Her 1981 Grammy Award winning single was #1 for nine weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.

I love the music videos for Bette Davis Eyes and Draw of the Cards from the Mistaken Identity album.

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 37

October 14, 2022 2:16 PM

Bette Davis Eyes directed by Russell Mulcahy

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 1

May 9, 2022 11:11 PM

Draw of the Cards directed by Russell Mulcahy

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 2

May 9, 2022 11:12 PM

The Mistaken Identity album cover is one of my all-time favorite covers.

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 3

May 9, 2022 11:14 PM

I know a woman whose normal speaking voice sounds UNCANNILY like Kim Carnes. Every time I interact with her, I have to restrain myself from letting loose with "She'll TEASE you / she'll UNEASE you..."

by Anonymous

reply 4

May 9, 2022 11:15 PM

Mistaken Identity is the sixth studio album by American singer Kim Carnes, released in April 1981 by EMI America Records. The album spent four weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, and was subsequently certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

The album's lead single "Bette Davis Eyes" peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for nine non-consecutive weeks and topped the Hot 100 year-end chart of 1981. Follow-up singles "Draw of the Cards" and "Mistaken Identity" reached numbers 28 and 60 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively.

by Anonymous

reply 5

May 9, 2022 11:17 PM

It’s not an original song though

by Anonymous

reply 6

May 9, 2022 11:20 PM

You may find this thread of Stuart.

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 7

May 9, 2022 11:31 PM

This was originally recorded in a 1920s Jazz style by Jackie DeShannon on her 1975 album, New Arrangement. DeShannon wrote the song with the songwriter Donna Weiss. According to DeShannon, she got the idea for the song after watching the 1942 Bette Davis movie Now Voyager. It was Donna Weiss who submitted the demo to Carnes, who along with her band and producer Val Garay, came up with the hit arrangement for the song.

by Anonymous

reply 8

May 9, 2022 11:31 PM

You may find this thread of interest.

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 9

May 9, 2022 11:31 PM

Jackie DeShannon told Uncut magazine: "Donna Weiss and I were writing quite a bit at the time, and we both liked black and white movies. Donna had written many pages, and I was fooling around with the melody, and we pieced together 'Bette Davis Eyes.'

We made a demo with a much more rock-and-roll feel. That's what I thought we were going to do, but the producer had another concept. It turned out OK. I don't dislike it, but it was not my concept. It had been out a long time, and Donna gave it to Kim Carnes with something else on the tape. Kim liked it and that was that. Her version was much closer to the demo version."

by Anonymous

reply 10

May 9, 2022 11:32 PM

The music video for Bette Davis Eyes…

The video was directed by Russell Mulcahy, who made many of the early MTV favorites. His videos were very artistic and filled with unexpected scenes. The costumed crowd smacking the floor and each other in time to the drum machine was a typical Mulcahy touch. The video was huge on MTV and gave the song a big boost.

by Anonymous

reply 11

May 9, 2022 11:33 PM

R9 I didn’t find your link of any interest whatsoever.

by Anonymous

reply 13

May 9, 2022 11:34 PM

Record producer, Val Garay on recording Bette Davis Eyes

The drums are live, hot and bright — very tight-miked,” he notes. Guitars were cut using Shure SM53s, “which is what I still use to this day. It’s a warm mic with a lot of bottom; great for guitars.” Synths were cut direct and with a mic on amp “because otherwise you get this harsh, homogenized synth sound I don’t like.”

Of the Synare, which was ubiquitous on hit records in the early ’80s, Garay says with a chuckle, “Craig Krampf bought that thing, and he brings it to the rehearsal and every song we rehearsed he’d be playing the stupid thing and I was like, ‘Craig, get rid of that thing!’ It was the most annoying thing I’d ever heard in my life. But he was relentless and he kept at it, and sure enough, when he hit it in the chorus of ‘Bette Davis Eyes,’ it soundedperfect.”

by Anonymous

reply 14

May 9, 2022 11:48 PM

the night we were rehearsing ‘Bette Davis Eyes’ was the night John Lennon was murdered. Someone came into the studio in the middle of rehearsal and told us. Very weird. Anyway, we cut ‘Bette Davis Eyes’ totally live at Record One: every note, the percussion, even the [electronic] Synare and Kim’s vocals; there was never an overdub. I think we did three takes and the one we used was take one. I did a rough mix the night we cut it, and then I spent four days chasing that mix when we mixed the album later and I never could beat that first one. Thank God I had done the original mix to quarter-inch.”

Garay recalls that for the live session, Carnes was stationed in a vocal booth adjoining the control room and she sang into “the same vocal mic I’ve used on every vocalist on every record I have made since my days at the Sound Factory: a Neumann U67 tube with the API in front of it. I’ve tried everything, but I always go back to the U67. When I built Record One, I made a smart move. I went to Neumann and said, ‘Will you build me 10 new U67s?’ and they said, ‘Okay.’ So I had 10 great new ones.” Garay, who has always taken copious notes on all of his sessions, reveals that some of the other mics used on the session included a Sennheiser 421 on the bass drum, a Shure 56 on the top of the snare, a Sennheiser 441 on the bottom, Telefunken 251s on the toms and as overheads, and an AKG 452 on the hi-hat.

by Anonymous

reply 15

May 10, 2022 12:19 AM

I like to listen to Break The Rules Tonight while I flick my bean really really fast.

by Anonymous

reply 16

May 10, 2022 1:48 AM

She’s as pure as New York snow…

by Anonymous

reply 17

May 11, 2022 1:00 AM

What? no love for Carnes's "More Love" (1980)?

by Anonymous

reply 18

May 11, 2022 1:12 AM

R18 I love that song. Interesting that Carnes couldn’t follow up BDE with another Billboard top 10 song. Her other two top 10s, More Love and Don’t Fall In Love With A Dreamer came before BDE. She had other top 40s but nothing came close to the juggernaut of BDE. She deserved more success.

by Anonymous

reply 19

May 11, 2022 1:33 AM

I owned the single and played it to death. I still love it. I know I wore the grooves out of that 45!

by Anonymous

reply 20

May 11, 2022 1:40 AM

I loved this song. It's one of only two 45s I bought after the 1960s. "Love Will Keep Us Together" is the other.

by Anonymous

reply 21

May 11, 2022 1:47 AM

Kim met Bette after the song became a hit.

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 22

May 11, 2022 2:16 AM

Smokey Robinson loved Kim’s version of more love and wrote being with you with her in mind to record it. Smokey’s producer heard the demo and told him it was a smash hit and he had to keep it for himself. It became the biggest hit of his solo career but couldn’t got past Bette Davis eyes and stayed at #2 for 3 weeks.

by Anonymous

reply 23

May 11, 2022 2:34 AM

Teena Marie did a great version of More Love.

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 24

May 11, 2022 2:35 AM

Kim Carnes on making the video for Bette Davis Eyes

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 25

May 26, 2022 10:25 PM

Don’t forget Kim’s SMASH hit “Crazy in the Night” from 1985!

by Anonymous

reply 26

May 26, 2022 10:45 PM

I like the extended mix of Bette Davis Eyes

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 27

May 27, 2022 10:34 AM

I was super pissed off when Barb stole my Kim Carnes CDs. I had a collection of imports and re-issues with bonus tracks unavailable to stream.

by Anonymous

reply 28

June 2, 2022 10:03 PM

Always fucking hated this stupid song. Like nails on a chalkboard whenever would come on the radio. Fucking awful.

by Anonymous

reply 30

June 2, 2022 10:27 PM

I love the album cover. The photography, art design, logos, etc.

by Anonymous

reply 32

June 2, 2022 10:35 PM

"Bette Davis Eyes" is my musical memory of New York just before AIDS hit that summer. I love the song. Love it. But I hear it and what comes to mind is "We didn't know yet." I had a boyfriend who was about to move to New York that summer, so I didn't have sex with anyone else that spring—hadn't had in a couple of years—and that may have been what saved my life.

There was an old boyfriend I thought about getting together with, but he didn't want to see me. He told me I wouldn't like his life the way it was at that point. Turned out he was into cocaine and was embarrassed at how bad it had gotten. He was right. He got into drugs and a lot worse. I was lucky not to have seen again.

I hear "Bette Davis Eyes," and I think of the sex I didn't have in 1981, probably because of which I'm still alive.

by Anonymous

reply 33

June 2, 2022 10:51 PM

I love the Brandon Flowers cover

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 34

June 3, 2022 4:29 AM

Your week portrayed by...

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 35

June 3, 2022 4:31 AM

I love that song. The video was a fave of mine. Kim said she had been listening to a lot of Cabaret Voltaire and wanted to incorporate that style into her music.

by Anonymous

reply 36

October 12, 2022 9:47 PM

Great sample of the Kim Carnes song by Mylo.

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 37

October 14, 2022 2:16 PM