http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DN_DlBBK5Ts8
- Sheena and her sugar walls had the most consistent presence throughout the 80s. It's hard to think past Bette Davis Eyes for other Kim Carnes songs.
Thanks for the video.
- You really think that looks "great"?
- I would have voted for Whitney Houston.
- Whitney would be up there as well, but she didn't start till 85-86. As I said, Sheena was putting out hits throughout the decade.
- love her, she was pretty big in the 80s and had a lot of other hits.
- What about Olivia Newton-John?
I think Kim Carnes is the most UNDERRATED artist of the 80's! Some other awesome songs of hers that didn't get as big were "Invisible Hands" and "Crazy in the Night."
- Kim's got Bette Davis Thighs.
- Jackie DeShannon's work has settle better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Du3mcEMJ1LXg%26%23t%3D01m50s
- R6 - I think ONJ had a better 70s than an 80s.
- A wonderfully underrated songwriter and singer whose 80s output was wonderfully state-of-the-chart but had a limited shelf life as a result - but I dare ya to not hear its influence on some of today's stuff, like Marina's 'Power & Control' for example (a sound that coulda come straight off 'Voyeur')...
OCB
- I loved Voyeur, and thought why wasn't it a bigger hit?
Was it her management? Yet, she was in Diet Coke ads, Mountain Dew ads, a solo in We Are the World, a 100K concert with Tina Turner and Rod Stewart, Flashdance soundtrack (amongst others)...
Was it her look? Madonna came along?
Too old?
Fascinating to read about her career
- [quote] a solo in We Are the World
"When we..!"
- Tina!
Seriously - her comeback turned into 80's pop stardom
- Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer - Kenny and Kim
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DJOU4TWGSxZM
- The music that made Tina Turner a worldwide star pales next to the stuff she did with Ike Turner.
- Yes, r15. But that's not what's being asked here.
- One of the greatest duets ever:
BARBRA STREISAND and KIM CARNES:
"Make No Mistake, He's Mine"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Sa-exuPpM
- Sheena Easton - Morning Train
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DS3z9dx4U3gw
- I love all of those artists in OP's poll. But really, you can't make a case for any of them being bigger than Cyndi Lauper in the 80s. She was huge.
- How many hits could Sheena Easton have possibly had in the 80s? Five?
I'm thinking Top 10 hits. Not anything that made the Hot 100.
- Olivia Newton John had a huge string of hits in the 80s. Including the decades biggest selling single.
- ONJ had a good run in the 80s, but it's nothing to compare to her 70s work. Olivia took 3 years off in the mid 80s after having her daughter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Newton-John
- nuh-nuh nuh-nuh stand up size, she's got ... Bette Davis thighs!
- Um, you've forgotten the obvious, OP. Janet, Miss Jackson if you're nasty, of course. She was the...
First female to have 5 Hot 100 Top 5 hits from a single album, and the first female artist to produce six top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 from a single album (1986's "Control")
Leader of the Rhythm Nation
Legendary '80s dance videos that are still mimicked by today's pop stars
Broke from the shadow of her famous brother to forge her own path to stardom
Her "Nasty" catch phrase is still used today
"What Have You Done For Me Lately", "Nasty", "Control" and "When I Think of You" were inescapable in the '80s. "Nasty" even inspired a TV show titled "Nasty Boys" and a WWF wrestling duo of the same name
"Control" netted Janet multiple awards, including Billboard and MTV awards
Many a copycat artist followed in the wake of "Control" (Karyn White, Vanessa Williams, Nia Peeples, Paula Abdul...)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LHHD4xqjgZY/TFa6Rw7xZoI/AAAAAAAAFk8/cas1cC-Z7Uw/s1600/Janet-Jackson-Control-Tony-Viramontes.png
- Easton had 8 top 10 hits in the 80's and 6 other songs that made the top 40.
- Interestingly enough, Kim sang back up for Tina on the Acid Queen album... Kim had a bit of a lesbian vibe in the 80's, don't you think?
- I think R24 is right.
- It's hard to pinpoint because the music and styles changed so much from the early 80s to the late 80s.
- "Invitation to Dance" is Kim Carnes's best
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw2wB8JwkVk
- In a word, Janet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH8xbDGv7oY
- I'm old enough to remember 'Bette Davis Eyes' and that song was HUGE back then. Even your grandmother was listening to it.
- BDE was huge, but Kim never had anything like it.
- I love Kim Carnes, have all her albums, and agree she didn't have the career she should have. I think in her case she was difficult to pigeonhole. "Bette Davis Eyes" is often lumped in with New Wave and it is synth heavy but the rest of the album it comes from (Mistaken Identity) is more rock-pop with touches of R&B and jazz. Her follow-up album Voyeur tried to capitalize on the synthpop/New Wave trend but her lite FM, singer-songwriter stylings bled through.
Barking At Airplanes and View from the House are probably her strongest, most consistent 80s albums. It's a shame most of her albums are out of print and not even available via iTunes.
- Sheena Easton had
Top 10
Morning Train
The Lover In Me
For Your Eyes Only
Telefone
Sugar Walls
Strut
We Got Tonight (Duet)
U Got The Look (Uncredited)
Top 40
Almost Over You
When He Shines
- You can't compare artists before and after 1984, when Billboard changed it's ranking methods.
It changed them again in the early 90s
After 1984, it was easy for artists to pull three or more singles off an album. That was rare before then.
They thought it was amazing Culture Club pulled three top ten singles off one album. Then all of a sudden every one and their brother was doing it.
Then they had to change ranking for black charts because artists like Sheena Easton and Hall & Oates were going to to the top ten or number one on them and they said it wasn't fair.
Using today's methodology, singles like Bette Davis Eyes (9 weeks/1), Physical (10 weeks/1) and Endless Love (9 weeks/#1) would have easily had 26 or more weeks at number one.
- I love Bonnie Tyler.
- also, I read a while back that she broke up Jeff Bridges' marriage (or Michael McDonald's)...
- Things have a way of shifting over time. Our recollection or choice of who was the the hit of the 80's is very different in hindsight. At the time I would agree that Sheena Easton was the one who got the most play while we would feel that Tina or Cyndi are enduring more as time passes.
- Big female pop star of the 80s (besides Madonna) - I would split the decade in half. First half: Pat Benatar. Second half: Janet Jackson. Partly because this is symbolic of the transition -- the 80s began, musically, as very dominated by whiteness and "shopping mall rock." They ended with mostly the same, but also an increase in urban/black/R&B sounding stuff -- not nearly as much as today, but a hint of what was to come. Janet represented this transition.
- 1984. MTV. We're talking Madonna, Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper.
- Kim actually turned 67.
Aside from her duets, she only hit the Top Ten twice - first with "More Love" in 1980, followed by "Bette Davis Eyes". She managed to reach No. 15 with "Crazy in the Night".
I always thought Kim was underrated as a performer and songwriter (although ironically she didn't write either of her Top Ten hits).
The%20Billboard%20Chart%20troll
- She was no Jackie DeShannon
Sharon%20Lee%20Myers
- I love her voice.
So, was it Madonna and MTV that wrecked her sizzle?
And I thought BDEyes was THE #1 hit of the entire decade. It was that huge, right?
Someone on another board told me not to feel too badly for Carnes. She is a big writer of country hits, moved to Nashville, and lives in a mansion in the mountains. Buys a new Porsche every year, and tours for the fun of it (including in Italy, and Chile this year).
- I feel sorry for her. She's got Joan Rivers face now.
Sharon%20Lee%20Myers
- I hated her voice. Ugh. I remember that summer very well and BDE quickly became the song you love to hate. So fucking stupid. "She's precocious -- and she knows just..."
I know it is sacrilege on a gay board to not fall all over Lauper but if there were ever a one-note performer, it's her. And "Girls Just Wanna..." is unlistenable.
- Physical was the biggest seller of the 80s. It got to the point you wanted to slit your throat when it came on the radio.
- [quote]I know it is sacrilege on a gay board to not fall all over Lauper but if there were ever a one-note performer, it's her. And "Girls Just Wanna..." is unlistenable.
Excuse me?
All Through The Night
Time After Time
She Bop
True Colors
Change of Heart
Money Changes Everything
When You Were Mine (Prince remake)
Goonies 'R Good Enuff
Hole in my Heart (All The Way To China)
What's Going On (Marvin Gaye remake)
I Drove All Night
She's no one-note performer (or one-hit wonder). And, she can actually...sing!
- Tna Turner sucks...ugly voice and no range whatsoever.The comeback was simply the fright wig.Period.
- I don't know a lot about Kim's career except the radio singles and MTV videos (You Make My Heart Beat Faster is a big favorite) but I have to say it is very nice that her voice still sounds the same. Go listen to Stevie Nicks latest output or, see her stage. It's ghastly, her voice is a weird combo of low buzz and nasal stuffiness, combined with some sort of sound system that tries to sweeten the vocal a bit to fill in the broken parts. THAT's a real disappointment. Stevie would never sing like Kim in some club with a single guitar player, it wouldn't be pleasant, no matter the intensity of her self-penned songs and her trademark stage character.
- r49 Is that a surprise? Carnes talk-sings Bette Davis eyes.
- [quote]Tna Turner sucks...ugly voice and no range whatsoever.The comeback was simply the fright wig.Period.
Somebody should smack you for this silly-ass comment.
- She also had a duet with Kenny Rogers in "Don't Fall in Love With a Dreamer" which peaked at #4.
- Stevie Nicks deserves consideration here too, both for her work with FM and with her solo work.
- Kim Carnes albums are all at least interesting and eclectic. I think her cover of "More Love" is sublime, she works the Nile Rogers produced "invitation to Dance", "Hurricane", so I Am A Camera, I would love to do a club night of her stuff. She crossed genres.
- Kim held the singular distintion of being the only artist to simultaneously have a solo, duet and trio on the chart at the same time. She did it in 1984 with the singles "What About Me" (with Kenny Rogers and James Ingram) "Make No Mistake, He´s Mine" (with Barbra Streisand), and her own "Invitation To Dance".
she%20has%20a%20gay%20son
- Don't cry for her Argentina!
Mickey%2C%20Red%27s%20hair%20stylist
- She should write a book. She was on A&M, then EMI. The "Mistaken Identity" lp was huge, love "Break the Rules Tonight" and the Tom Snow-Dean Pitchford penned "Don't Call It Love." Her producer Val Garay worked with Ronstadt and The Motels.
- The Pointer Sisters come to mind. Lots of great songs in the 80's; "Jump (For My Love)", "I'm So Excited", "Automatic", "Slow Hand", "Neutron Dance" and "Dare Me", etc. But, they were a group, not solo so I guess they don't really qualify.
I always wonder what happens to "One Hit Wonders" female and male like:
Stacey Q ("Two of Hearts")
Jermaine Stewart ("We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off")
Pebbles ("Giving You The Benefit of the Doubt") -might be 90's
And a singer who's still a favorite of mine based on on hit song: Robbie Nevil, who sang "Dominoes."
I wonder do they work as back-up singers, lounge acts, voice coaches/teachers or do something else entirely? It must suck to be so famous for a brief period of time then have it slip away.
http://www.twitter.com/RonKlopfanstein
Ron%20Klopfanstein
- R56,
Jermaine Stewart died of AIDS in 1997
Pebbles was no one-hit wonder. She had several big hits: "Girlfriend", "Mercedes Boy" (both bigger hits than "...Benefit"), "Love Makes Things Happen", "Always", etc. She went on to infamously manage TLC, and married record mogul L.A. Reid. They have long been divorced, but they have a teenaged son. She is now a Christian minister.
Robbie Nevil had a bigger hit with "C'est La Vie" than "Dominoes".
- Woops, I meant R58...
R59
- Carnes has a gay son??? Info?
- sorry for the repeat post, but I also just learned that Russell Mulcahy (the producer and director of the new Teen Wolf) directed most of Carnes' videos, including BDE.
http://www.grammy.com/news/kim-carnes-bats-her-bette-davis-eyes
- I think her oldest son Collin is gay. He's in real estate or banking now, though he co-wrote some of Kim's later tracks with her. His Facebook page is or was public and it was pretty clear he's openly gay and involved in a lot of gay causes.
It's Collin's voice you hear at the beginning of "Crazy In The Night" whispering 'who is it?'
- Russell Mulcahy directed MANY videos in the 1980s, R62. He's famous for his work with Duran Duran.
- Her hair is Holland gold
Lips smack surprise
Her heart is icy cold
She's got Bette David Eye
She'll turn the music on you
You have to think twice
She eats yellow snow
She's got Bette Davis Eyes
- Jackie DeShannon recently inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Kim was there and sang their hit.
- really, r66? Any links? Did she sing live?
- R65 Seriously?
Her hair is Harlow gold, her lips a sweet surprise
Her hands are never cold, she's got Better Davis eyes
She'll turn the music on you, you won't have to think twice
She's pure as New York snow, she got Bette Davis eyes
- Sheena Easton had hits throughout the decade? I can only think of 2, plus that duet with Prince.
Lauper, hands down.
- R69
"She has recorded 16 studio albums, released 45 singles, and has 15 Top 40 hits on the US Billboard Hot 100. Sheena Easton is the only artist in the history of the US Billboard charts to have a top 3 hit on each of the Billboards key charts: Adult Contemporary, Dance, Pop, Country, and R&B. In the UK Sheena has 3 top 40 albums and 8 top 40 singles to date.
Easton rose to fame in the early 1980s with the pop hits "9 to 5" (known as "Morning Train" in the United States), "For Your Eyes Only," "Strut," "Sugar Walls," "U Got the Look" with Prince, and "The Lover in Me." "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheena_Easton
- I like her music and she seems like a cool woman, but I hate the way she looks.
At 66 she's trying to look 30, which makes her appear ridiculous.
I'm not suggesting she should look and dress like an old lady, but trying to create the illusion for people in the back of the audience that she's still young just makes her look sad.
I know they all do it, Cher, Madonna, Dolly, etc., but it still looks sad. In four years she'll be 70, and she's still trying to look like a hot babe? Creepy, imo.
- she & Jackie are in a 60s rock movie with Bobby Vee called "Cmon Let's Live a Little" - never been released on dvd. I think she looks good and remains true to her self, so she's lifted a little.
- Janet, hands down.
- but did Carnes perform the work because she's on a comeback tour...or does society just suck for women?
- I think jennifer rush power of love song
