Naked Eyes
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Naked Eyes was an English synthpop band, best known for their singles, a cover of the Burt Bacharach / Hal David standard "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" (Bacharach himself has cited the cover as a personal favourite), and their subsequent hit Promises, Promises. Interestingly, Dionne Warwick's follow-up to "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" was also titled Promises, Promises, but it was a different song with the same title.
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[edit] Career
Naked Eyes were the first band to make significant use of the Fairlight CMI sampling synthesizer on a pop recording. Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush had used the instrument on prior efforts, but the usage had been far less than Naked Eyes would employ on their debut effort. The debut album was produced by Tony Mansfield and re-touched in places by Alan Tarney. Interestingly, Mansfield's work would again be doctored by Tarney when he produced the debut album for A-ha (Hunting High and Low).
The group consisted of childhood friends from Bath, England, Pete Byrne on vocals and Rob Fisher on keyboards. The two had formerly played in a band called Neon with future members of Tears for Fears and stayed together as a duo after the group broke up. Naked Eyes are one of the few to have enjoyed significant success outside their country of origin, notably in the U.S. and in Canada, yet remain almost unknown in their homeland.
Their second and third singles, "Promises, Promises" (which appears in an episode of the TV series, "Knight Rider", and the 12" Mix of which features vocals from Madonna) and "When the Lights Go Out", were also hit singles, mainly in the U.S. and in Canada. However, their second album, Fuel for the Fire and the single "(What) In the Name of Love", were not as well-received and the group broke up soon after its release. Byrne ended up doing session work (he is heard on Stevie Wonder's "Part-Time Lover", and wrote and produced "I Am the Cute One" for Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen in 1992) while Fisher joined another duet, Climie Fisher.
Fisher died 25 August 1999 from complications following stomach surgery.
Byrne released a solo album, The Real Illusion in 2001, which featured some of the last tracks he wrote with Fisher for a proposed third Naked Eyes album.
More recently, the Naked Eyes version of "Always Something There To Remind Me" was used in the trailers of the Vince Vaughn/Jennifer Aniston hit comedy "The Breakup".
On July 31, 2007, Naked Eyes, featuring Byrne, released Fumbling With The Covers, an all-new CD which consists of covers of Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Elvis Costello, along with Naked Eyes hits.
Naked Eyes - Promises Promises excerpt
[edit] Albums
- Burning Bridges (1983) - (released as Naked Eyes in the U.S. and Canada) #32 US
- Fuel For The Fire (1984) #83 U.S.
- Fumbling With The Covers (2007)
- Piccadilly (2008)
[edit] Singles
| Year | Song | US Hot 100 | US Dance | US A.C. | Canada singles | UK singles | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | "Always Something There to Remind Me" | 8 | 37 | 31 | 8 | 59 | Burning Bridges/Naked Eyes |
| 1983 | "Promises, Promises" | 11 | 32 | 19 | 6 | 95 | |
| 1983 | "When the Lights Go Out" | 37 | - | - | - | - | |
| 1984 | "(What) In the Name of Love" | 39 | 35 | - | - | - | Fuel for the Fire |
