Naked Eyes

 

Naked Eyes was an English Eighties synthpop duo, best known for their first single, 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). The song reached number one in the UK in 1964 for Sandie Shaw. Some versions of this song (including that of Naked Eyes) has the word "(There's)" dropped from the title. 

 

Naked Eyes was the very first band to make significant use of the Fairlight CMI on a pop recording. Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush had used the sampling synthesiser on prior efforts, but these albums were not regarded as pop music, and the usage had been far less than Naked Eyes would employ on their debut effort. The debut album was produced by Tony Mansfield (who had been a musical partner to Trevor Horn, who also favored the Fairlight during this time) 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 is one of the few to have enjoyed significant success outside their country of origin, notably in the U.S., yet remain almost unknown in their homeland.  Their second and third singles, "Promises, Promises" and "When the Lights Go Out", were also hit singles, mainly in the U.S., as their previous track. 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.

Byrne recently revived the group name and will soon be releasing Naked Eyes: Fumbling With The Covers, which consists of covers of Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Elvis Costello, along with the Naked Eyes hits; all of them acoustic. 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.  See Naked Eyes LIVE!  Purchase your Naked Eyes tickets today!