“Bette Davis Eyes” wouldn’t exist without its writers Jackie DeShannon and Donna Weiss. Written in honor of iconic actress Bette Davis, it is a quintessential ’80s pop-rock song defined by Kim Carnes’ raspy vocals that sent it soaring to the top of the charts. Get to know the writers behind this hit below.
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Born in Kentucky, DeShannon had quite a versatile career before “Bette Davis” came into the picture. As a teenager, she started her career in radio, hosting her own radio show at age 13 after her family moved to her mother’s native Illinois. She soon became a voice actress on TV and radio and then turned her attention toward music. Before being a songwriter, she started off as a recording artist. She signed to Liberty Records in 1960 before switching over to Imperial Records where she scored her first hit in 1965 with “What the World Needs Now is Love” which reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. She also served as a supporting act on the Beatles’ first U.S. tour in 1964, the same year she had a hit as a songwriter on Irma Thomas’ “Breakaway.” Her next solo hit followed in 1969 with “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” which peaked at No. 4 on the Hot 100 and was her highest charting single in the U.S.
Meanwhile, Weiss was born in New York. She was also an illustrious songwriter behind other hits including Reba McEntire and Vince Gill’s 1993 duet, “The Heart Won’t Lie” and “When the Money’s Gone,” which was originally recorded by Bruce Roberts and later became a chart-topping hit for Cher. She also worked as a background vocalist for many artists, ranging from Joe Cocker’s 1971 album, New York City (You’re a Woman), to Bob Dylan’s first soundtrack album Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid in 1973 to Rita Coolidge’s 1971 self-titled album and 1972 follow up, The Lady’s Not For Sale.
Weiss and DeShannon linked up in the 1970s and co-wrote “Bette Davis Eyes” in 1974. Though DeShannon recorded it that same year for her 1975 album, New Arrangement, it took another seven years for the song to become a massive hit when Carnes released it as a single in 1981. Her version spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the 1982 Grammy Awards, the latter award going to Weiss and DeShannon.
“We loved Bette Davis. We were always talking about what great movies and how we love her,” DeShannon explained of the song’s inspiration to Classic Bands, adding that they originally recorded the demo as a rock song. “Donna had this idea and she brought a lot of papers over one day. She said, ‘Do you think you can make anything out of this?’ So I kind of went through and looked at some lyrics and put some things together and we wrote this song.”
“Time went on and Donna was sending the song around to different people, the version that we had recorded on the demo,” she continued. “She was taking some other songs over to Kim Carnes because she was recording and she just happened to have that demo with her and she gave it to Kim and the rest is history.”
DeShannon was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010.
Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images
