Naked Eyes
Encyclopedia
Naked Eyes is a British
New Wave
band
that rose to prominence in the early 1980s. Originally a duo
, the band is known largely for its single
s: 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 favorite), as well as the band's subsequent hits "Promises, Promises
", "When the Lights Go Out" and "(What) In the Name of Love."
: 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
.
Naked Eyes were one of the first bands
to make significant use of the Fairlight CMI
sampling
synthesizer
on a 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 Burning Bridges was produced
by Tony Mansfield
, along with the follow-up album Fuel for the Fire
, which also featured two titles produced by Arthur Baker
.
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.
work. He performed on Stevie Wonder
's "Part-Time Lover", and wrote
and in 1992 produced "I Am the Cute One" for Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. Fisher joined another duo, Climie Fisher
.
"(What) In the Name of Love" was used in 1993 for the ABC Daytime "In the Name of Love" campaign promotions.
Fisher died on 25 August 1999, aged 42, following 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
comedy, The Break-Up
.
In 2005, Byrne put a band together to play some Naked Eyes shows and has been touring regularly since.
On 2007, Naked Eyes released Fumbling with the Covers, an acoustic album which consisted of covers
of Bob Dylan
, The Beatles
and Elvis Costello
songs, along with Naked Eyes hits.
In the summer of 2008, Naked Eyes completed a U.S. tour along with Belinda Carlisle
, ABC
and The Human League
.
Currently, Naked Eyes is finishing work on Rapid Heartbeat. The album is to be released in the summer of 2012.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
band
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
that rose to prominence in the early 1980s. Originally a duo
Duet (music)
A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists; with other instruments, the word duo is also often used. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as...
, the band is known largely for its single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
s: a cover of the Burt Bacharach
Burt Bacharach
Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...
/Hal David
Hal David
Harold Lane "Hal" David is an American lyricist. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York. David is best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach.-Career:...
standard "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me
(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me
" Always Something There to Remind Me" is a song written in the 1960s by songwriting team Burt Bacharach and Hal David.-First charting versions:...
" (Bacharach himself has cited the cover as a personal favorite), as well as the band's subsequent hits "Promises, Promises
Promises, Promises (Naked Eyes song)
"Promises, Promises" was the second hit single for the British new wave group Naked Eyes in 1983. The song went on to become a top-20 hit in the US that October, peaking at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It was their follow up to their earlier hit "Always Something There to Remind Me"...
", "When the Lights Go Out" and "(What) In the Name of Love."
History
Naked Eyes consisted originally of childhood friends from Bath, EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
: Pete Byrne
Pete Byrne
Pete Byrne is a Los Angeles, United States based English recording artist, and lead singer for the pop/New Wave duo Naked Eyes, during the earlier years of the 1980s. They are well known for their cover version of "Always Something There to Remind Me"...
on vocals and Rob Fisher
Rob Fisher
Rob Fisher was a British keyboardist and songwriter from Cheltenham, England, who achieved chart success as a member of Naked Eyes, and later Climie Fisher...
on keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
. The two had formerly played in a band called Neon with future members of Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears are an English new wave band formed in the early 1980s by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith.Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, they were initially associated with the New Wave synthesiser bands of the early 1980s but later branched out into...
.
Naked Eyes were one of the first bands
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
to make significant use of the Fairlight CMI
Fairlight CMI
The Fairlight CMI is a digital sampling synthesizer. It was designed in 1979 by the founders of Fairlight, Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie, and based on a dual-6800 microprocessor computer designed by Tony Furse in Sydney, Australia...
sampling
Sampler (musical instrument)
A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
on a recording
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
. Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
and Kate Bush
Kate Bush
Kate Bush is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.In 1978, at the age of 19, Bush topped the UK Singles Chart...
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 Burning Bridges was produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by Tony Mansfield
Tony Mansfield
Tony Mansfield, born May 28, 1943, Salford, England, is an English songwriter, musician and record producer. Mansfield was the main songwriter/producer for New Musik, a synthpop band that performed from 1979 to 1982.-References:...
, along with the follow-up album Fuel for the Fire
Fuel for the Fire (Naked Eyes album)
Fuel for the Fire was Naked Eyes' 1984 follow-up album to their successful début. The band had Top 40 success with the first single off the album, " In the Name of Love", produced by Arthur Baker, which reached #39 in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 and, in a remix by Baker, #35 on the Dance chart...
, which also featured two titles produced by Arthur Baker
Arthur Baker (musician)
Arthur Baker is an American record producer and DJ best known for his work with hip hop artists like Afrika Bambaataa, Planet Patrol, and the British group New Order.-Early career:...
.
Their second and third singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
, "Promises, Promises" (which appears in an episode of the TV series, Knight Rider, and the 12" mix of which features vocals from Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
) and "When the Lights Go Out", were also hit
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
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.
Naked Eyes today
Following the release of the band's second album, Byrne married and moved to California and began doing sessionSession musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
work. He performed on Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
's "Part-Time Lover", and wrote
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and in 1992 produced "I Am the Cute One" for Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. Fisher joined another duo, Climie Fisher
Climie Fisher
Climie Fisher were a UK pop duo formed by vocalist Simon Climie and former Naked Eyes keyboardist Rob Fisher...
.
"(What) In the Name of Love" was used in 1993 for the ABC Daytime "In the Name of Love" campaign promotions.
Fisher died on 25 August 1999, aged 42, following surgery.
Byrne released a solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
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
Vince Vaughn
Vincent Anthony "Vince" Vaughn is an American film actor, screenwriter, producer and comedian. He began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 movie Swingers...
/Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, film director, and producer, best known for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.Aniston has also enjoyed a successful film career,...
comedy, The Break-Up
The Break-Up
The Break-Up is a 2006 American comedy-drama romance film directed by Peyton Reed, starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. It was written by Jay Lavender and Jeremy Garelick and produced by Universal Pictures.-Plot:...
.
In 2005, Byrne put a band together to play some Naked Eyes shows and has been touring regularly since.
On 2007, Naked Eyes released Fumbling with the Covers, an acoustic album which consisted of covers
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
songs, along with Naked Eyes hits.
In the summer of 2008, Naked Eyes completed a U.S. tour along with Belinda Carlisle
Belinda Carlisle
Belinda Jo Carlisle is an American singer who gained worldwide fame as the lead vocalist of the Go-Go's, one of the most successful all-female bands and the first such group whose members wrote their own songs and played their own instruments...
, ABC
ABC (band)
ABC are an English band, that charted ten UK and five US Top 40 singles between 1981 and 1990. The band continues to tour and released a new album, Traffic, in 2008.-Formation:...
and The Human League
The Human League
The Human League are an English electronic New Wave band formed in Sheffield in 1977. They achieved popularity after a key change in line-up in the early 1980s and have continued recording and performing with moderate commercial success throughout the 1980s up to the present day.The only constant...
.
Currently, Naked Eyes is finishing work on Rapid Heartbeat. The album is to be released in the summer of 2012.
Albums
- Burning Bridges (1983) - (released as Naked Eyes in the U.S. and CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
) #32 US - Fuel for the FireFuel for the Fire (Naked Eyes album)Fuel for the Fire was Naked Eyes' 1984 follow-up album to their successful début. The band had Top 40 success with the first single off the album, " In the Name of Love", produced by Arthur Baker, which reached #39 in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 and, in a remix by Baker, #35 on the Dance chart...
(1984) #83 U.S. - The Best of Naked Eyes (1991)
- Promises Promises (1994)
- Everything and More (2002)
- Fumbling with the Covers (2007)
- Piccadilly (2011)
Singles
| Year | Song | U.S. Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
U.S. Dance | U.S. A.C. Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States... |
Canada Singles Canadian Singles Chart The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays.... |
New Zealand Singles Chart | UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | "Always Something There to Remind Me" | 8 | 37 | 31 | 8 | 2 | 59 | Burning Bridges/Naked Eyes |
| 1983 | "Promises, Promises" | 11 | 32 | 19 | 6 | 15 | 95 | |
| 1983 | "When the Lights Go Out" | 37 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 1984 | "(What) In the Name of Love" | 39 | 35 | - | 77 | - | - | Fuel for the Fire |
| 1984 | "Sacrifice" | - | - | - | - | - | - |
External links
- Official website
- MySpace
- Naked Eyes discography
- Fan site
- Q&A with the Naked Eyes' Pete Byrne John Hood for the Miami New TimesMiami New TimesThe Miami New Times is a free weekly newspaper published in Miami and distributed every Thursday. It primarily serves the Miami area and is headquartered near Miami's Design District.-Overview:...
6 July 2009