Popular music tends toward periods of rapid change, followed by stasis and composting. The explosion of rock and roll in the mid-Fifties was followed by a period of stasis. Then the Beatles and two waves of the British Invasion returned rock to its roots and kicked off a period of revolutionary change. That was followed by a long period of stasis and composting.
After the Beatles, everyone was looking for an act that would propel music into another period of renewal. Alice Cooper? Elton John? The Bay City Rollers? The Knack? Michael Jackson? In the end, it would not be an act, but a medium, that would revolutionize music once again.
In 1981, MTV went on the air. That cable channel had a voracious appetite for video material, and acts that would have never gotten past a radio station’s music director suddenly got air play due to the fact that the act had recorded a video. It opened up whole new areas of music and provided a school for future directors of TV commercials and movies.
Punk had been waiting in the wings in the Seventies as Disco rose and fell, and a New Wave sound was waiting for exposure. So was a new area of electronic music.
This tune had been penned by Jackie deShannon in 1974 as a ragtime tune. Kim Carnes’ producer gave it an techno sound whose foundation line was hypnotic. I didn’t think much of the tune until I heard it under the influence of weed. Then it sounded beautiful, and it still sounds that way.
Bette Davis liked it so much that she sent Kim and Jackie letters thanking them for the song, and when it won a Grammy she sent them flowers. “Now my grandson thinks I’m famous,” Bette wrote.
Just watched the video from your link. I'd probably half-seen it a hundred times over the years but I just now noticed how all the dancers in the audience were slapping each other in the face - over and over again. That just seems a little bit odd!
LOL...my sister said just TODAY that my beautiful Penny-The-Prancing-Pitbull has “Bette Davis Eyes”
I looked at penny and said...”Yeah...you’re RIGHT!”