In the early part of 1981, Bette Davis Eyes took the music world by surprise and became a massive hit. It topped the charts in 21 countries and won both the Song of the Year and Record of the Year Grammy Awards, cementing its place in music history.
While the exact details of all the effects used on the song are unknown, we do know that producer Val Garay was a big fan of the DBX 160 and used it on drums in most of his recordings, including Bette Davis Eyes. He also used it on the guitars for this particular song.
What’s particularly interesting about this song is that it had been recorded previously by Jackie DeShannon many years earlier, but it failed to gain any traction. It wasn’t until Val Garay heard it and suggested it to Kim Carnes for her debut album Mistaken Identity that it finally found success.
Val had the band rehearse in a studio for three weeks to get the song just right before they went into the recording studio. In an impressive feat, they recorded the entire song, including Kim’s vocals, live in a single take with no overdubs.
Despite doing three takes, they ended up using the very first one. During mixdown, they also did three different mixes, but ultimately decided to go with the first mix. It’s clear that this approach to recording is very different from the way most music is made today.
