Kim Carnes · Artists & Legends
Kim Carnes is an American singer-songwriter born July 20, 1945, in Los Angeles, California, and raised in Pasadena, California.
Kim Carnes is an American singer-songwriter born July 20, 1945, in Los Angeles, California, and raised in Pasadena, California. She began as a songwriter and session singer, learning her craft behind the scenes before stepping forward as a solo artist. She signed with Amos Records in 1971 and released her debut album, Rest on Me, that year.
Carnes’s early albums built a reputation for a distinctive, raspy voice and for songs that mixed pop, rock, and country influences, but her commercial breakthrough came later. Romance Dance (1980) gave her a wider audience, and Mistaken Identity (1981) became the defining album of her career, with “Bette Davis Eyes” as its lead single. She followed it with Voyeur (1982), Café Racers (1983), and Barking at Airplanes (1985), records that moved between pop, rock, and the synthesizer sounds of the early 1980s.
The songs in this set show that arc. “More Love” (1980) and the duet “Don’t Fall in Love with a Dreamer” (1980) come from the period just before and around her breakthrough, “Bette Davis Eyes” (1981) is its centerpiece, and “Voyeur” (1982) and “Crazy in the Night (Barking at Airplanes)” (1985) show her later 1980s direction. She also worked as a songwriter for other artists and as a duet partner, most notably with Kenny Rogers.
After View from the House (1988), Carnes moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and continued to work as a songwriter and performer, with later albums including Checkin’ Out the Ghosts (1991) and Chasin’ Wild Trains (2004). What her sound means is character: a voice that sounds lived-in rather than polished, and songs that favor mood and personality over vocal display. That individuality is why her best work still sounds unmistakably like Kim Carnes.