"Bette Davis Eyes" is a song originally written and composed by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon in 1974, but made popular by American singer Kim Carnes in 1981. Her version spent nine non-consecutive weeks on top of the US BillboardHot 100 and was Billboards biggest hit of the year for 1981. The single also reached No. 5 on Billboards Top Tracks charts and No. 26 on the Dance charts. The song won the Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. It was also a No. 1 hit in 21 countries and peaked at No. 10 in the United Kingdom, to date her only Top 40 hit in that country. The single also reached No. 2 in Canada for twelve consecutive weeks, and was the No. 2 hit of 1981 in that country. "Bette Davis Eyes" song was ranked at No. 12 on Billboards list of the Top 100 songs in the first 50 years of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Cleopatra Records released a re-recording of the song as a single in 2007.
Background
The song was written in 1974 by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon, the latter of whom recorded the song that same year on her album New Arrangement. In this original incarnation, the track is performed in an 'R&B lite' arrangement, featuring a prominent uptempo piano part, as well as flourishes of pedal steel guitar and horns. However, it was not until March 1981, when Kim Carnes recorded her version of the song in a radically different synthesizer-based arrangement, that "Bette Davis Eyes" became a commercial success. According to producer Val Garay, the original demo of the tune that was brought to him sounded like "a Leon Russell track, with this beer-barrel polka piano part." The demo can be heard in a Val Garay interview on TAXI TV at 21:50. Keyboardist Bill Cuomo came up with the signature synth riff, using the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synthesizer, which now defines Carnes's version. The song was recorded in the studio on the first take. Actress Bette Davis, at the time 73 years old, wrote letters to Carnes, Weiss, and DeShannon to thank all three of them for making her "a part of modern times" and said her grandson now looked up to her. After their Grammy wins, Davis sent them roses as well.
Music video
The video, directed by Australian film director Russell Mulcahy, received heavy airplay when it premiered. The video starts with a leaning figure draped in black at the center of a dance hall. The drape flies out to reveal Kim Carnes wearing sunglasses as she sings the first verse. In the first chorus, she performs with a band; halfway, dancers enter the hall. In the second verse, the dancers make slapping and floor-pounding dance motions. They disappear and reappear in the second chorus. The song finishes with the dancers making dance motions while approaching Carnes; the band is already gone when the video ends with the black-draped leaning figure. A shadowed silhouette of Bette Davis smoking a cigarette appears throughout the video.
Lyrics
Jackie DeShannon sang 'she knows just what it takes to make a crow blush', while Kim Carnes replaced 'crow' with 'pro'.
American actress Gwyneth Paltrow recorded a cover of "Bette Davis Eyes" that was included on the soundtrack to the 2000 road trip film Duets. It was released as a single in Australia, where it debuted and peaked at number three on the ARIA Singles Chart on April 8, 2001, and spent nine weeks in the top 10. Paltrow's cover ended 2001 at number 35 on Australia's year-end chart and earned a platinum certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association for shipments exceeding 70,000 units.
