Eyes Without a Face (song)
| "Eyes Without a Face" | |||||||||
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4 track EP cover
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| Single by Billy Idol | |||||||||
| from the album Rebel Yell | |||||||||
| B-side | "Blue Highway" | ||||||||
| Released | 1984 | ||||||||
| Format | Vinyl (7" and 12") | ||||||||
| Recorded | Studio A, Electric Lady Studios, New York, 1983 | ||||||||
| Genre | New wave,synthpop | ||||||||
| Length | 4:58 4:08 (7") |
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| Label | Chrysalis Records | ||||||||
| Writer(s) | Billy Idol, Steve Stevens | ||||||||
| Producer(s) | Keith Forsey | ||||||||
| Billy Idol singles chronology | |||||||||
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"Eyes Without a Face" is a song by Billy Idol, co-written with guitarist Steve Stevens from Idol's 1983 album Rebel Yell. The song is softer and more ballad-like than most of the album's other singles.
Released in 1984, this was the second single from the Rebel Yell album. It reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Idol's first Top 10 hit in the USA.
In the liner notes for the Expanded Edition of Rebel Yell, Idol notes that this song was one of the first three written for the album (the other two being the title track and "(Do Not) Stand in the Shadows"). The original track was recorded in Studio A at Electric Lady Studios in New York, with a Linn drum machine and the bass parts played by Steve Webster.
The song is notable for the female voice of Perri Lister (who appeared in the banned video for "Hot in the City") that sings "Les yeux sans visage" (French for "Eyes without a face") as a background chorus.
The title of the song refers to French director Georges Franju's movie Les yeux sans visage (1960).
In a retrospective review of the single, AllMusic journalist Donald A. Guarisco praised the song. He wrote: "The music plays against the dark tone of the lyrics with a ballad-styled melody comprised of yearning verses that slowly build emotion and a quietly wrenching chorus that relieves the emotional tension in a cathartic manner."
The video was directed by David Mallet and begins with a close-up of Idol's sneering face, interspersed with three female singers. During the song's bridge, the scene changes to Steve Stevens soloing on guitar while Idol poses dancing in a flaming hexagon surrounded by hooded acolytes. The highly aggressive imagery of the video contrasts with the relative slowness and restraint of the song.
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