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.