Bette Davis Eyes

"Bette Davis Eyes"
Single by Kim Carnes
from the album Mistaken Identity
B-side"Miss You Tonite"
ReleasedMarch 10, 1981
Genre
Length3:48
LabelEMI 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

"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]

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]

  1. ^ Greenwald, Matthew. "Bette Davis Eyes – Song Review". AllMusic. Retrieved May 3, 2014.
  2. ^ Useted, Tom (February 18, 2010). "Jackie DeShannon: Jackie DeShannon, Me About You / To Be Free, New Arrangement". PopMatters. Retrieved May 3, 2014. It's hard to approach this album without focusing on the presence of "Bette Davis Eyes", which, issued forth from the tortured larynx of Kim Carnes, became one of the defining new-wave records.
  3. ^ "80s classics that should be remade". Virgin Media. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015.
  4. ^ Doyle, Tom (March 2005). "Mylo". Sound on Sound. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  5. ^ Breihan, Tom (May 6, 2020). "The Number Ones: Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes". Stereogum. Retrieved July 19, 2023. The new version of 'Bette Davis Eyes' is state-of-the-art '80s synth-rock.
  6. ^ a b "The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs (20-11)". Billboard. Archived from the original on September 13, 2008.
  7. ^ "80sonVEVO GAMV Takeover Week 9 w/ FEATURED VIDEO Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes"". March 20, 2013. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hot100 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ "Kim Carnes – Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved May 3, 2014.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Canada1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Canada2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference UK was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference #1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).