The Music Video for Bette Davis Eyes

such a great song

It seemed as if it was all they played at Uncle Charlie's on Greenwich Avenue, right about now, 38 years ago. I believe it was the first music video I ever saw, as well.

Classic 80s pop. Very atmospheric!

Brandon Flowers does an excellent cover:

When I was 8 years old I put on a performance in front of a small crowd of neighborhood kids doing Kim Carnes “Bette Davis Eyes”. I stood on the deck in the backyard wearing Ray-bans, a velour blazer and a leather glove. The track blaring from my Sony double-cassette boombox. I was Kim Carnes and the kids ate up my performance.

This Chilean tribute band does a great job too. This guy sounds A LOT like Kim Carnes.

Did they all know you were gay then, R5?

ya think?

Well if they didn’t know then, they found out several months later when in January of 1982 I wore a headband, a ripped sweatshirt and leg warmers then performed Olivia Newton-John “Physical” inside my family room in front of 8 of my closest friends.

Word got out about my performance and the snooty, older, mean-girl sisters who lived next door taunted me on the school bus about it.

Whenever I preformed it I didn't a cat claw and the she's ferocious part.

R5 you are fabulous.

How did you dance to this, R5 R10?

"Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes is on the January 1998 GAP In-Store Playlist!

I didn’t appreciate the Cranberries. Dolores was kind of vapid in my opinion. I did like zombie!

Kim Carnes was like the Lucille Ball of pop music. Her success came much later in life than normal. This song still breaks my teenage heart.

That is the only Cranberries song I liked. It gets me up and moving like BDE. In fact, it auto-played right after Brandon Flowers' version.

Brandon did the song justice.

r6 That really was a nice cover.

R16 that's a great ballad with two epic rock voices.

While I was watching the ATWT episode from 1990, I wanted to go back to 1990. I don't feel that way about 1981, for some reason. I was in New York then, waiting for my boyfriend to move to NY from Portland that summer. I remember very specific instances of men I didn't have sex with during that time, and have wondered if having a boyfriend then is what saved my life.

Talk about two great voices. Barbra had been a great fan of Kim for a long, long time. Recording a few songs Kim had written. Then one day Barbra called her up and said write us a song we can do together. So Kim wrote this. It just seems such an odd pairing. They seem to be the polar opposites of each other in every category. They been close friends for decades now. Well as close as Barbra gets to anyone.

I didn’t like Kim’s shit with Barbra. Or Kenny Rogers!

Such dreck.

It's CROW blush!!!!!!

Originally......

I always wondered what Kim's motivation was in her version of the song. It is so different and so great. Jackie, an also ran her whole career, made a version that was shit.

R9 is absolutely that hobbit kid dressed in the CATS tshirt in 'Drillbit Taylor', shaking it to the techno-house instead of watching the T&A music video.

I always preferred Marty Feldman Eyes.

It seems like another lifetime.

The Jackie DeShannon original is fair, but nothing compared to the KC remake with its air of sinister mystery that matches the lyrics.

And I wouldn’t call Jackie DeShannen an also-ran; she wrote some huge hits.

She released an acoustic album maybe a decade ago, revisiting some of her work over the years. It’s splendid.

Bette Davis Eyes was huge Billboard number 1. It sat atop the singles chart for 9 weeks in the Spring of 1981. Also won Record and Song of the year Grammys.

DeShannen’s 2011 recording of Breakaway that she had a hit with in the sixties.

Tracey Ullman recorded it in the eighties.

It’s too bad Voyeur binned a year later, despite being a great song and album. Maybe people felt they’d ODed on KC after Bette Davis Eyes being #1 for two months.

But I really blame the video, which looks like a poorly edited episode of Mannix.

the beginning hooks you like a fish.

That shitty song Kim did with Barbra Streisand was like a wet fart.

Did Bette ever comment about the song?

R6 is the epitome of a hot guy opening his mouth and a purse falling out.

You can also tell English is his second language the way he fucks up the lyrics.

R38 Yes, she said her young grandson thought she was cool, for the first time, because of the song.

Looker was my favorite song she did.

Tracey's Breakaway.....

I don’t give 2 fucks about a fucking Tracey Ullmsn song in this Kim Carnes Bette Davis Eyes video thread!

Thank you for posting, OP.... I hadn't seen this video in YEARS!! I was 19 in 1981 and this was a favorite MTV video. I don't think I knew who Bette Davis was but I knew a great song when I heard one. Was Kim a heavy smoker? Her voice sounds like she was up all night smoking a carton of Marlboro's.

R43 has stated both her boundaries and limitations.

A more recent KC performance.

She’s now 73, the same age as Davis when Bette Davis Eyes hit in 1981.

I don’t care for Kim Carnes 70s output. I liked her 80s new wave / pop / rock shit.

She was interviewed for the David Cassidy documentary last year. Kim and her husband opened for him and sang backup for him during his peak and stayed friends with him.

Bette Davis eyes would’ve stayed #1 for 10 weeks had it not been knocked out of the top spot for one week by Stars on 45

Well I’ll be damned, r48!

Stars on 45 seemed to be played incessantly that year. Juice Newton, too.

This was the spring and summer that BDEyes was #1. Just before MTV was unleashed in August of 81 and the song didn’t utilize MTVs power or influence and still had that great run.

The 80s were the last great era. The music, John Hughes movies, MTV the hair and clothes. The years before the internet and smartphones were the best.

A friend of mine styled the costumes for this video. It’s such a great song, I never tire of hearing it.

[quote]The 80s were the first worst era. The music, John Hughes movies, MTV, the hair and clothes.

The party goers always seemed to be rejects from the Frankenstein mansion who didn’t get to do the Time Warp.

Lest we forget, she followed Bette Davis Eyes with Draw of the Cards!

That’s the video that really demands our attention.

Russell Mulcahy directed the video. He directed so many famous videos... pretty much setting the style of videos for the first half of the 80s decade.

I just think she's a great talent. Wrote a lot of songs and recorded a lot of quality stuff that never got boring. Anyone remember her slight hit Crazy in Love? It didn't do that great on the charts but it was played non stop, for about three months, on the music video stations. The video is awesome too.

The same director did David Bowie’s “ashes to ashes”.

Wrong. R59. My mistake

Another hit I forgot about. Kenny Rogers, Kim Carnes, and James Ingram. I really nice song but I wonder whose idea James Ingram was. Good choice.

I think there’s a list on wiki of Russell’s videos. Its really impressive

What about me dod not even hit top 10 :(

Kim had two top 10 songs before the monster of Bette Davis Eyes: "Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer" with Kenny Rogers and her remake of the Miracles "More Love".

None of her other stuff matched Bette Davis Eyes but she always seemed to have a little something going on. I just never found her boring and she was never in a rut. Her song from Flashdance was the best on the soundtrack. I fucking love this song.

I usually hate Motown remakes (cf Phil Collins and Kim Wilde), but I’ve always loved her version of More Love.

The video is quite a production for 1980 - before MTV. Where did this get played?

I used to stay up late and watch Casey Kasem’s Top Ten. That’s the only time I remember music videos, save for maybe Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert.

I love this thread.

I love this thread too. I love both BDE and More Love. I can listen to them over and over.

I love this oh-so-80s duet with Jeffrey Osborne from the "Spaceballs" soundtrack of all things.

You Make My Heart Best Faster And That’s All That Matters

You make my snatch juice faster and that’s all that matters.