KIM CARNES - DRAW OF THE CARDS

DRAW OF THE CARDS

KIM CARNES

SONGWRITERS: KIM CARNES; BILL CUOMO; VAL CHRISTIAN GARAY & DAVE ELLINGSON

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: MISTAKEN IDENTITY

LABEL: EMI AMERICA

GENRE: POP ROCK

YEAR: 1981

 

           Kim Carnes(/kɑːrnz/; born July 20, 1945) is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, she began her career as a songwriter in the 1960s, writing for other artists while performing in local clubs and working as a session background singer with the famed Waters sisters (featured in the documentary 20 Feet from Stardom). After she signed her first publishing deal with Jimmy Bowen, she released her debut album Rest on Me in 1971. Carnes' self-titled second album primarily contained self-penned songs, including her first charting single "You're a Part of Me", which reached No. 35 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in 1975. In the following year, Carnes released Sailin', which featured "Love Comes from Unexpected Places". The song won the American Song Festival and the award for Best Composition at the Tokyo Song Festival in 1976.

           In her breakthrough year, 1980, Carnes was commissioned by Kenny Rogers to co-write the songs for his concept album Gideon(1980), and their duet "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer" hit Nº 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and earned the duo a Grammy Award nomination. Later that year, her cover of Smokey Robinson's "More Love", from her fifth album Romance Dance(1980), hit Nº 10. The following year, Carnes released Mistaken Identity, which featured the worldwide hit, "Bette Davis Eyes". This became the best-selling single of the year in the United States, spending nine weeks at Nº 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, going Gold, and won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Mistaken Identity went to Nº 1 on the Billboard 200, was certified Platinum, and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

           Carnes also saw success with the singles "Draw of the Cards" (Nº 28), "Does It Make You Remember" (Nº 36), "Crazy in the Night (Barking at Airplanes)" (Nº 15), "Make No Mistake, He's Mine" (Nº 51), with Barbra Streisand, "What About Me?" (Nº 15), with Kenny Rogers and James Ingram, "I'll Be Here Where the Heart Is", from the Flashdance soundtrack, and the Grammy Award nominated singles "Voyeur" (Nº 29) and "Invisible Hands" (Nº 40). Her other successes as a songwriter include co-writing the Nº 1 duet "The Heart Won't Lie" with Donna Weiss(who had co-written "Bette Davis Eyes" with Jackie DeShannon), which was recorded by Vince Gill and Reba McEntire, and released on McEntire's 1993 album It's Your Call.

Her distinctive, raspy vocal style has drawn comparisons to Rod Stewart. Her most recent studio album is Chasin' Wild Trains(2004). As of 2017, Carnes was residing in Nashville, Tennessee, where she continues to write music.

            "Draw of the Cards" is a 1981 single release from Kim Carnes's Platinum-plus Mistaken Identity album.

             The single reached #28 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1981. Tampa Bay Times contributor Kevin Wuench felt that the song has a "great '80s synth sound." Music critic Colin Larkin described the song as having a "contagious, swirling organ-dominated sound." Viacom ranked "Draw of the Cards" as Carnes' 10th best song, stating that it was "just as intoxicating in its creepiness" as Carnes' previous single, "Bette Davis Eyes."

         The music video was directed by Russell Mulcahy, who had also directed the video for "Bette Davis Eyes." According to Wuench, the video "has some weird carnival activities and one long tongue by some creature of the underworld."

               The song failed to match the chart success of its predecessor, "Bette Davis Eyes", stopping short of the Top 20 in many of the countries where her previous hit had reached pole position.

Sleight of hand

Hands of Fate

Chance you take

Life's a snake

And it's all in the draw of the cards

Lightnin' strike

Breath of life

Red black or white

Watch 'em fall

And it's all in the draw of the cards

And it's all in the draw of the cards

Drop the cards

Watch the eyes

Down and dirty

Let 'em ride

Boulevard

Small cafe

Cavaliers

Pass the day

The joker laughs

From the street

Weaves his web

Bittersweet

Ace is high

Deuce is low

Take the first

The rest should go

And it's all in the draw of the cards

And it's all in the draw of the cards.