1983 Naked Eyes – Promises Promises
Pete Byrne and Rob Fisher formed the British New Wave group Neon in 1979. They recruited by several other musicians and recorded at least two singles before breaking up in late 1981. Pete and Rob formed the group Naked Eyes, while the rest of the group formed Tears For Fears.
Naked Eyes recorded their first album in 1982. The first single was a cover of (There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me. Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote the song in the early sixties, and a series of less than successful recordings followed in the US.
Lou Johnson was the first to reach the Hot 100 with the song. He performed the song on American Bandstand, but only reached #49 in 1964.
Sandie Shaw topped the UK charts with her single in 1965, but the record peaked at only #52 on the Hot 100. Sandie was one of the most successful female singers in the UK in the sixties, but simply never did well in the US.
Dionne Warwick recorded the original demo of the song. She did not release a single version until 1968. Her single only reached #65 on the Hot 100. Her next single, Promises, Promises, was another Bacharach/David composition that did much better, peaking at #19.
R. B. Greaves hit #2 with Take A Letter Maria in 1969 and followed that with his version of (There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me the next year, but couldn’t get any higher than #27.
In January 1983, Naked Eyes released their remake of the song in the US. The single reached the top ten on the Hot 100. The record initially failed to chart in the UK, but after the single’s success in the US, their record company pushed the record again. Sadly, it only got as high as #59 in the UK that Summer.
The group’s next single failed to chart at all, but ironically, their third release was entitled Promises, Promises. It had the same title as Dionne’s single but was a completely different song that the duo had written themselves. The record reached #11 on the Hot 100 but again did poorly in their native country, where it only reached #95. Jellybean produced a 12-inch remix that added Madonna doing spoken vocals.
The group did not tour to support their music because of the difficulty of reproducing their music live. After their second album produced no additional hits, Pete essentially ended the group when he moved to California and began doing session work for other artists.
Rob died in 1999 after surgery for cancer.
Pete recorded a solo album in 2001 and reformed Naked Eyes and recorded another album in 2007. He has led a touring band since 2008, primarily performing in the Summers as part of various eighties group events.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_Eyes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(There%27s)_Always_Something_There_to_Remind_Me
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promises,_Promises_(Naked_Eyes_song)
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