Kim Carnes

Known for her throaty voice, singer Kim Carnes got her start in the 1960s as a songwriter before she had a massive hit with her 1981 single “Bette Davis Eyes”. • Carnes released her first album, Rest on Me, in 1971. Her chart debut came in 1975 on the single “You’re a Part of Me”, which reached No. 32 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary ranking. • In 1980, Carnes co-wrote with David M. Ellingson all the songs on Kenny Rogers’s cowboy concept album Gideon and duetted with Rogers on “Don’t Fall in Love with a Dreamer”. The song reached No. 3 on the country chart and No. 4 on pop and was nominated for a Grammy. • Carnes’s breakthrough came on her 1981 album Mistaken Identity, which topped the Billboard 200 albums chart and went platinum. The album included “Bette Davis Eyes”, which spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart and was the biggest-selling single of the year. “Bette Davis Eyes” also won Grammys for Song of the Year and Record of the Year, while Mistaken Identity was nominated for Album of the Year. • Though her subsequent albums haven’t fared as well commercially, Carnes was nominated for a Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for her 1982 album Voyeur, and for her 1983 single “Invisible Hands”. • In 1983, Carnes sang “I’ll Be Here Where the Heart Is” on the soundtrack to Flashdance, which reached No. 1 and won a Grammy. The following year, she sang on the charity single “We Are the World”, which won four Grammys. • As a songwriter, Carnes has had a pair of No. 1 country hits. Her 1984 duet with Barbra Streisand, “Make No Mistake, He’s Mine”, topped the charts for Kenny Rogers and Ronnie Milsap when they recorded it in 1987 as “Make No Mistake, She’s Mine”. And Reba McEntire and Vince Gill reached No. 1 in 1993 with Carnes’s “The Heart Won’t Lie”. • Carnes’ most recent album was 2004’s Americana-leaning Chasin’ Wild Trains, her first full-length release since Checkin’ Out the Ghosts in 1991.