Official Charts Pop Gem #39: Celine Dion – It’s All Coming Back To Me

Celine’s melodramatic tearjerker from 1995 was a No.3 hit and is our ultimate power ballad Pop Gem.

Each week we ask you for your Pop Gems, those once-loved hits that deserve a bit of recognition for their unadulterated pop splendour. They’re overlooked or underplayed, or perhaps overshadowed and a little underappreciated when compared to their performer’s other hits. Or they might just need a big old hug from your ears. Whatever the reason, your Pop Gem needs you more than ever.

We asked you this week for your ultimate power ballads, the kind of tune you stand in the middle of your lounge swaying to at 3 in the morning, tears streaming from your eyes. Who cares if the neighbours are banging on the shaking walls? So your speakers might explode any minute? Big deal. A power ballad will not be silenced. Plenty of classics were put forward, but after much deliberation, running mascara and cries of “But you don’t know how much this MEANS to me”, we slimmed it down to a six-strong shortlist. Hold on, this is about to get emotional:

Heart – Alone (No. 6 in 1987)

INXS – Never Tear Us Apart (No. 24 in 1988)

Roxette – Listen To Your Heart (No. 6 in 1990)

Tina Arena – Chains (No. 6 in 1995)

Celine Dion – It’s All Coming Back To Me Now (No. 3 in 1996)

Jordin Sparks – Battlefield (No. 11 in 2009)

All big, big songs, with raw emotion seeping from every, um, pore. But it had to be Celine, didn’t it? Nobody does it quite like Celine Dion. Watch the video for It’s All Coming Back To Me Now before we explain why it deserves its Pop Gem status:

Penned by king of power ballads Jim Steinman, It’s All Coming Back To Me Now was originally released by Pandora’s Box (no, us neither), before Celine got her hands on it, and her vocal chords round it, to make it a hit. Meat Loaf, a longtine collaborator of the song’s composer, claimed the song was originally meant for him, and even went on to record, release it and have a Top 10 hit with it in 2006.

While Meat Loaf’s version reached No.6, Celine took it to No.3, scoring her seventh Top 10 hit. When we counted down Celine’s best selling singles in November last year, It’s All Coming Back To Me Now came in as fifth, with over 425,000 copies sold.

The video has all the melodrama you’d expect from a good old Celine power ballad, especially one penned by the man behind Bonnie Tyler’s epic heartwrencher Total Eclipse Of The Heart. Celine is mourning the loss of her motorbike-riding lover, and wanders from room to room in floaty gowns looking haunted, which is quite handy really as her lover’s ghost has a habit of appearing for a smooch every now and again. The song’s composer said the song is based on dark novel Wuthering Heights, and Celine is every bit the tragic heroine as she belts out just about every note you can imagine for an astonishing six minutes of pure power.

We salute you Celine! A very worthy Pop Gem.

Take a look at the songs that almost made it in our search for the ultimate Pop Gem power ballad in our playlist:

Your Pop Gem needs you

Got a Pop Gem of your own? Find out how you can get involved in the Pop Gem party.

And in case you’re interested – and we know you are, you always are – Meat Loaf’s version is worth a look too.