Bette Davis Eyes
| "Bette Davis Eyes" | ||||||||
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| Single by Kim Carnes | ||||||||
| from the album Mistaken Identity | ||||||||
| B-side | "Miss You Tonight" | |||||||
| Released | March 10, 1981 | |||||||
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| Recorded | January 1981 | |||||||
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| Length | 3:48 | |||||||
| Label | EMI America | |||||||
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| Producer(s) | Val Garay | |||||||
| Kim Carnes singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Bette Davis Eyes" is a song written and composed by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon, and made popular by American singer Kim Carnes. DeShannon recorded it in 1974; Carnes's 1981 version spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was Billboard's biggest hit of the entire year for 1981. It was also her only Top 40 hit on the UK Singles Chart, getting to No. 10. The 1981 recording won the 1982 Grammy Awards for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
The song was written and composed in 1974 by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon. DeShannon 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 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.
The Carnes version spent nine non-consecutive weeks on top of the US Billboard Hot 100 (interrupted for one week by the "Stars on 45 Medley") and was Billboard's biggest hit of the year for 1981. The single also reached No. 5 on Billboard's 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. The song was also a number one hit in 21 countries and peaked at number 10 in the United Kingdom, her only Top 40 hit there to date.
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