Bette Davis Eyes

Background

"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. Weiss had traveled to DeShannon's house with a set of lyrics, including several additional verses that were ultimately scrapped. DeShannon refined some of the lyrics and also developed the song's music. 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.

According to producer Val Garay, the original demo of the tune that was brought to him sounded like "a Leon Russell track, with this beer-barrel polka piano part." Carnes initially rejected the song based on the demo's arrangement, until keyboardist Bill Cuomo, using the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synthesizer, came up with the signature riff which defines Carnes's version. In an interview with Dick Clark on the National Music Survey, Carnes credited Cuomo with the song's new arrangement, saying that "the minute he came up with that, then it fell into place. Everybody went, 'That's it!'"

Only three takes were recorded, the first of which was used with no overdubbing. Craig Krampf insisted on incorporating a Synare electronic drum into the song, although Garay objected to the instrument's inclusion on the grounds that it was "the most annoying thing I'd ever heard in my life." However, Garay changed his mind once Krampf hit the Synare on the chorus and found the instrument to be a great addition to the song. The drums were miked at close proximity using a Sennheiser MD 421 on the bass drum, a Shure 56 and Sennheiser MD 441 on the snare drum, Telefunken 251s on the toms, and an AKG 452 on the hi-hat. Carnes sang her vocals through a Neumann U67 microphone situated next to the mixing console.

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. The opening line, "Her hair is Harlow gold" is a tribute to starlet Jean Harlow, the leading sex symbol of early 1930s films, often nicknamed the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde", whose look inspired Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, and others.

Critical reception

Record World called it a "haunting pop-rocker" and said that Carnes's "earthy vocal rasp and guitar chimes are unforgettable." Joe Viglione of AllMusic believed that "Bette Davis Eyes" was superior to all other tracks on Mistaken Identity.

Track listing and formats

• 7-inch single

1. "Bette Davis Eyes" – 3:45
2. "Miss You Tonite" – 5:11

• US 12-inch maxi-single

1. "Bette Davis Eyes" – 3:45
2. "Miss You Tonite" – 5:11

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications

Other versions

Gwyneth Paltrow version

American actress Gwyneth Paltrow covered "Bette Davis Eyes" for the soundtrack for the 2000 road trip film Duets. This version was released as a single in Australia on March 26, 2001, debuting and peaking at No. 3 on the ARIA Singles Chart on April 8, 2001. It spent nine weeks in the top 10, and came in at No. 35 on Australia's year-end chart for 2001. It earned a platinum certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association for shipping more than 70,000 units.

Taylor Swift live performance

American singer Taylor Swift included a live performance cover of "Bette Davis Eyes" on her 2011 Speak Now World Tour – Live album.

Ethel Cain homage

American singer Ethel Cain performed the song at a concert in Paris as a tribute to old Hollywood in June 2024. Cain released the single "Fuck Me Eyes," which has been interpreted as a spiritual "sequel" to the original, which she called one of her favorite songs ever.

JoJo Siwa cover

American reality star and singer JoJo Siwa released a version of the song on July 11, 2025. She debuted the song at a live performance the previous May, dedicated to her boyfriend, reality star Chris Hughes. Kim Carnes made a statement to TMZ criticizing the cover as "a bit too close" to her own version.

In popular media

Kim Carnes' version of the song has appeared in various films and TV series including 200 Cigarettes (1999), Cold Case S1E6 (2003), That's My Boy (2012) The Final Girls (2015), American Horror Story S5E5 (2015), Riverdale S2E18 (2018), The After Party (2018), Anaïs in Love (2021), The Tourist S1E1 (2022), Angelyne S1E3 (2022), MaXXXine (2024) and And Just Like That... S3 E7.

The song is a major plot element of the second season episode 9, "Invasion of the Potty Snatchers", of the show Bless the Harts, in which the character of Betty Hart reminisces about a high point of her high school time, in which she received public acclaim for singing the song; Maya Rudolph's rendition of the song in the episode has been called "a highlight of the season thus far".

The song was parodied in the October 10, 1981 episode of Saturday Night Live in the sketch "Buh-Weet Sings", when Buckwheat (Eddie Murphy) sings the song so incomprehensibly that the subtitles read "?????".

Note

References

References

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