

• US 12-inch single

1. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Classic Paradise Mix) – 8:12
2. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (The Moran Breakdown Dub) – 9:22
3. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (The Moran Anthem Mix Pt. 1) – 10:32
4. "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (Amnesia Mix) – 7:37

• Roy Bittan – grand piano
• Jeff Bova – keyboards, programming
• Jimmy Bralower – drums, percussion
• Steve Buslowe – bass
• Tim Pierce – guitar
• Eddie Martinez – additional guitars
• Kenny Aronoff – additional drums
• Bashiri Johnson – additional percussion
• Todd Rundgren, Eric Troyer, Rory Dodd, Glen Burtnick, Kasim Sulton – background vocals

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{{Certification Table Top}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Australia|type=single|title=It's All Coming Back to Me Now|artist=Celine Dion|award=Gold|certyear=1996|relyear=1996|access-date=14 December 2021}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Belgium|type=single|title=It's All Coming Back to Me Now|artist=Celine Dion|award=Gold|certyear=1996|relyear=1996|access-date=4 September 2018}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Canada|type=single|title=It's All Coming Back to Me Now|artist=Celine Dion|award=Platinum|number=3|certyear=2024|relyear=1996|access-date=10 December 2024}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=New Zealand|type=single|title=It's All Coming Back to Me Now|artist=Celine Dion|award=Gold|certyear=1997|id=1997-02-21|source=newchart|access-date=20 November 2024|relyear=1996|refname=NZ1}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=New Zealand|type=single|title=It's All Coming Back to Me Now|artist=Celine Dion|award=Platinum|relyear=1996|certyear=2022|source=radioscope|note=digital|access-date=12 March 2025|refname=NZ2}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|type=single|title=It's All Coming Back to Me Now|artist=Celine Dion|award=Platinum|number=2|certyear=2024|relyear=1996|access-date=19 July 2024|id=3414-1392-1}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=United States|type=single|title=It's All Coming Back to Me Now|artist=Celine Dion|award=Platinum|number=2|certyear=2021|relyear=1996|access-date=9 March 2021}}

{{Certification Table Bottom|streaming=true}}

{{Infobox song

| name = It's All Coming Back to Me Now

| cover = Its All Coming Back To Me Now - Meat Loaf single cover.JPG

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = Meat Loaf featuring Marion Raven

| album = Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose

| B-side = Whore

| released = {{Start date|df=yes|2006|10|16}}

| recorded =

| studio =

| venue =

| genre = Rock

| length = {{plainlist|

• 6:07 (album version)
• 4:32 (single edit)

}}

| label = Mercury

| writer = Jim Steinman

| producer = Desmond Child

| chronology = Meat Loaf

| prev_title = Man of Steel

| prev_year = 2003

| next_title = Cry Over Me

| next_year = 2007

| misc = {{Extra chronology

| artist = Marion Raven

| type = single

| prev_title = Here I Am

| prev_year = 2004

| title = It's All Coming Back to Me Now

| year = 2006

| next_title = Heads Will Roll

| next_year = 2006

}}

{{External music video|{{YouTube|dGOKN9viK_o|"It's All Coming Back To Me Now"}}|header=Audio video}}

}}

While Steinman was "ecstatic" that the song has been a hit for Celine Dion, Meat Loaf was "furious" claiming that it has been written for Bat out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, and was promised to him for a future Bat III project. However, Steinman claims that he thought that only a woman should sing it. In contrast, Meat Loaf said that, in his mind, the song was always meant to be a duet.{{cite video |date=2006 |title=The Making of Bat Out of Hell III | medium=DVD |publisher=Mercury Records}} Meat Loaf attempted legal action "to prove that he had some level of dominion of the song", and was furious for many years afterwards when Steinman won the case.

The song was recorded as a duet by Meat Loaf and Marion Raven for the 2006 album Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose, produced by Desmond Child. Raven had been working on her solo album with Child, and was chosen because the timbre of her voice starkly contrasts to Meat Loaf's.{{cite episode | title = Bat out of Hell III | series = Liner Notes | network = XM Satellite Radio | airdate = 11 September 2006}} In promotional interviews, Meat Loaf said that "I believe that the version that Marion Raven and myself did on this album is the definitive version".

Meat Loaf said that he was in tears when he first heard the song, which he stated is "the only time that's happened".{{cite news |first=Cameron |last=Adams |title=Meat Loaf's a Hell raiser |work=Herald Sun |url=http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20642893-5006024,00.html |date=26 October 2006 |access-date=26 October 2006 |archive-date=30 June 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120630064206/http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/music/meat-loafs-a-hell-raiser/story-e6frf9hf-1111112415532 |url-status=dead }} He has also said that the song could refer to Steinman and himself, with an array of emotions coming back every time they work together. Referring to lines like 'when I kiss you like that', he said that although "I love Jim Steinman", he wouldn't French kiss him.{{cite interview |author= Meat Loaf |subject-link= Meat Loaf |interviewer=Ken Bruce|title=The Ken Bruce Show |publisher=BBC Radio 2 |location= London |date=18 October 2006 |work=Ken Bruce}}

To me it wasn't a song about romance, it was about me and Jim Steinman. We'd had a load of problems with managers in the early '80s and all of a sudden after five years we started to communicate. After I'd been to his house, he sent me the song, and it was "It's All Coming Back To Me Now". Not the line 'When you kiss me like that', but the emotional connection. It doesn't have to be literal.

P. R. Brown directed this video,{{cite web | work= videos.antville.org | title= Meat Loaf and Marion Raven "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" dir. P.R. Brown|url=http://videos.antville.org/stories/1455654/| access-date=29 August 2006}} which premiered on VH1 Classic on 8 August 2006.{{cite web|work=Virginrecords.com |title=Latest headlines |url=http://www.virginrecords.com/home/news.aspx |access-date=29 August 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060828234305/http://www.virginrecords.com/home/news.aspx |archive-date=28 August 2006 }} There are similarities between the video for Meat Loaf's version of the song, and that the video for that of Celine Dion, with Meat Loaf being haunted by the memory of his lover. It is structured differently, however, with the story being told through flashback. Shots when Raven's character is alive have a distinct yellow tint, with a darker, blue tint for those after her death. Whereas the motorcyclist dies before the first verse in the Dion version, Raven's crash and resulting death is not shown until the final chorus. Meat Loaf becomes angry with Raven because the ghost of Raven's former lover appears at a masquerade ball they are attending (some reviewers have compared this to the Stanley Kubrick film Eyes Wide Shut).{{cite web |last=Phipps |first=Keith |title=Newswire: Watch: First video from BAT OUT OF HELL III |url=http://www.avclub.com/content/node/52534 |work=A.V. Club |access-date=20 September 2006}}

File:Its All Coming Back To Me Now - Meat Loaf video.JPG

This version of the song replaces the word 'nights' with 'lights', in the line 'There were nights of endless pleasure'. The ending of the single version is different, concluding with an additional 'We forgive and forget and it's all coming back to me now'. The album version, following those recorded by Pandora's Box and Celine Dion, ends with Raven whispering 'And if we...', followed by four piano notes.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

The track was available to download from iTunes in the United Kingdom in August 2006, two months before its UK release on 16 October. The CD single includes the song "Black Betty", with the limited-edition 7-inch vinyl featuring "Whore", a rock duet with Patti Russo; it was also released as a DVD single."It's All Coming Back to Me Now" 2006. Label: Mercury. The album version was made available on Meat Loaf and Marion Raven's respective MySpace sites in August,{{cite web|url=https://myspace.com/meatloaf|title=Meat Loaf | Listen and Stream Free Music, Albums, New Releases, Photos, Videos|website=Myspace.com|access-date=20 April 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://myspace.com/marionraven|title=Marion Raven | Listen and Stream Free Music, Albums, New Releases, Photos, Videos|website=Myspace.com|access-date=20 April 2021}} with the single version being played during some of their promotional interviews, such as that on BBC Radio 2. The cover art is by Julie Bell, who is also the artist for the album Bat out Of Hell III.{{cite web |work=MeatLoaf.net |title= Bat out of hell iii – info update |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060708005716/http://www.meatloaf.net/news/index.php?mode=fullstory&id=166 |archive-date=8 July 2006 |access-date=20 September 2006|url=http://www.meatloaf.net/news/index.php?mode=fullstory&id=166 }}

The single entered the UK Singles Chart at No. 6 on 22 October 2006, giving Meat Loaf his highest position in the UK chart since "I'd Lie for You (And That's the Truth)" reached No. 2 in 1995, and was the last UK Top 40 hit in his lifetime. The song also reached No. 1 in Raven's native Norway, as well as No. 7 in Germany. Critical reaction was generally positive, with The Guardian writing that the song is "ostensibly a reflection on love, but imbued with the delicacy of aircraft carriers colliding at sea".{{cite news |first=Caroline |last=Sullivan |title=Meat Loaf, Bat Out of Hell III |url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/reviews/story/0,,1926073,00.html |work=The Guardian |location=London |format=Guardian Unlimited (online) |date=20 October 2006 |access-date=25 October 2006}}

Marion Raven joined Meat Loaf for his 2007 tour of Europe. She was the supporting act, promoting her album Set Me Free. Meat Loaf introduced her again on stage at the latter stages of the concerts to duet on "It's All Coming Back to Me Now".{{cite web |title=Norwegian singer tours UK with Meat Loaf |work=norway.org.uk |url=http://www.norway.org.uk/culture/music/marion-raven.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927203846/http://www.norway.org.uk/culture/music/marion-raven.htm |archive-date=27 September 2007 |access-date=25 May 2007}} A performance was recorded and released on DVD as 3 Bats Live.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

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{{Certification Table Top}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|relyear=2006|certyear=2024|title=It's All Coming Back To Me Now|artist=Meat Loaf Ft Marion Raven|type=single|award=Silver|id=3414-6857-1|access-date=2 August 2024}}

{{Certification Table Bottom | noshipments=true|nosales=true|streaming=true}}

• Dion's version appears in a 2018 TV commercial for Applebee's.{{cite web|url=http://www.ispot.tv/ad/w_Z_/applebees-all-you-can-eat-romance-by-celine-dion|title=Applebee's All You Can Eat TV Commercial, 'Romance' Song by Celine Dion|work=ispot.tv|access-date=9 January 2018}}
• Dion's version (and herself) appear in a commercial for "Instagram shopping" in 2019.{{cite web|url=https://ew.com/music/2019/12/04/watch-celine-dion-its-all-coming-back-to-me-now-music-video-instagram/|title=Watch Celine Dion give 'It's All Coming Back to Me Now' music video a high-fashion makeover|work=ew.com|access-date=24 April 2022}}
• Dion's version appears in a commercial promoting the beginning of National Football League season in 2020, in which the Dion was featured promoting the NFL's return, which features the players lipsyncing to the song.{{cite web|title=The NFL is back, which means... Celine Dion?|url=https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-back-means-celine-dion-193402967.html|access-date=28 September 2020|website=sports.yahoo.com|language=en-US}}{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite web|title=The NFL is back, which means... Celine Dion?|url=https://www.nbcsports.com/northwest/seahawks/nfl-back-which-means-celine-dion|access-date=28 September 2020|website=RSN|archive-date=5 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205153712/https://www.nbcsports.com/northwest/seahawks/nfl-back-which-means-celine-dion|url-status=dead}}
• Dion's version appears on Extra Gum's commercial, titled "For When It's Time", made by BBDO and filmed in Santiago, Chile, in early March 2021.{{cite web|title=Extra Gum's Back-To-Normal Ad Is a Euphoric Release|date=3 May 2021 |url=https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/extra-gums-back-to-normal-ad-is-a-euphoric-release/|access-date=3 May 2021|language=en-US}}
• Dion's version was used as the finale lip sync song in the second season of Canada's Drag Race between the top three contestants Icesis Couture, Pythia, and Kendall Gender to determine that season's winner.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}
• The romantic drama film Love Again (a remake of SMS für Dich that Dion executive produced and stars in) had been titled It's All Coming Back to Me after the song. The song itself appears in the film's trailer.{{cite web |title=LOVE AGAIN – Official Trailer (HD) | website=YouTube |url=https://youtube.com/watch?v=CQDXtD2HJAs |access-date=17 February 2023 |language=en |date=15 February 2023}}
• Dion's version is featured in a Film Trailer for Love Hurts.

• This song features in Jim Steinman's Bat Out of Hell: The Musical, in which the song is split into further parts and is performed by four characters.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}
• The TV series Glee featured a short cover of this song in the third-season episode "Nationals", in which it is performed by Lea Michele as Rachel Berry. A longer 5:22 minute version of Michele performing this song was released as a digital single in 2012.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}
• The show Riverdale featured a cover version of this song in the fifth-season episode "Chapter Ninety-One: The Return of the Pussycats", in which it is performed by Ashleigh Murray as Josie Mocoy, Asha Bromfield as Melody Valentine, and Hayley Law as Valerie Brown, as a part of the band "Josie and the Pussycats".{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}
• After winning the 2024 series finale of The Masked Singer UK, singing "It All Comes Back to Me Now", British singer Danny Jones released the song alongside his band McFly.{{cite web|url=https://metro.co.uk/2024/02/18/masked-singer-fans-want-piranhas-danny-jones-take-huge-career-step-20300758/|title=Danny Jones' Masked Singer victory has already led to the McFly singer 'topping charts'|website=Metro|last=Barr|first=Sabrina|date=18 February 2024|access-date=23 February 2024}}{{cite web|url=https://open.spotify.com/album/7lgLd7MazlpqLbr3L9eKWp?si=2JT7idpFSNiVGVYaVvAw6w|title=Danny Jones & McFly – It's All Coming Back to Me Now|website=Spotify|date=19 February 2024|access-date=23 February 2024}}

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• 1996 in British music
• Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1996
• Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1997
• List of Billboard Mainstream Top 40 number-one songs of the 1990s
• List of Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles in 1996
• List of Billboard Hot 100 top 10 singles in 1997
• List of most expensive music videos
• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1996 (U.S.)
• List of number-one singles of 1996 (Canada)
• List of number-one songs in Norway
• List of UK top 10 singles in 1996
• List of UK top 10 singles in 2006
• Ultratop 50 number-one hits of 1996

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• {{cite book |last=Wall|first=Mick |author-link=Mick Wall |year=2017 |title=Like a Bat Out of Hell: The larger than life story of Meat Loaf |location=London |publisher=Trapeze |isbn=978-1-4091-7355-7}}

• {{YouTube|N8QmRL4jDTg|"It's All Coming Back To Me Now (from the 2007 DVD "Live In Las Vegas - A New Day...")"}}
• {{YouTube|JsWG2Gry1fw|"It's All Coming Back to Me Now"}}

{{Celine Dion songs}}

{{Meat Loaf}}

{{Authority control}}

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