Céline Dion, It’s All Coming Back to Me Now | COVERS

In the 42^nd edition of COVERS (2025), Céline Dion delivers a compelling rendition of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” originally performed by Pandora’s Box.   

Ah, it’s time to get cozy and cover up! In COVERS, we highlight a musician or band covering songs by another musician (likely a popular musician). COVERS focuses solely on the musician who covers.  It is open to established musicians and musicians who may not be as well-known. In the 42^nd edition of COVERS (2025), Céline Dion delivers a compelling rendition of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”, originally performed by Pandora’s Box.  

Céline Dion (b. 1968) is one of the best to ever do it.  Her voice is utterly sublime.  Among her best vocal performances appears in on her 1996 tour de force, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”. “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” was originally released by Pandora’s Box in 1989.  Written by Jim Steinman (1947 – 2021), another artist desired to record it for a long time: Meat Loaf (Michael Lee Aday, 1947 – 2022).  Steinman wouldn’t allow Meat Loaf to record it, citing that it was intended to be sung by a woman.  Eventually, Meat Loaf recorded a version of the song on Bat Out of Hell III, but the definitive version belongs to Céline Dion, who outperformed Pandora’s Box, and simply put, Meat Loaf couldn’t match or exceed her. “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” was a huge hit, peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2021, the Recording Industry Association of America certified the single as double platinum.  Her parent album, Falling Into You, is a rare diamond album (12-times platinum and counting), and earned Dion Grammys for Album of the Year and Best Pop Album at the 39^th Annual Grammy Awards. Listening to “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” it is hard to imagine anybody else singing it.

What makes “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” the sugar, honey, iced tea in Céline Dion’s hands? It’s the voice, PERIOD.  Céline is the queen of power ballads, and this power ballad has her name written on it… well, it should have! Dion exhibits the versatility of her instrument. She know when to pull back (occurs more often in the verses) and when to up the ante (the chorus). “And I just knew my eyes were drying up forever / I finished crying in the instant that you left,” she sings, sincerely, in the first verse, and continues, “And I can’t remember where or when or how / And I banished every memory you and I had ever made.” Ah, those matters of the heart! In the second verse, Dion memorably asserts, “There were nights of endless pleasure / It was more than any laws allow / Baby, Baby.” In the chorus, excerpted earlier, she ‘lets it rip,’ signaled in the second and fourth verses by the repeated, “Baby(s).” The chorus features variations, all of which deal with L-O-V-E.

“If you want me like this

And if you need me like that

It was dead long ago

But it’s all coming back to me

It’s so hard to resist

And it’s all coming back to me…”

Beyond her celestial, powerhouse vocals, the tuneful melodies, and compelling lyrics she brings to life, the musical accompaniment is striking. Instruments that stand out are the bright, percussive piano, the ripe rock guitar, and the strings. This pop record has some oomph and punch about it.  It has enough rock that it fits into the pop/rock realm.  Also, compositionally, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” is distinct and unique.  It is more progressive compared to many pop records, which are less complicated (no shade).  Approaching eight minutes in duration in its album version, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” is ambitious.  But, given the once-in-a-lifetime singer at the helm, mixed with elite songwriting, there was NO way that this song wouldn’t be a hit.  Three decades after its release, my takeaway is, they don’t make pop songs like this anymore!

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Céline Dion » Falling Into You » Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc. » 1996

Céline Dion, It’s All Coming Back to Me Now: Covers No. 42 (2025) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc.; Alan Cordero, Flávia Vicentini from Pexels; AcatXIo, OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay]

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