Story of the song: Bette Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes

From The Independent archive: Robert Webb on a schmaltzy jazz-shuffle that got a new lease of husky life

Carnes loved the song demo but it needed a new hook to take it into the Eighties (Media Press/Shutterstock)

Kentucky-born Jackie DeShannon was one of early rock’n’roll’s rare female all-rounders. She penned hits for The Searchers and Brenda Lee, co-wrote with a very junior Randy Newman, and sessioned on Jimmy Page’s first solo single in 1964. In 1974, DeShannon was working on material for her album New Arrangement with a fellow songwriter, Donna Weiss. DeShannon, inspired by the film Now, Voyager, and in particular the scene in which Paul Henreid lights cigarettes for Bette Davis, worked out a melody for a song that namechecked Hollywood heroines: “Her hair was Harlow gold/ Her lips sweet surprise.”

DeShannon demoed “Bette Davis Eyes” as a straight-ahead rocker but for the album, it was recorded as a schmaltzy jazz-shuffle, much to DeShannon’s disappointment. When the album flopped, “Bette Davis Eyes” was written off by DeShannon as a lost opportunity. Five years later, Weiss was visiting her friend Kim Carnes and had with her a tape of some songs she thought Carnes might like. Included was the original demo of “Bette Davis Eyes”. Carnes heard her future.

Carnes loved “Bette Davis Eyes” but it needed a new hook to take it into the Eighties. Her keyboard player, Bill Cuomo, prepared a synthesiser riff to give it the necessary contemporary feel. Carnes knew she had a hit. She rehearsed her version in December 1980 and cut it live, over three takes, the following day. DeShannon was both surprised and delighted at Carnes’s husky arrangement: “Her voice was perfect for it,” she said. Carnes, DeShannon and Weiss all claimed Grammys for their part in its eventual success.

And what did Bette Davis make of it? “After the release of the record, Miss Davis sent me a note explaining how much she loved the song,” said Carnes, who performed it in front of the film legend at a tribute concert, just before Davis died in 1989.