Despite not having any formal musical training, Kim Carnes, who was born in Los Angeles on July 20, 1945, has always been passionate about singing and composing.
At first, her parents didn’t understand or support her career objectives. She attended San Marino High School until 1963 and was raised in Pasadena, California. At the young age of three, Carnes had a distinct sense of her calling and knew she wanted to pursue a career in music.
In 1994, Carnes made the permanent decision to relocate from Los Angeles to Nashville, where she continued to focus on writing music for other artists.
One of her notable achievements during this period was the song “The Heart Won’t Lie,” which was a number-one hit for Reba McEntire and Vince Gill on the US Country charts. The song was nominated for Single of the Year at the 1994 TNN Music City News Country Awards.
Carnes continued to perform in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and several country musicians recorded her songs. For the Wild Horses – The Nashville Album, Smokie recorded a cover of “When the Walls Come Down” in 1998.
Tim McGraw’s album “A Place in the Sun” included her song “You Don’t Love Me Anymore” in 1999, and Collin Raye performed her song “Gypsy Honeymoon” for the album “Can’t Back Down” in 2001.
Was Kim Carnes a one-hit wonder?
No one would describe Kim Carnes as a one-hit-wonder. Although “Bette Davis Eyes,” her biggest hit and one of the year’s biggest hits, is the song for which Kim Carnes is most remembered, she also had a number of other popular songs throughout her career.
Carnes had already had some success before “Bette Davis Eyes,” with songs like “More Love” (1980) and the Kenny Rogers duet “Don’t Fall in Love with a Dreamer” (1980). She continued to make music after her breakthrough hit, and among others, songs like “Voyeur” (1982) and “Crazy in the Night (Barking at Airplanes)” (1985) helped them reach the top of the charts.
What did Bette Davis think of Kim Carnes?
Bette Davis expressed her love for the song in letters to Kim Carnes and the songwriters when it became a smash record, thanking them for making her “a part of modern history.” The fact that her granddaughter thought her grandmother was “cool” was one of the many reasons the iconic actress adored the song.