Kim Carnes – Bette Davis Eyes

This isn't a Canadian pressing at all. It looks like USA to me.

Is this also the 3:47 single/album version on this release?

When I heard this song for the first time on the radio, I got so hooked on it. I couldn't get this song out of my head. Who was this singer with the raspy voice? Back then, we knew nothing about the artists. Sometimes, only years later we would find out who they really looked like. Intrigued by the song, I really really begged my mother to buy me this single, and so this way I found out that it was a blonde girl named Kim Carnes that sang this song.

Only years later I found out that this song was a cover. It was a huge hit all over the world. In the US it stayed number 1 on the top charts for nine weeks. Only "Physical" by Olivia Newton-John stayed for ten weeks. 🎵💯❤️

Kim Carnes had several other hits before and after this, but none even close to this big.

The song is about Bette Davis. She was an actress known for playing strong, independent women. Her movies include What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? and All About Eve. She was famous for her New England accent and her eyes. So, the name "Bette Davis Eyes". After this song became a hit single,

Bette Davis wrote letters to Kim Carnes and the songwriters to say she was a fan of the song and thank them for making her "a part of modern history."

taken from a youtube comment

As with most big hits, the Carnes version was the combination of the right recording of the right song by the right artist at the right time. Many songs I've followed took years before that combination came to (Broken Roads by Rascal Flatts comes to mind but there are many many others). From a Composers perspective, the IV-VI-V chord progression of the Carnes version (Key of F: Bb-dm-C) was what made it a hit. This original 'version' lacks that, but instead, goes to the typical, routine, standard country chord progression IV-V-I with the V7/V in there (i.e. in the key of D: G-A-D w/E7). Whoever put the Carnes IV-VI-V progression into her arrangement (in F major: Bb-dm-C), is the one responsible for the song really, becoming almost an entirely different and distinct 'new' song. That chord progression changed everything. The Carnes version opens with that progression. (Bb-dm-C) and constantly returns to it. It's the hook of the whole song. Then, with the other ingredients listed above of the right recording, right artist, and right timing, you have a monster hit.
Daniel Léo Simpson
Composer
San Francisco

Side B is a super track as well, in my mind this was a double A side and Kim wrote this 'B' side herself showing she could write a good tune, i wonder if tracks sentiments were from Kim's real life experience ? either way the story in this bit of pop is easily identifyible by many people.

So all in all this is a terrific 45 to own with both sides worthy of the vinyl

Such a sexy husky voice Kim used on this superb track from '81, theres also a great drum and bass beat going on to drive the song forward