Feature: Kim Carnes’ Long Climb Up Takes 6 Albums

LOS ANGELES – It’s taken six solo albums, but Kim Carnes’ perseverance and determination is finally reaping its rewards.

The husky voiced singer/songwriter has held down the No. 1 position on the Hot 100 for five weeks with her remarkable version of “Bette Davis Eyes” that has not only given her mass recognition in the U.S. but throughout Europe as well.

With three LPs recorded during the ‘70s on A&M and now three albums on EMI-America, she felt it was only a matter of time before all the pieces finally fell into place.

“If the first album was the hit I thought it was, I probably wouldn’t have known how to handle it,” says Carnes. “I wouldn’t still be here.”

Carnes initially heard “Bette Davis Eyes”, co-written by Jackie DeShannon and Donna Weiss, about a year ago when Weiss approached her with the song. But Carnes’ Romance Dance LP was already completed and the song forgotten until Weiss called with new songs for the new Mistaken Identity LP, including “Hit and Run”, written specifically for Carnes.

Although the version Carnes heard was “folkie”, the singer concedes that the “title alone implied it was a great song”.

While Carnes is acknowledged as a first rate songwriter, she says she is open-minded when it comes to material.

She admits that song ideas come from a variety of sources including publishers, her producers, Val Garay most recently and elsewhere. “The songs I like are the obscure ones,” she says. “I won’t do a song unless I’m passionate about it and can say ‘I wish I wrote that’.”

As far as spotlighting her own material, she declares: “I don’t keep score.” She’s also decided to lay off on doing remakes, two of which were contained on Romance Dance while none appear on Mistaken Identity, which leaps to number two on the Top LP chart this week.

Romance Dance contained Smokey Robinson’s “More Love”, which went top 10, and the Box Tops’ “Cry Like a Baby”, which fared less well.

“I’m tired of remakes, I don’t ever want to get into the trap of doing remakes,” explains Carnes. “Oldies are a safe way to go.”

Carnes’ breakthrough was her duet with Kenny Rogers on “Don’t Fall in Love with a Dreamer” penned by Carnes and husband Dave Ellingson for Rogers’ Gideon LP.

While she has been criticized for ‘coattailing’ on Rogers’ success, Carnes argues that “when something is successful there are always people who will criticize. I admit it helped but it doesn’t bother me.”

In addition to the “Bette Davis Eyes” single, the striking video of Carnes performing the song, directed by England’s Russell Mulcahy, is also stirring up public interest.

Mulcahy, who produced EMI video on Duran Duran and Classic Nouveaux, was recruited after reels of video were scoured in search of the right director. Mulcahy will direct another Carnes video, “Draw of the Cards”, also from the new LP.

The image projected by Carnes in the “Bette Davis Eyes” video where she is dressed in black, will be retained when she begins a tour in August. “The mood created in the video is what we’re going after in the live show,” she says.

While the black-clad femme fatale image is a change of pace for Carnes, manager Michael Brokaw of Kragen & Co. says it’s not really a new one.

“It was created for the video,” he says. “Russell asked her to dress that way but Kim shopped for all her own clothes. It’s what she feels comfortable with. If she feels different with the next LP then there will be another image change. It’s a matter of changing with the times,” says Brokaw.

The video is so powerful that EMI America is using part of it in its television advertising spots.

For Carnes, the first major change in her career came when she was signed as the first artist to the new EMI America label, a situation she says “every artist dreams of being in.”

But with the release of her first LP for the label, St. Vincent’s Court, Liberty and EMI America merged and in the transition the promotion fell out from under the album, she says.

The second major change was when EMI president Jim Mazza brought Carnes to Ken Kragen for management, leading to her association with Kenny Rogers.

Brokaw credits Carnes’ success to the teamwork among manager, label, agent and all others involved from secretaries on up.

Carnes’ enthusiasm in her career is evident in her excitement in getting back into the studio. “I can’t wait to go in and do more. I now feel free to experiment and go as far as I can take it.”

Her association with producer Val Garay, whom she will continue to work with, is a contributing factor to that experiment.

Because “Bette Davis Eyes” is happening big throughout Europe, unlike “More Love”, Carnes will soon be embarking on a promotional tour of England, Germany, France and Italy before returning to start on a selective tour of the U.S., her first since opening for James Taylor in 1980.

Ed Harrison. Billboard. June 13, 1981. Page 29.