Songoftheday 8/4/12 - When voices through the thin walls speak of aberrant behavior...

Kim Carnes - "Voyeur"

from the album Voyeur (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #29 (four weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's Song of the Day is by Kim Carnes, whose raspy voice is instantly identifiable. After a stint with the New Christy Minstrels (with future duet partner Kenny Rogers), she released her first album in 1971. But it wasn't until four years later that she had her first top-40 hit, "You're A Part Of Me" with Gene Cotton. In May of 1980, she scored again as a duet partner with Kenny Rogers on "Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer", a #4 hit. That same year, her cover of the Smokey Robinson song "More Love" gave Kim a solo top-10 hit of her own.

But it took another cover, Jackie DeShannon's "Bette Davis Eyes", that made Carnes a household name. The song spent nine weeks at #1 in the US, and her Mistaken Identity album topped the LP chart for four weeks as well. With that kind of success, all eyes should have been on the followup.

That followup album, Voyeur, came out in August of 1982, with the title track being released as the first single. Co-written by Carnes, it continued the dark, eerie feel of her last album, with a little more louder synths and guitar in the mix..

                                        (this video includes her previous top-40, "Draw of the Cards")

"Voyeur" made the top-40 for a month and a half, and made the dance chart, as well as top-10 in Sweden, but compared to "Bette Davis Eyes" didn't sell remotely close. The corresponding album as well didn't even make the top-40, and is a real rare find today. I still like the song a bunch, though, with her edgier voice able to rise above the production.

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In 2008, club act Lifelike cribbed the song for one of those filtered-sample records, "Black Chess"...

Up tomorrow: Robert Bell and the boys have an enormously good time.