Kim Carnes was born in Los Angeles and raised in San Marino, California, and spent a year in the New Christy Minstrels, where she met Dave Ellingson, her husband and songwriting partner since 1967. She came up through the Hollywood demo circuit of the early 1970s, sharing session time with Glenn Frey, Don Henley, and J.D. Souther under a publishing deal with Jimmy Bowen. In 1980 she and Ellingson wrote every song on Kenny Rogers' platinum concept album Gideon, and her duet with Rogers, "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer," reached the top five on the pop, country, and adult contemporary charts. The following year "Bette Davis Eyes" spent nine weeks at No. 1, became the biggest single of 1981, and won the Grammy for Record of the Year. In January 1985 she held three simultaneous positions on the Hot 100 — as a solo artist, as a duo with Barbra Streisand, and as a trio with Rogers and James Ingram.
Carnes is also one of the most widely recorded songwriters of her era. Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Anne Murray, and Johnny Mathis all cut her songs, and her writing found a lasting home in country music: "Make No Mistake, She's Mine" was a No. 1 Grammy winner for Ronnie Milsap and Kenny Rogers, "The Heart Won't Lie," written with Donna Weiss, went to No. 1 for Reba McEntire and Vince Gill in 1993, and her songs have been recorded by Deana Carter, Tim McGraw, Suzy Bogguss, Tanya Tucker, Pam Tillis, and Collin Raye. She moved to Nashville in 1994 and in 2004 released Chasin' Wild Trains, an album she wrote and produced herself. Universal Songs, a ten-disc box set covering her recordings from 1975 to 1988, arrives this October. She and Ellingson, married for nearly sixty years, have two sons and recently returned to California.
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SONGWRITER SPOTLIGHT
Jared Ingersol
ALBUM REVIEWS
Jared Ingersol