‘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. This won the 1981 Grammy for Record of the Year, and in America, it was the third-best-selling single of the '80s, after Olivia Newton-John's ‘Physical’ and the Diana Ross/Lionel Richie duet ‘Endless Love.’ The music video was directed by Australian film director Russell Mulcahy.
‘Bette Davis Eyes’ was written in 1974 by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon, the latter of whom recorded the song that same year for 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 March 1981, when Carnes recorded her version of the song in a radically different synthesizer-based arrangement, that it became a commercial success.
Actress Bette Davis was 73 when Carnes's version became a hit. She wrote letters to Carnes, Weiss, and DeShannon to thank them for making her "a part of modern times" and said that her grandson now looked up to her. After their Grammy wins, Davis sent them roses and happily accepted the gift of gold and platinum records from Carnes, hanging them on her wall.
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. The single also reached No. 5 on Billboard's Top Tracks charts and No. 26 on the Dance charts. It reached No. 2 in Canada for twelve consecutive weeks, and was 1981's No. 2 hit in that country, after ‘Stars on 45’. It peaked at No. 10 in the United Kingdom, 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. ‘Bette Davis Eyes’ was a No. 1 hit in 21 countries.
Label – EMI America
Songwriters – Donna Weiss · Jackie DeShannon
Producer – Val Garay
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]Her hair is Harlow gold
Her lips sweet surprise
Her hands are never cold
She's got Bette Davis eyes
[Verse 2]
She'll turn her music on you
You won't have to think twice
She's pure as New York snow
She got Bette Davis eyes
[Chorus 1]
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 got Greta Garbo stand off sighs
She's got Bette Davis eyes
[Verse 3]
She'll let you take her home
It whets her appetite
She'll lay you on her throne
She got Bette Davis eyes
[Verse 4]
She'll take a tumble on you
Roll you like you were dice
Until you come up blue
She's got Bette Davis eyes
[Chorus 2]
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
[Chorus 1]
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
[Outro]
She'll tease you
She'll unease you
Just to please ya
She's got Bette Davis eyes
She'll expose you
When she snows you
She knows ya
She's got Bette Davis eyes