"Bette Davis Eyes" is a song written and composed by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon in 1974. It was recorded by DeShannon that year but made popular by Kim Carnes in 1981 when it spent nine non-consecutive weeks at the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. It won the 1982 Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The music video was directed by Australian film director Russell Mulcahy.
On the Billboard Hot 100, the song was No. 1 for five weeks, interrupted for just one week by "Stars on 45" before it returned to the top spot for another four weeks, becoming Billboards biggest hit of the year. It reached No. 2 in Canada for twelve consecutive weeks, and was 1981's No. 2 hit in that country, after "Stars on 45". 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, However, it was not until March 1981, Carnes initially rejected the song based on the demo's arrangement, until keyboardist Bill Cuomo, using the 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!'" 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.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Critics' rankings of "Bette Davis Eyes"
!Publication
!List
!Rank
!Ref.
|-
|Billboard
|The 500 Best Pop Songs
|
|
|-
|Rolling Stone
|The 200 Best Songs of the 1980s
|
|
|}
Track listing and formats
- 7-inch single
- "Bette Davis Eyes" – 3:45
- "Miss You Tonite" – 5:11
- US 12-inch maxi-single
- "Bette Davis Eyes" – 3:45
- "Miss You Tonite" – 5:11
Charts
Weekly charts
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Year
!Chart
!Peak<br />position
|-
|rowspan="29"|1981
|Australia (Kent Music Report)
|align="center"|1
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|Denmark (IFPI)
|align="center"|4
|-
|Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)
|align="center"|1
|-
|France (IFOP)
|align="center"|1
|-
|-
|Italy (Musica e Dischi)
|align="center"|1
|-
|Luxembourg (Radio Luxembourg)
|align="center"|1
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|Quebec (ADISQ)
|align="center"| 1
|-
|South Africa (Springbok Radio)
|align="center"|1
|-
|Spain (AFE)
|align="center"|1
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|US Cash Box Top 100
|align="center"|1
|-
|US Dance Club Songs (Billboard)
|align="center"|1
|-
|-
|Zimbabwe (ZIMA)
|align="center"|1
|-
|1997
|-
|2002
|-
|2007
|-
|2013
|scope="row"|Slovenia (SloTop50)
|align="center"|45
|}
Year-end charts
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Chart (1981)
!Rank
|-
|Australia (Kent Music Report)
|align="center"|6
|-
|Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)
|align="center"|16
|-
|Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)
|align="center"|37
|-
|Canada Top Singles (RPM)
|align="center"|2
|-
|France (IFOP)
|align="center"|4
|-
|New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)
|align="center"|6
|-
|South Africa (Springbok Radio)
|align="center"|2
|-
|Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)
|align="center"|2
|-
|US Billboard Hot 100
|align="center"|1
|-
|US Cash Box
|align="center"|2
|-
|West Germany (Official German Charts)
|align="center"|10
|}
All-time charts
{|class="wikitable"
!Chart
!Rank
|-
|US Billboard Hot 100
|align="center"|17
|}
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,
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.
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.
See also
- List of number-one singles in Australia during the 1980s
- List of Top 25 singles for 1981 in Australia
- List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1981
- Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1981
- List of Cash Box Top 100 number-one singles of 1981
- List of number-one singles of 1981 (France)
- List of number-one hits of 1981 (Germany)
- List of number-one hits (Italy)
- List of number-one songs in Norway
- List of number-one singles of 1981 (Spain)
- List of number-one singles of the 1980s (Switzerland)