The subject for Day 7 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A song to drive to in the morning“. I think it’s a rather odd subject, but my interpretation is that it’s a song that gets you going in the morning, and the one that immediately comes to my mind is “Born to Be Wild” by Steppenwolf. If that adrenaline-inducing rocker – perfectly described by Hal Horowitz of AllMusic as “a roaring anthem of turbo-charged riff rock” – doesn’t charge your engines first thing in the morning, then nothing will!
“Born to Be Wild” was originally written as a ballad by Canadian rock musician Mars Bonfire (aka Dennis Edmonton), who was previously a member of the Sparrows, the predecessor band to Steppenwolf, and whose brother Jerry became Steppenwolf’s drummer. The other founding members of Steppenwolf included John Kay (born Joachim Fritz Krauledat in Germany) on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Michael Monarch on lead guitar, Rushton Moreve on bass, and Goldy McJohn on keyboards. Bonfire initially offered the song to a few other bands, but “Born to Be Wild” was eventually recorded by Steppenwolf in a sped-up and rearranged version that came to define their signature hard rock sound. Those raging riffs of shredded guitars, chugging rhythms and thunderous percussion, accompanied by fantastic psychedelic keyboards and Kay’s powerful gritty vocals, made the song a classic that beautifully captured the rebelliousness of the late 60s.
The song is often invoked in both popular and counter culture to symbolize a biker appearance or attitude, partly due to being featured in the 1969 film Easy Rider. It’s also been described by many as the first heavy metal song, and the second verse lyric “heavy metal thunder” was the first use of this term in rock music. According to Robert Walser in his 1993 book Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, andMadness in Heavy Metal Music, the words “heavy metal thunder” describe a motorcycle, not a musical style.
“Born to Be Wild” became Steppenwolf’s most successful single, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts. (It was kept from the #1 spot by the Rascals’ “People Got to Be Free”.) RollingStone ranked “Born to Be Wild” at #129 on their 2004 list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and in the same year, the song was ranked #29 on AFI‘s 100 Years…100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. VH1 ranked it #40 in their list of the 100 Greatest Songs of Rock and Roll in 2000, and the 53rd best hard rock song of all time in 2009. In 2018, the song was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a new category for singles. (Wikipedia)
Here’s the iconic scene from Easy Rider in which “Born to Be Wild” is featured
The subject for Day 6 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A song that makes you want to dance.” This was a tough one for me, as there are literally hundreds upon hundreds of songs that make me want to dance. I considered some great dance songs by the likes of Donna Summer, Madonna, Janet Jackson and Dua Lipa, among others, but when I walked into my local Trader Joe’s last evening and heard the CeCe Peniston classic “Finally” playing on their sound system, I immediately had my song pick for Day 6. I’ve always loved the song, with its infectious throbbing bass drum-driven dance groove and her euphoric soulful and sexy vocals.
First, a bit of background on CeCe: Born Cecilia Veronica “CeCe” Peniston in Dayton, Ohio in 1969, she moved with her family to Phoenix at the age of nine. She attended high school there, and sang at church and performed in plays and musicals in middle and high school, as well as local theater groups. After graduating from high school, she studied liberal arts at Phoenix College, where she got involved in athletics, and entered beauty pageants. She was crowned Miss Black Arizona in 1989.
Her music career began in January 1991, when Felipe “DJ Wax Dawg” Delgado, a record producer and friend also based in Phoenix, asked Peniston to record back-up vocals for Tonya Davis, a rapper known as Overweight Pooch. Though Overweight Pooch’s album was a commercial flop, another DJ and producer Manny Lehman had taken notice of Peniston’s powerful backing vocals. He offered Delgado a chance to produce a track for Peniston to cultivate her potential as a solo artist. Delgado called hometown friend and music producer, Rodney K. Jackson, to help co-produce Peniston’s first single, which would become “Finally”.
Peniston began writing pop songs while in school, and initially wrote the words to “Finally” as a poem during a chemistry class, while thinking about dating and how she hadn’t yet found her Mr. Right. She was 21 years old when “Finally” was released in September 1991, and it became an instant dance hit, reaching #1 only a month later on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The song went on to peak at #5 on the Hot 100 in January 1992, and #2 in the UK that March.
It’s major impact on the dance music genre has been recognized by numerous publications. VH1 ranked “Finally” at #29 in their list of the “100 Greatest Dance Songs” in 2000. MTV Dance ranked it #28 in their list of “The 100 Biggest ’90s Dance Anthems of All Time” in 2011. Heart TV ranked it #3 in their list of “55 Biggest ’90s Club Classics” in March 2017. Also in 2017, BuzzFeed placed it at #1 in their list of “The 101 Greatest Dance Songs of the ’90s”, noting “When it comes to ‘90s dance songs, you’d be hard-pressed to find another song that so perfectly incorporates other music genres that made the decade so great — i.e., R&B, house, and pop — which is what makes “Finally” the quintessential ‘90s dance song.” And last, but not least, Slant Magazine ranked it #37 in their list of “The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time” in 2020. (Wikipedia)
“Finally” was featured in the 1994 Australian film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of theDesert, a hilarious road comedy written and directed by Stephan Elliott. The film portrays the misadventures of two drag queens, played by Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce, and a transgender woman, brilliantly played by Terence Stamp, as they journey across the Australian Outback from Sydney to Alice Springs in a tour bus that they’ve named “Priscilla”, encountering various groups and colorful individuals along the way. Here’s a clip of the trio’s over the top drag performance to the song:
The subject for Day 5 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A song that makes you want to travel“. There are some great songs about traveling, such as Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again”, Ricky Nelson’s “Travelin’ Man”, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Travelin’ Band”, and John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads”. But my pick is the marvelous Ray Charles song “Hit the Road Jack“. While not necessarily about travel, the song’s bouncy R&B groove really gets the toes tapping, compelling you to move! It’s barely two minutes long, but packs quite a punch.
The song was written by R&B singer Percy Mayfield, who first recorded it in 1960 as an a cappella demo that he sent to music executive Art Rupe. “Hit the Road Jack” was later recorded by Ray Charles in June 1961, with delicious call and response vocals by Margie Hendrix, who was the lead singer of The Raelettes, a girl group originally formed to sing backup on many of Ray Charles songs. She admonishes Charles in the song, informing him in no uncertain terms that she thinks he’s a bum “you ain’t got no money, you just ain’t no good“, while his pleas for her forgiveness “Now baby, listen baby, don’t ya treat me this way, ’cause I’ll be back on my feet some day“, fall on deaf ears.
The song became a huge hit, reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the fall of 1961, as well as in Sweden and New Zealand. It also won a Grammy award for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording, and became one of Charles’ signature songs.
The subject for Day 4 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A song that reminds you of Spring“, and for my pick I’m going way back to 1968 with “A Beautiful Morning” by The Rascals. It’s not a song about Spring per se, but for me, its positive title and exuberant sunny vibe evoke images of a lovely Spring-like day, where it just feels good to be alive.
Co-written in Honolulu by band members Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati while the band was performing in Hawaii, “A Beautiful Morning” continued with the theme of carefree optimism expressed on their massive hit song “Groovin'”. The song was appropriately released at the beginning of Spring on March 22, 1968, and was the band’s first single released as the ‘The Rascals’, rather than their previous moniker ‘the Young Rascals’. The single was also one of the earliest to be released in stereo, as 7-inch 45 singles had generally been recorded in mono. Together with the Doors “Hello, I Love You” it’s credited with changing the industry standard of singles. (Wikipedia) “A Beautiful Morning” also became a big hit, reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The topic for Day 3 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A song with a location in the title”, and my pick is the mesmerizing “Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea” by MISSIO. The bottom of the sea is admittedly a somewhat unorthodox location, but a location it is!
Based in Austin, Texas and comprised of singer-songwriter/producer Matthew Brue and songwriter/producer and instrumentalist David Butler, MISSIO burst onto the music scene in early 2017 with their single “Middle Fingers”. I loved the trippy song and quickly became a fan of their edgy, thoroughly original and eclectic sound that’s a glorious mash-up of gritty alternative electronic rock, hip hop and dreamy emo vibes. Then there’s Matthew’s uniquely stunning vocals that register in the higher octaves just below a falsetto, giving them a distinctive sound unlike any other singer, and making their music instantly identifiable as only MISSIO’s.
They followed “Middle Fingers” with “Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea”, which spent many weeks at #1 on SiriusXM’s Alt Nation Top 18 Chart in the summer of 2017. Both songs were included on their outstanding debut album Loner, which also featured “Twisted” and “Everybody Gets High”, which was recently awarded a gold record certification by RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).
Like many of the songs on Loner, (as well as their second album The Darker the Weather // The Better the Man), “Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea” was inspired by Matthew’s struggles to attain sobriety as he reflected back on his teen years as an alcoholic and addict. As noted on the website GENIUS, “he uses the feeling of being pulled down to the bottom of the sea as a metaphor for the failure to overcome addiction (or anxiety or depression).” In a 2017 interview with the Pop Break, Matthew explained that the song “is a conversation between the victim of temptation and the tempter, represented by the chorus. The way that I always describe addiction is that it’s very sexual in a way. You have this beautiful thing that’s staring at you and it’s constantly telling you to dive in. Then you actually decide to give in to whatever your struggle is, and it just pulls you down. It does a 180 and literally controls your life. Whether it be addiction, anxiety or depression—the feeling is that you’re trying to swim up from the depths and it’s just pulling you to the bottom of the sea.”
[Verse 1]
The blood surrounding my body crushing every bit of bone
The salt, it seeps into the pores of my open skin
I wait on you inside the bottom of the deep blue sea
I wait on you inside the bottom of the deep blue
[Chorus]
Welcome to my cage, little lover
Attempt to rearrange with ya, baby
Still don’t know your name, Miss Honey
Let’s go up in flames, pretty lady
[Verse 2]
The sweet surrender of silence forces me to live alone
Locked and loaded, where the hell is peace of mind?
I wait on you inside the bottom of the deep blue sea
I wait on you inside the bottom of the deep blue
[Chorus]
Welcome to my cage, little lover
Attempt to rearrange with you, baby
Still don’t know your name, Miss Honey
Let’s go up in flames, pretty lady
Musically, the song is both haunting and captivating, with an utterly brilliant arrangement. The song opens with somber piano chords accompanied by tapping percussive synths, then Matthew’s fragile-sounding vocals enter the proceedings as layers of magical and eerie synths, pulsating reverb and heavier percussion are added, creating a mysterious ethereal soundscape that evokes the dark and dangerous beauty of a deep blue sea. For me, the biggest highlights of the song are the gorgeous hypnotic piano riff during the interludes between the verses and choruses, and Matthew’s enchanting, highly emotive layered vocals. I can listen to “Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea” on endless repeat.
My 2019 review of The Darker the Weather // The Better the Man has garnered more than 2,800 views, making it my highest-viewed album review ever.
Two Feet holds at #1 for a second week with his fiercely erotic “Tell Me The Truth”, while Sam Fender‘s glorious “Seventeen Going Under” jumps four spots to #2. Despite the fact it’s been around a while, my love for the beautiful and emotionally powerful song just keeps growing stronger. And speaking of staying power, Harry Styles‘ “As It Was” and the Black Keys‘ “Wild Child” are now in their 12th week in the top 10. “As It Was” has actually spent 11 weeks in the top 5, two of them at #1, while “Wild Child” spent 10 weeks in the top 4, two of them also at #1. Entering the top 10 this week is “2am” by Foals, from their marvelous new album Life Is Yours. Leaping 11 spots to #11 is the uplifting and poignant “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)” by Arcade Fire, while “The Funeral” by YUNGBLUD climbs five spots to #23.
The one debut track this week is the hauntingly beautiful and cinematic “Broken Record” by British artist NAVE, the solo music project of singer-songwriter, composer and producer Nathan Evans. The prolific and hyper-talented musician, who possesses a gorgeous singing voice, is also front man for alternative rock band Native Tongue. Nathan states “‘Broken Record’ focuses on the like, follow and share society we have transitioned into over the past decade. Likes release dopamine like a drug and we become addicted to the validation, attention and acknowledgment of our successes or happiness. We hide behind filters and fake smiles to show an inaccurate reality we wish was real.” I can attest to the fact that I’m frightfully addicted to the need for validation, attention and acknowledgment of not only my blog, but also my tweets, Instagram and Facebook posts, all of which causes me frequent disappointment and unhappiness.
TELL ME THE TRUTH – Two Feet (1)
SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER – Sam Fender (6)
CHASING TRAINS – HULLAH (2)
MY LOVE – Florence + the Machine (3)
AS IT WAS – Harry Styles (5)
BELIEVE – Caamp (7)
ABOUT DAMN TIME – Lizzo (8)
A LITTLE BIT OF LOVE – Weezer (9)
WILD CHILD – The Black Keys (4)
2am – Foals (12)
UNCONDITIONAL I (LOOKOUT KID) – Arcade Fire (22)
BLOODRUSH – The Amazons (10)
SYNCHRONIZE – Milky Chance (14)
THAT’S WHERE I AM – Maggie Rogers (15)
THE FOUNDATIONS OF DECAY – My Chemical Romance (16)
CLOSER – The Frontier (17)
LONELY – Sea Girls (18)
LOVE BRAND NEW – Bob Moses (13)
BEDS ARE BURNING – AWOLNATION feat. Tim McIlrath (19)
IN THE MIRROR – The Interrupters (21)
WILD – Spoon (11)
WARNING SIGNS – Band of Horses (23)
THE FUNERAL – YUNGBLUD (28)
DESPERATELY WANTING – Brian Lambert & Marc Schuster (26)
LIN MANUEL – Onism E (27)
MISTAKES – Sharon Van Etten (29)
FAILURE TO COMPLY – MISSIO (30)
SLEEP – Gooseberry (20)
VIRGINIA (WIND IN THE NIGHT) – The Head and the Heart (25)
The topic for Day 2 of my 30 Day Song Challenge is “A song with a number in the title”. There are so many great songs with numbers in their title, such as “One” by U2, “Two Hearts” by Phil Collins, “Eight Days a Week” by the Beatles and “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” by Paul Simon, to name a few that quickly come to mind. But I’ve chosen a song with a title made up almost entirely of numbers, the great power pop classic “867-5309/Jenny” by California pop-rock band Tommy Tutone. Released in November 1981, the song was a huge hit, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the Spring of 1982. The song’s incredibly catchy, with an infectious hard-driving groove overlain with fantastic jangly guitar riffs and terrific vocals backed by equally great harmonies.
Tommy Tutone was originally formed in 1978 as Tommy and the Twin Tones in Northern California by Tommy Heath and Jim Keller, along with Terry Nails, with Heath as lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist, Keller on lead guitar and backing vocals, and Nails on bass and backing vocals. Like many bands, they underwent numerous personnel changes, and it was Jon Lyons who actually played bass on “867-5309”. (Lyons was soon replaced by Greg Sutton, later Pete Costello, and more recently Jimmy James.)
The song was co-written by Keller and Alex Call, who’d been a member of the San Francisco Bay Area country rock band Clover, which was active from 1967 to 1978 and best known for its member Huey Lewis and for backing Elvis Costello on his debut album My Aim is True. There have been numerous stories and myths over the years about the song, particularly the phone number and the identity of “Jenny”, some of which were created by Keller and Heath to seemingly add to the song’s lore. But in a 2004 interview with Songfacts, Call explained his version of the song’s real origins:
“Despite all the mythology to the contrary, I actually came up with ‘Jenny,’ and the telephone number and the music and all that just sitting in my backyard. There was no Jenny. I don’t know where the number came from, I was just trying to write a 4-chord rock song and it just kind of came out. I had the guitar lick, I had the name and number, but I didn’t know what the song was about. My buddy Jim Keller, who’s the co-writer and lead guitar player in Tommy Tutone, stopped by that afternoon and he said, ‘Al, it’s a girl’s number on a bathroom wall,’ and we had a good laugh. I said, ‘That’s exactly right, that’s exactly what it is.’
Tommy Tutone’s been using the story for years that there was a Jenny and she ran a recording studio and so forth. It makes a better story but it’s not true. That sounds a lot better than I made it up under a plum tree in my backyard. When Jim showed up, we wrote the verses in 15 or 20 minutes, they were just obvious. It was just a fun thing, we never thought it would get cut. In fact, even after Tommy Tutone made the record and ‘867-5309’ got on the air, it really didn’t have a lot of promotion to begin with, but it was one of those songs that got a lot of requests and stayed on the charts. It was on the charts for 40 weeks.
A lot of women have told me they use the name and number as a brush off, which I think is really great. A guy wakes up with a hangover, he’s been obnoxious to some girl in a bar last night, he opens up a folded piece of paper and it’s ‘Jenny – 867-5309’. I’ve also met a few Jennys who’ve said, ‘Oh, you’re the guy who ruined my high school years’. But for the most part, Jennys are happy to have the song. A guy came up to me at one of my gigs – his family is from Florida and they had the number. They loved it, and as they’ve all grown up, everyone in the extended family has the number 5309 on their cell phones, no matter what the prefix is, so all you need to know is what cousin Bob’s prefix is. There’s a number here in town, it’s a used car lot – he’s got a big sign. It’s funny that that song has such legs and keeps going. But a lot of people who had it were really pissed off about it.”
Numerous homes around the country with the number 867-5309 were besieged with prank phone calls or come-ons from horny men looking for a ‘Jenny’. In 1982, Brewton, Alabama resident Lorene Burns told the press “When we’d first get calls at 2 or 3 in the morning, my husband would answer the phone. He can’t hear too well. They’d ask for Jenny, and he’d say ‘Jimmy doesn’t live here anymore.’ Tommy Tutone was the one who had the record. I’d like to get a hold of his neck and choke him.”
Since deciding a month ago to take a break from writing reviews, the number of posts I’ve written has dropped dramatically, with only six published in June, the fewest for any month in the nearly seven years I’ve been blogging. Though my overall dislike for writing hasn’t changed, the break has helped me get over some of my burnout. With that in mind, I’ve decided to embark on a 30-day song challenge for the month of July. I found a lot of 30-day song challenges in my search, but many had one or more topics that I thought were silly or that I didn’t want to write about. I finally managed to land upon one that seemed reasonably intelligent, which is the one shown above, so here goes.
The Day 1 topic is “a song with a color in the title”, and my pick is “Orange Blood” by alternative/indie folk rock band Mt. Joy. With roots in Philadelphia and now based in Los Angeles, Mt. Joy is a five-piece consisting of Matt Quinn (vocals, guitar), Sam Cooper (guitar), Michael Byrnes (bass), Jackie Miclau (keyboards), and Sotiris Eliopoulos (drums). The band is named after Mount Joy, which is located in Valley Forge National Historic Park, Pennsylvania, not far from where Quinn and Cooper grew up.
They released their debut single “Astrovan” in 2016, then followed in 2017 with three more singles “Sheep”, “Cardinal”, and “Silver Lining”, with “Silver Lining” eventually going all the way to #1 on the Billboard Triple A (Adult Alternative Airplay) chart. That song was my introduction to the band, and I’ve been a fan ever since. All those singles were included on their debut eponymous album Mt. Joy, released in March 2018. Over the next two years, they toured in support of the album, and after their 2020 tour with The Lumineers was cut short due to Covid, Mt. Joy followed with their second studio album Rearrange Us in June 2020. That album featured their wonderful single “Strangers”, which peaked at #5 on the Triple A chart.
In March of this year, they released “Lemon Tree”, the first single from their third album OrangeBlood, which dropped two weeks ago on June 17th. That brilliant song features a slightly more experimental sound for Mt. Joy, with interesting time and signature changes and a fantastic blend of swirling and psychedelic guitars. They followed in April with the title track “Orange Blood”, a gorgeous song with a mellower vibe, but still featuring their signature captivating melodies and beautiful guitar work. The track starts off gently, with strummed acoustic guitar and delicate synths accompanying Quinn’s lovely vocals oozing with vulnerability. The music gradually builds with the addition of shimmery and twangy guitars, exuberant percussion, dreamy keyboards and a fine bass groove, accompanied by soaring vocal harmonies that bring goosebumps. I think this just might be my new favorite song by Mt. Joy.
About “Orange Blood”, Quinn stated that it’s “about a trip in the desert with my girlfriend. Everyone at some point should at least once find a way to tap into your subconscious and just sit still on this beautiful planet and be present.” The brilliantly-colored video, produced and directed by Hannah Edelman, is every bit as marvelous as the song. I love the trippy psychedelic imagery and warm-hued animation, interspersed with digitally-enhanced scenes of the band performing the song.
Brooklyn, New York-based Two Feet (the music moniker of singer-songwriter and guitarist extraordinaire Bill Dess) has been my favorite music artist for the past four years or so. I’ve written about him numerous times on this blog, and have seen three of his live shows. His latest single “Tell Me The Truth” assumes the #1 spot on this week’s Top 30, his tenth song to top my weekly chart. Many of his songs are sultry and sensual, but “Tell Me The Truth”, taken from his fourth album Shape & Form, is one of his darkest and sexiest yet. The lyrics are sung from the perspective of a man who’s tried everything to win the love of a woman he desires, to no avail. “For too long, I dream of you, All that you do. I watch you float on, float on. For too long, I contemplate, I try to be all that you need. So tell me the truth, my baby, baby. Is it me, is it you?“
It’s a powerful and gorgeous song, and I love how it transitions from haunting interludes of restrained instrumentals and vocals in the verses, to an explosive, cinematic crescendo in the choruses, in which Two Feet’s vocals are more impassioned and raw than we’ve ever heard before. It’s also longer than most of his previous songs, and his scorching guitar solo in the final chorus is well worth the wait. He’s commented that it’s his favorite of all the songs he’s written and recorded, and I have to say that it’s certainly one of mine. The steamy video, directed by Brian Lipko and starring a finely chiseled Two Feet and sexy LA-based model and restauranteur Tina Louise, shows them experiencing the throes of unrequited sexual desire and angst, both together and alone.
Entering the top 10 this week are “About Damn Time” by Lizzo and “A Little Bit of Love” by Weezer, who I’m happy are still making music after nearly 30 years together. Making a strong upward movement are My Chemical Romance‘s “The Foundations of Decay” and Arcade Fire‘s “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)”, both of which climb seven spots to #16 and #22, respectively. Three new songs make their debut: “The Funeral” by British artist YUNGBLUD (which I realized I really like after reading this post by fellow blogger The Alternative Mixtapes), “Mistakes” by the always wonderful Sharon Van Etten, and the haunting “Failure to Comply” by MISSIO, another one of my favorite artists, who I’ll finally be seeing perform live in LA on July 30.
TELL ME THE TRUTH – Two Feet (3)
CHASING TRAINS – HULLAH (1)
MY LOVE – Florence + the Machine (2)
WILD CHILD – The Black Keys (4)
AS IT WAS – Harry Styles (5)
SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER – Sam Fender (7)
BELIEVE – Caamp (9)
ABOUT DAMN TIME – Lizzo (12)
A LITTLE BIT OF LOVE – Weezer (11)
BLOODRUSH – The Amazons (8)
WILD – Spoon (6)
2am – Foals (13)
LOVE BRAND NEW – Bob Moses (10)
SYNCHRONIZE – Milky Chance (15)
THAT’S WHERE I AM – Maggie Rogers (16)
THE FOUNDATIONS OF DECAY – My Chemical Romance (23)
CLOSER – The Frontier (20)
LONELY – Sea Girls (21)
BEDS ARE BURNING – AWOLNATION feat. Tim McIlrath (22)
SLEEP – Gooseberry (14)
IN THE MIRROR – The Interrupters (25)
UNCONDITIONAL I (LOOKOUT KID) – Arcade Fire (29)
WARNING SIGNS – Band of Horses(26)
LA CIENEGA – Chief Springs (17)
VIRGINIA (WIND IN THE NIGHT) – The Head and the Heart (18)
DESPERATELY WANTING – Brian Lambert & Marc Schuster (28)
The other night I watched the wonderful classic 1942 film Now, Voyager, starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains on Turner Classic Movies. Seeing Davis in scenes on the cruise ship, her famous eyes luminescent beneath the wide-brimmed white hat, made me think of the 1981 Kim Carnes hit song “Bette Davis Eyes”. It’s my favorite song of 1981, and ranks among my favorite songs of all time.
“Bette Davis Eyes” was written in 1974 by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon, who’d had prior success with her hits “What the World Needs Now is Love” and “Put a Little Love in Your Heart”. With lyrics about a strong-willed, alluring and precocious woman with “Greta Garbo standoff sighs and Bette Davis eyes“, the song was originally recorded in 1974 by DeShannon for inclusion on her album New Arrangement. Her original recording has more of a country vibe, with twangy guitars and honky tonk piano, but it was Kim Carnes’ more synth-heavy 1981 version that made “Bette Davis Eyes” a massive worldwide hit. It spent nine weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and reached #1 in many countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Spain, Germany, Norway, Switzerland and South Africa. It was ranked the #1 song of 1981 on the Hot 100, and also won Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Record of the Year.
Though she’d been writing and recording music for well over a decade, it wasn’t until 1980 that the raspy-voiced Carnes broke through with two top 10 hits – her duet with Kenny Rogers “Don’t Fall in Love With a Dreamer”, which she co-wrote with her husband Dave Ellingson, and a terrific cover of the Smokey Robinson song “More Love”. But it was her cover of “Bette Davis Eyes” that shot her to international fame and acclaim.
The song fell into her lap almost by accident during the search for material for her album Mistaken Identity, which she was recording with music producer/engineer Val Garay (who’d previously produced “More Love”). Garay later recalled that songwriter Donna Weiss had contacted him about a song she’d just written with Bruce Roberts that she wanted to play for him and Carnes. “So she came over and played us the song, and Kim and I kind of looked at each other and we thought, ‘Yeah, not bad.’ But it wasn’t what we were looking for. So she said, ‘Well, you know, I have this other song I gave to George Tobin and nothing ever came of it.’ And that was ‘Bette Davis Eyes.’ Kim had actually heard it before, and liked it. So she played the demo for me, and it was totally different than the record. It sounds like a Leon Russell track, with this beer-barrel polka piano part. But I loved the melody and I loved the lyrics.”
Garay had keyboardist Bill Cuomo come up with the signature synth riff, using a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synthesizer, which became a defining element of Carnes’ more sensual and rather mysterious version. The song was recorded in the studio on the first take. (Wikipedia, MIX webzine)
Bette Davis was 73 years old when Carnes’ version of “Bette Davis Eyes” became a hit, and was thrilled to have a song named after her and inspired by her legacy. She wrote letters to Carnes, Weiss, and DeShannon, telling them she loved the song and thanking them for making her “a part of modern times“, also adding that her grandson now looked up to her and told her she had “finally made it”. After their Grammy wins, Davis sent all three of them roses as well. In her 1987 memoir This ‘N’ That, Davis wrote “It was a thrill to become a part of the rock generation” as a result of the song. Carnes and Davis also struck up a special friendship, with Carnes visiting Davis at her home several times before her death in 1989.
Her hair is Harlow gold
Her lips a sweet surprise
Her hands are never cold
She's got Bette Davis eyes
She'll turn her music on you
You won't have to think twice
She's pure as New York snow
She got Bette Davis eyes
And she'll tease you, she'll unease you
All the better just to please you
She's precocious, and she knows just what it
Takes to make a pro blush
She got Greta Garbo's standoff sighs, she's got Bette Davis eyes
She'll let you take her home
It whets her appetite
She'll lay you on a throne
She got Bette Davis eyes
She'll take a tumble on you
Roll you like you were dice
Until you come out blue
She's got Bette Davis eyes
She'll expose you, when she snows you
Off your feet with the crumbs, she throws you
She's ferocious and she knows just what it
Takes to make a pro blush
All the boys think she's a spy, she's got Bette Davis eyes
She'll tease you, she'll unease you
All the better just to please you
She's precocious, and she knows just what it
Takes to make a pro blush
All the boys think she's a spy, she's got Bette Davis eyes
She'll tease you
She'll unease you
Just to please you
She's got Bette Davis eyes
She'll expose you
When she snows you
'Cause she knows you, she's got Bette Davis Eyes
She'll tease you
The song’s official video, which shows Kim Carnes singing in front of her support band before an audience of oddly-costumed people doing bizarre dance moves and symbolically slapping one another in sync with the percussive synths, is deeply unsatisfying to me. I think it would have been far more effective to have Carnes sing the song against a visual backdrop of scenes of Bette Davis from some of her most iconic film roles, but my guess is that it would have been prohibitively expensive or a lengthy legal process, or both, to obtain the rights to be able to include such scenes.
Here’s a simple audio of the song, which has much better sound quality:
ECLECTIC MUSIC LOVER 