Who Originally Sang “Bette Davis Eyes”?
Jackie DeShannon.
Kim Carnes made “Bette Davis Eyes” famous in 1981.
But DeShannon co-wrote and recorded the song years earlier for her album New Arrangement.
And if you play the original after hearing Carnes’ version your entire life, you may briefly wonder whether you selected the correct track.
Same composition.
Almost completely different record.
Who wrote “Bette Davis Eyes”?
Jackie DeShannon and Donna Weiss.
The pair wrote the song during the 1970s.
DeShannon was already an accomplished songwriter and performer with a career stretching back into early rock and pop.
Weiss brought lyrical material.
The two developed the song together.
Their inspiration drew partly from old Hollywood films, including Bette Davis’ 1942 movie Now, Voyager.
When did Jackie DeShannon record it?
DeShannon recorded the song for New Arrangement, released in the mid-1970s.
Her version sounds much closer to:
country-pop
R&B
jazz-shuffle
piano-driven singer-songwriter music.
There is no huge icy synthesizer hook.
No dramatic 1981 electronic atmosphere.
The familiar song is present.
The identity isn’t.
How did Kim Carnes find it?
Donna Weiss later brought material to Carnes.
“Bette Davis Eyes” was among the songs.
Carnes heard something in the composition but understood that the original arrangement needed a complete transformation.
Producer Val Garay reportedly described the earlier approach as having a loose, almost barroom piano quality.
The words were strong.
The recording needed a new decade.
Where did the famous synthesizer riff come from?
Keyboard player Bill Cuomo.
During the sessions, Cuomo developed the distinctive synth figure that immediately changes the entire character of the composition.
Carnes remembered everybody recognising the idea quickly:
this is it.
The new arrangement used modern synthesizer and electronic-drum colours to make the track feel sleek, dark and slightly detached.
A 1970s song had become unmistakably 1981.
Was Kim Carnes’ version heavily overdubbed?
Surprisingly little.
The famous recording was captured very quickly.
Accounts of the session describe the band cutting only a handful of takes, with the chosen performance preserving much of the live studio energy.
That matters because the track sounds extremely controlled.
Carnes’ vocal appears almost impossibly cool.
The musicians sound locked.
Sometimes that impression comes from months of production.
Sometimes the right arrangement simply arrives.
What is the song actually about?
A woman whose beauty and charisma make her:
fascinating
dangerous
unpredictable.
Bette Davis becomes shorthand for a particular kind of presence.
Not conventional sweetness.
Intensity.
Someone whose eyes suggest:
she knows more than you do.
The opening Hollywood imagery also references Jean Harlow, another defining film star of an earlier era.
The song turns classic actresses into descriptive vocabulary.
Did Bette Davis know about the song?
Very much so.
When Carnes’ version became enormous, Davis was in her seventies.
She wrote to Carnes, DeShannon and Weiss thanking them for introducing her name to a younger generation.
She reportedly enjoyed the idea that her grandson now thought she was particularly cool.
Davis later sent flowers following the song’s Grammy success.
This may be one of the nicest outcomes in pop songwriting.
Songwriter borrows actress’s name.
Actress:
excellent.
How big was Kim Carnes’ version?
Massive.
“Bette Davis Eyes” spent nine weeks at No. 1 in the United States and became one of the defining singles of 1981.
It won:
Record of the Year
and
Song of the Year
at the Grammys.
Record of the Year recognised the famous Carnes recording.
Song of the Year rewarded DeShannon and Weiss’ composition.
That distinction perfectly captures the story.
Great song.
Transformative recording.
Is Kim Carnes covering Jackie DeShannon?
Technically yes.
But “cover” can make it sound as though Carnes simply reproduced an existing hit.
She didn’t.
The DeShannon recording had never become a major standard.
Carnes and her musicians effectively rebuilt the composition.
This is one of the best examples of a cover creating the version everybody else subsequently treats as the original.
Songs with similarly surprising originals
Natalie Imbruglia – Torn
Soft Cell – Tainted Love
Cyndi Lauper – Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Joan Jett – I Love Rock ’n Roll
Sinéad O’Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U.
Radar already has dedicated explainers for several of those.
This article should link directly into the wider cover-song hub.
Which version should you listen to first?
Carnes.
Then immediately DeShannon.
That order maximises the surprise.
The interesting question is not:
which is better?
It’s:
how can these be the same song?
Arrangement is songwriting’s second life.
Who originally sang “Bette Davis Eyes”?
Jackie DeShannon.
She co-wrote it with Donna Weiss and recorded it years before Kim Carnes.
Carnes then heard the hidden synth-pop classic inside the older arrangement.
Sometimes a cover changes a song.
Sometimes it reveals what the song was apparently waiting to become.