Monday, December 21, 2009
Bette Davis Eyes
Woke from a nap yesterday afternoon with this song in my head. Napping is very unusual for me, so this song came through in a very drowsy, disoriented state.
I have a vivid memory of being nine years old, watching the Solid Gold countdown for 1981 and my visceral disappointment that "Bette Davis Eyes" beat Olivia Newton-John's Physical for the number one song of the year. In retrospect, and with my adult mind, it's clear that "Bette Davis Eyes" is a way better song, but I remember thinking at the time something like, That Kim Carnes is just standing up there behind the mike stand, boring, and Olivia is rocking out all over the stage. This is so unfair!
The other association I have with this song is that it appeared on the cover album Chipmunk Rock that I owned and played obsessively at this time in my life. I'm blogging out of order here, but another song featured on Chipmunk Rock popped into my head a few days ago, and it will hit the blog soon as well. In the case of "Bette Davis Eyes," it was the original, not the Chipmunks' version, that entered my nap-addled brain.
Artist: Kim Carnes
Year: 1981
Rating: Warm
Note: For a song so obviously about sex, "Physical" is so euphemistic "Let's get animal?" that while I knew it was about, you know, doing it, the song really eluded my scandal radar when I was nine. "Bette Davis Eyes" is lyrically all the more sophisticated, and it's a wonder Alvin pulled off singing a line like, She'll take a tumble on you/Roll you like you were dice/Until you come up blue/She's got Bette Davis Eyes.
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I remember watching that same Solid Gold... and obviously, being a huge ONJ fan, I was similarly disappointed.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I must respectfully disagree with your retrospective assessment of "Physical"; it is still an amazingly perfect pop song. :)
I knew you'd be the first to post a comment! And I had a hunch you knew exactly the popculture moment I was talking about (maybe we've shared the shared memory over the years?) You're right, "Physical" is perfect pop, and the songs are sort of apples and oranges for comparison. I stand by "Bette Davis Eyes" as the better overall song - the lyrics are far more poetic. But I'm still crushed that Olivia's performance lost to Kim Carnes's all those years ago.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, I'm taking the tag "singer-songwriters" off this entry. I thought Kim Carnes had penned "Bette Davis Eyes" but in fact, she did not. And Olivia didn't write "Physical," but we knew that already.