Bette Davis Eyes

"Bette Davis Eyes" is a song written and composed by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon in 1974. It was recorded by DeShannon that year but made popular by Kim Carnes in 1981 when it spent nine non-consecutive weeks at the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. It won the 1982 Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Record of the Year.^[6] The music video was directed by Australian film director Russell Mulcahy.^[7]

Quick Facts Davis Eyes", Single by Kim Carnes ...

"Bette Davis Eyes"
Single by Kim Carnes
from the album Mistaken Identity
B-side	"Miss You Tonite"
Released	March 10, 1981
Genre	New wave[1][2] soft rock[3][4] synth-rock[5]
Length	3:48
Label	EMI America
Songwriter(s)	Donna Weiss · Jackie DeShannon
Producer(s)	Val Garay
Kim Carnes singles chronology
"Cry Like a Baby" (1980) "Bette Davis Eyes" (1981) "Draw of the Cards" (1981)
Music video
"Bette Davis Eyes" on YouTube
Audio sample
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On the Billboard Hot 100, the song was No. 1 for five weeks, interrupted for just one week by "Stars on 45" before it returned to the top spot for another four weeks, becoming Billboard's biggest hit of the year.^[8] The single also reached No. 5 on Billboard's Top Tracks charts and No. 26 on the Dance charts.^[9] It reached No. 2 in Canada for twelve consecutive weeks, and was 1981's No. 2 hit in that country, after "Stars on 45".^[10][11] It peaked at No. 10 in the United Kingdom,^[12] to date Carnes's only Top 40 hit in that country. Additionally, it ranked No. 12 on Billboard's list of the top 100 songs in the first 50 years of the magazine's Hot 100.^[6] "Bette Davis Eyes" was a No. 1 hit in 21 countries.^[13]

"Bette Davis Eyes" was written in 1974 by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon, the latter of whom recorded the song that same year for her album New Arrangement.^[14] Weiss had traveled to DeShannon's house with a set of lyrics, including several additional verses that were ultimately scrapped. DeShannon refined some of the lyrics and also developed the song's music.^[13] In this original incarnation, the track is performed in an "R&B lite" arrangement,^[1] featuring a prominent uptempo piano part, as well as flourishes of pedal steel guitar and horns.^[15] However, it was not until March 1981,^[16] when Carnes recorded her version of the song in a radically different synthesizer-based arrangement, that it 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."^[a] Carnes initially rejected the song based on the demo's arrangement, until keyboardist Bill Cuomo, using the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synthesizer, came up with the signature riff which defines Carnes's version.^[18] In an interview with Dick Clark on the National Music Survey, Carnes credited Cuomo with the song's new arrangement, saying that "the minute he came up with that, then it fell into place. Everybody went, 'That's it!'"^[13]

Only three takes were recorded, the first of which was used with no overdubbing. Craig Krampf insisted on incorporating a Synare electronic drum into the song, although Garay objected to the instrument's inclusion on the grounds that it was "the most annoying thing I'd ever heard in my life." However, Garay changed his mind once Krampf hit the instrument on the chorus, which Garay believed was a great fit. The drums were miked at close proximity with a Sennheiser MD 421 on the bass drum, a Shure 56 and Sennheiser MD 441 on the snare drum, Telefunken 251s on the toms, and an AKG 452 on the hi-hat. Carnes sang her vocals through a Neumann U67 microphone situated next to the mixing console.^[18]

Actress Bette Davis was 73 when Carnes's version became a hit. She wrote letters to Carnes, Weiss, and DeShannon to thank them for making her "a part of modern times" and said that her grandson now looked up to her. After their Grammy wins, Davis sent them roses and happily accepted the gift of gold and platinum records from Carnes, hanging them on her wall.^[13][19]

Record World called it a "haunting pop-rocker" and said that Carnes's "earthy vocal rasp and guitar chimes are unforgettable."^[20] Joe Viglione of AllMusic believed that "Bette Davis Eyes" was superior to all other tracks on Mistaken Identity.^[21]

Kim Carnes' version of the song has appeared in various films and TV series^[76] including 200 Cigarettes (1999), Cold Case S1E6 (2003), That's My Boy (2012) The Final Girls (2015), American Horror Story S5E5 (2015), Riverdale S2E18 (2018), The After Party (2018), Anaïs in Love (2021), The Tourist S1E1 (2022), Angelyne S1E3 (2022) and MaXXXine (2024)

The song was parodied in the October 10, 1981 episode of Saturday Night Live in the sketch "Buh-Weet Sings", when Buckwheat (Eddie Murphy) sings the song so incomprehensibly that the subtitles read "?????".^[77]

The 1986 single Dickie Davies Eyes by the band Half Man Half Biscuit parodies the songe title - Dickie Davies was a British television presenter, notably presenting World of Sport from the 1970s.