Today’s song is ‘Bette Davies Eyes’. This song was written and composed by Donna Weiss and Jackie De Shannon, and was made popular by American singer, Kim Carnes. De Shannon recorded it in 1974. Carnes's 1981 version spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the ‘Billboard Hot 100’ chart and was Billboard’s biggest hit of 1981. The song was also a big success on the ‘Dance Chart’ and won the Grammy Awards for ‘Song of The Year’ and ‘Record of the Year’. The song was also a Number 1 hit in 21 countries and peaked at Number 10 in the United Kingdom. It was also high in the charts of many countries outside the 21 countries it reached Number 1. The song was ranked at number 12 on ‘Billboard’s Hot 100’, in the first 50 years of the Billboard chart.
After the song’s release, actress Bette Davis (then 73 years old), wrote letters to Carnes, Weiss, and De Shannon to thank all three of them for making her "a part of modern times," and said her grandson now looked up to her. After their Grammy wins, Bette Davis sent them roses as well.
Those ' Bette Davis eyes’ which were the actresses most famous trademark could have been indicative of a medical condition known as Graves' disease, which is a serious thyroid and immunological disorder. This disorder causes an inflammatory response in the muscles around the eyes which makes them swell. In my estimation, however, they will forever remain beautiful ‘come to bed eyes’, and the only possible medical suggestion to me would be their unfailing inducement to all-male admirers towards the condition of ‘love sickness’.
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I first became aware of this song when it was covered by Kim Carnes in 1981, although it had originally been recorded and released in 1974.
When this song was first released, I was 32 years old and had commenced my new career as a Probation Officer in West Yorkshire, one year earlier. In those ‘good old days’ before the austerity that is common today, every Probation Officer in Huddersfield had their own office, their own personal secretary that took shorthand notes for all our dictation and typed the contents into the files on our clients. We were also allocated a certain number of clients to work with and specific duties to undertake; then left alone to get on with it. Nobody concerned oneself how many hours a week an officer worked or how many days they compressed their work into, or which method of preferred discipline they chose to follow in carrying out that work PROVIDING IT WAS DONE TO A HIGH ENOUGH LEVEL OF PROFESSIONAL SATISFACTION. The only estimation of success was if the client stopped offending; anything else was superfluous.
How different the job is today! Almost every condition of work currently militates against job satisfaction and Probation Officers are cooped in open office spaces liked crammed chickens penned between Easter and Christmas, unable to roam outside the earshot and eyesight of their supervising cockerel. The only officer in the entire Service to have their own office and personal secretary today is the ‘Chief Probation Officer’; the top dog.
The working offices we occupied in my day even had the colour of carpets we chose every seven years, and we could personalise our wall space to make it homely and relaxingly conducive to us.
Among my office wall space, (which tended to reflect my own cultural/historical/political interests) were posters of Stratford and Avon Theatre productions that I visited four times annually between 1970-1976, along with a few political/historical posters such as a poster of ‘The Jarrow Marchers’ of the 1930s and also a bloody scene depicting ‘The Peterloo Massacre’. These posters; one of which depicted a young woman in her debut at the Stratford Theatre who was to become one of our greatest actresses (Judy Dench) would have been worth many hundreds of £s today, had it not been lost when I moved offices to the Batley area.
Chief among all my wall posters that eased my mind and satisfied my senses whenever my eyes rested on them, was one that must have seemed totally incongruent to any observer who thought that they knew me. It was a large poster with a faceless pair of eyes looking out at me. They were the eyes of Bette Davis. This facial feature of the film star had enthralled me ever since I used to collect bubble-gum cards with the pictures of film stars on as a growing boy.
That look in those eyes represented a changed meaning for me as I grew from 7-year-old boy to 14-year-old teenager. The difference in seven years growth from boy to teenager essentially moved from a look of untrusting ‘sinister’ to that of invitingly ‘sensual’. Those eyes had taken on a ‘come-to-bed-eyes’ representation for me.
I dedicate my song today to my Facebook friend, Betsy Holley from Syracuse, New York. You don’t know this Betsy (until now, that is), but whenever I look at your Facebook page, I readily discern you as being a serious woman who concerns herself with important issues of the moment.
If I could wave a magic wand and do one thing, Betsy, I would willingly place your beautiful ‘come-to-bed-eyes’ inside the face of the ‘Statue of Liberty’ that stands in New York Bay as a universal symbol of ‘freedom’ and ‘welcome’ to all. These two qualities are what your eyes truly represent to this 77-year-old man who admires them today. Thank you for being my Facebook friend. Bill x
Love and peace Bill xxx