Kim Carnes

Kim Carnes was a songwriter and performer from an early age. After writing songs for many years, Carnes signed her first publishing deal in 1962 with producer Jimmy Bowen. During this period, she shared demo-recording time with Bowen's other writers, including Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and J.D. Souther. Carnes also sang "Nobody Knows", written by Mike Settle, which was featured in the end credits of the 1971 film Vanishing Point.[8] The film also featured Carnes' first cut as a songwriter, "Sing Out for Jesus", which was recorded by Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton.[9]

Also in 1971, she and Mike Settle again worked with Bowen to create the bubblegum pop studio group The Sugar Bears. The album Presenting the Sugar Bears and three singles were released with the song "You Are the One", reaching No. 83 on the Billboard charts.[10]

In the early 1970s, Carnes and husband Dave Ellingson co-wrote several songs with David Cassidy, then at the peak of his career as an international idol, and Carnes toured the world with him as an opening act with her husband. Cassidy's albums Rock Me Baby, Dreams are Nuthin' More than Wishes and Cassidy Live! include several songs penned by Carnes, along with Ellingson and Cassidy. Carnes also provided backing vocals for these albums.

After signing with Amos Records, her first solo album Rest on Me, produced by Jimmy Bowen, was released in 1972.

In 1975, Carnes released her self-titled second album, which contained her first charted hit, "You're A Part Of Me", which reached No. 32 on the US Adult Contemporary charts.[3] Carnes re-recorded this track with Gene Cotton three years later. The majority of tracks on this second album were written by Carnes and Ellingson.

Her third album Sailin' was produced by Jerry Wexler and released in 1976. One track, "Love Comes from Unexpected Places", won Grand Prize at the 1976 American Song Festival. The song also earned the award for Best Composition at the Tokyo Song Festival. It gained additional notice after it was recorded by Barbra Streisand on her 1977 album Superman. Streisand also recorded Carnes's "Stay Away" on her 1978 album Songbird. In spite of Streisand's endorsement of her material, Carnes's own Top 40 breakthrough did not occur till 1978 when Gene Cotton recruited her to record a duet version of "You're a Part of Me", which reached No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1979, she recorded a single using the pseudonym Connie con Carne titled "She Dances with Meat", written by herself and Dave Ellingson.[11][12]

In 1980, her duet with Kenny Rogers "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer" became a major hit on the Pop (No. 4), Country (No. 3) and Adult Contemporary (No. 2) charts.[3] The song was culled from Rogers' concept album Gideon, written entirely by Carnes and her husband Dave Ellingson. Later that year, her cover version of the Smokey Robinson & The Miracles song "More Love" became her first solo top 10 hit (number 10 in the pop charts and number six in the Adult Contemporary charts).[3] Robinson was, indeed, so impressed with Carnes's recording and success with the song that he later wrote and composed "Being with You" for her. However, Robinson's then producer George Tobin insisted instead that he record and release the song himself. "The record that went number one for me is a demo for Kim," Robinson told The Huffington Post.[13] In 1981, Carnes provided backing vocals on Dionne Warwick's No Night So Long album.[14]

In 1981, Carnes recorded the Jackie DeShannon and Donna Weiss song "Bette Davis Eyes", originally written and composed in 1974. As the first single released from the album Mistaken Identity, it spent nine weeks at number one on the U.S. singles charts and became a worldwide hit. The song's success propelled the album to number one for four weeks. The single became the biggest hit of the entire year for 1981,[3] and is second only to Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" as the biggest hit of the 1980s in the U.S., according to Billboard. The song earned both the Record of the Year and Song of the Year awards at the 1982 Grammy Awards. Carnes was nominated for Best Pop Female, and Mistaken Identity also earned a nomination for Album of the Year. Two follow-up singles were released from the album, the title track and "Draw of the Cards", which also charted in the UK and Australia.

Carnes and her band rehearsed "Bette Davis Eyes" in the studio for three days to take the melody and overall sound of the record to a darker, more haunting place. Keyboard player Bill Cuomo came up with the signature instrumental lick and together with the band and producer Val Garay created a completely new arrangement of the song, recorded the next day with no overdubs.[15]

Bette Davis admitted to being a fan of the song and approached Carnes and the songwriters to thank them. Davis wrote to Carnes after the song was released, saying she loved the song. "It was a thrill to become a part of the rock generation," she said in her memoir This 'N That. Davis's grandson Ashley told the screen legend she had "finally made it". Carnes and Davis struck up a special friendship, with the singer visiting her at her home several times before Davis's death in 1989. In what she considers a career highlight,[15] Carnes performed the song live for Davis at a tribute to the legendary actress held just before her death. More recently, the song was used in a 2008 Clairol Nice 'n Easy TV commercial in the United Kingdom, and the ad featuring the song expanded into South Africa and other territories around the world. In 2008, the song was featured in the opening scene of the documentary film Valentino: The Last Emperor and continues to be licensed for film and TV use. In November 2015, the song was the set piece for the back-story of Liz Taylor in the TV anthology American Horror Story: Hotel.[16]

Also on 19 December 1981, Kim Carnes performed with Rod Stewart and Tina Turner at the L. A. Forum, Inglewood. Dick Clark hosted a television special version of the concert.

Carnes' later hits included two more singles that just missed the pop top 10: "Crazy in the Night" (from Barking at Airplanes) and "What About Me?" with Kenny Rogers and James Ingram. Kim also reached the Adult Contemporary Top 10 four times after "Bette Davis Eyes" – with "I Pretend" (No. 9), "What About Me?" (No. 1), "Make No Mistake, He's Mine" with Barbra Streisand (No. 8) (co-produced by Carnes with Bill Cuomo) and "Crazy in Love" (No. 10). On January 19, 1985, Carnes had the distinction of being on the Billboard Hot 100 with three singles simultaneously, "What About Me", "Make No Mistake, He's Mine" and "Invitation to Dance", from the soundtrack to the film That's Dancing! This meant she was on the chart as a solo artist in addition to being part of a duo and a trio.

Carnes was nominated for additional Grammy Awards – including Best Rock Vocal Performance Female for Voyeur, in 1983 and Best Rock Vocal Performance Female for "Invisible Hands" in 1984. In 1983, Carne's song "I'll Be Here Where the Heart Is" was included on the Flashdance soundtrack which received a Grammy for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture. Carnes was also one of the singers invited to perform on USA for Africa's 1985 famine relief fundraising single "We Are the World" and can be seen in the music video and heard singing the last line of the song's bridge with Huey Lewis and Cyndi Lauper. ("While we stand together as one".) In 1987, she sang the song "My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own" in a duet with Jeffrey Osborne for the soundtrack to the movie Spaceballs. In the same year, Carnes recorded "The Heart Must Have a Home" for the American film Summer Heat.[17]

For the release of her eleventh studio album View from the House, Carnes reunited with producer Jimmy Bowen, who co-produced the album with her. View from the House spawned four singles, including the top 10 Adult Contemporary hit, "Crazy in Love". The album featured early appearances from future music superstars Vince Gill and Lyle Lovett.

Her twelfth studio album Checkin' Out the Ghosts was released exclusively in Japan in 1991. The album was not commercially successful worldwide. It featured the song "Gypsy Honeymoon", later re-recorded on her 1993 compilation of the same name. The song was a hit in Germany in 1993.

In 1992, Carnes recorded the Everly Brothers' song "Love Hurts" for the soundtrack to Private Lessons, "Shiny Day" for a CD titled Re-Import, released in Japan,[18] and the Chuck Berry song "Run, Run Rudolph" for a Christmas compilation titled The Stars Come Out for Christmas Vol. III. In 1997, Carnes wrote "Just One Little Kiss" with songwriter and friend Greg Barnhill, recorded by Lila McCann on her debut album Lila.

In 1994, Carnes permanently moved from Los Angeles to Nashville. Several of her songs, including "Voyeur", "I'll Be Here Where the Heart Is" and "Gypsy Honeymoon" were hits for her in countries throughout Europe and South America. As a songwriter, she has had two No. 1 country singles. Her duet with Barbra Streisand was re-recorded as "Make No Mistake, She's Mine" by Ronnie Milsap and Kenny Rogers in 1987 and "The Heart Won't Lie", a No. 1 duet for Reba McEntire and Vince Gill in 1993. (As stated above, Carnes co-wrote this last with Donna Weiss, co-writer of "Bette Davis Eyes" with Jackie DeShannon.) Co-writing with others, Carnes has had songs covered by such country stars as Tim McGraw, Deana Carter, Kevin Sharp, Matraca Berg, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Sawyer Brown, Suzy Bogguss, Collin Raye, Pam Tillis, Conway Twitty and Tanya Tucker. In 1997, Carnes recorded a cover of "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" for the tribute album Jim Croce: A Nashville Tribute.

In 2000, Carnes sang a duet of the Johnny Cash song "Ring of Fire" with Jeff Bridges for the film The Contender. The song is featured in the opening credits.[19]

In 2004, Carnes released the album Chasin' Wild Trains. Producing the album herself, she wrote material for the album with Kings of Leon producer Angelo Petraglia, Matraca Berg, Kim Richey, Al Anderson, Jeffrey Steele, Marc Jordan, Anders Osborne and Chuck Prophet. An extensive European tour followed the album, which achieved success in America. In the same year, Carnes provided vocals for two tracks on Tim McGraw's album Live Like You Were Dying. Carnes co-wrote and recorded "The Silver Cord" for the soundtrack of Loggerheads (2005).[20]

Carnes recorded "It's Clear Sky Again Today" on Noriyuki Makihara – Songs from L.A., a tribute album to Japanese singer-songwriter Noriyuki Makihara in 2007.[21]

In recent years, Carnes has written songs such as "It's a Mighty Hand" with Greg Barnhill on a 2006 film Chances: The Women of Magdalene, "Enough" with Dana Cooper on his 2010 album The Conjurer,[22] for which she also provided backing vocals. Carnes also co-wrote "Live to Tell" with Jamie Appleby, Marv Green and Alyssa Reid on Reid's 2011 album The Game. Two songs Carnes co-wrote with Australian duo O'Shea were no. 1 hits on Australia's CMC Country Music Channel. She also co-wrote a song on their follow-up album.

EMI Music released the compilation Essential in 2011.[23] The compilation received a positive review from Thom Jurek of Allmusic, who praised Carnes's lesser-known songs such as "I'd Lie to You for Your Love" and "Abadabadango", stating that Carnes's voice "makes them work". He went on to say that her "ability to choose or write songs that highlighted the many smoky shades in that voice is uncanny."[24]

In February 2012, Ossum Possum Records re-released the original theme song from Warner Bros. motion picture Impulse, Everybody Needs Someone – recorded by Carnes in 1990 as a digital download single. It previously was released in 1990 as a promo CD single by the same record company.[25]

In October 2012, American record company Culture Factory re-released Carnes' Mistaken Identity, Voyeur and Cafe Racers albums. Light House and Barking at Airplanes were released in August 2013.[26]

In 2014, Carnes recorded a duet with British songwriter Frankie Miller included on a tribute album.[27] She also appeared in an episode of the U.S. TV series The Haunting Of in November 2013.[28]

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Kim Carnes among hundreds of artists whose material reportedly was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.[29]

Carnes' voice has been described as "distinctively raspy" and "throaty", leading to comparisons to the voices of Rod Stewart and Bonnie Tyler.[30] In 1993, Keith Tuber of Orange Coast magazine referred to Carnes as "The Queen of Rasp 'n' Roll" in one of his articles.[31]