Naked Eyes is a British synthpop band that first became popular in the 1980s. The duo is 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 hits "Promises, Promises", "When the Lights Go Out" and "(What) In the Name of Love". Interestingly, the duo's popularity in the U.S. outweighed their popularity in their home country.
Career
Naked Eyes was one of the first bands 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 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.
Naked Eyes 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 acts 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 duo, Climie Fisher.
Fisher died on 25 August 1999, aged 39, following surgery for an illness which turned out to be bowel cancer.
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.
On 31 July 2007, Naked Eyes, featuring Byrne, released Fumbling with the Covers, 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 working on Piccadilly, its first album of original songs in more than 25 years.
Discography
Albums
Singles
References
- ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 387. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
External links
