Early '80s Song of the Week... By Request!
Bette Davis Eyes
Kim Carnes
from the album Mistaken Identity
1981
Bette Davis Eyes is one of those songs which, if you're an American who lived through the 1980s, you heard. If you don't know the song, it must be because you were hiding out in a shack on the top of a mountain in Montana.
Prior to the chart-topping, brain-popping success of Bette Davis Eyes, Carnes was primarily known in the music industry for her songwriting talents. Together with husband and collaborator Dave Ellington Davis had penned songs for the likes of Barbara Streisand, Frank Sinatra and Kenny Rogers - not just a high-profile bunch, but an artistically diverse group.
"Bette Davis Eyes" was hardly a ground-breaking pop single, but that didn't stop it from becoming one of the most played tracks of the decade. After reaching the number one spot in the States it stayed there for over two months. The work that followed saw respectable chart action, but she never reached the top spot again.
Bette Davis Eyes
Jackie DeShannon/Donna Weiss
This sound file is available (300k mpeg audio file)
Her hair is Harlow gold
Her lips a sweet surprise
Her hands are never cold
She's got Bette Davis eyes
She'll turn her music on you
You won't have to think twice
She's pure as New York snow
She's got Bette Davis eyes
And she'll tease you
She'll unease you
all the better just to please you
She's precocious
and she knows just
what it takes to make a pro blush
She's got Greta Garbo's stand-off sighs
She's got Bette Davis eyes
She'll let you take her home
It whets her appetite
She'll lay you on her throne
She's got Bette Davis eyes
She'll take a tumble on you
Roll you like you were dice
Until you come up blue
She's got Bette Davis eyes
She'll expose you
when she snows you
Off your feet with the crumbs she throws you
She's ferocious
and she knows just what it takes
to make a pro blush
All the boys think she's a spy
She's got Bette Davis eyes
And she'll tease you
She'll unease you
all the better just to please you
She's precocious
and she knows just
what it takes to make a pro blush
All the boys think she's a spy
She's got Bette Davis eyes
She will tease you
She'll unease you
Just to please you
She's got Bette Davis eyes
She'll expose you
Then she snows you
She knows you
She's got Bette Davis eyes
See our list of Early '80s Songs.
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