''Barking at Airplanes'' is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter

Kim Carnes Kim Carnes (; 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 sess ...

, released on May 5, 1985, by

EMI America Records EMI America Records was started in 1978 by EMI as a second United States, US label next to Capitol Records. It absorbed Liberty Records in 1984. In the late 1980s, EMI America was consolidated with Manhattan Records to form EMI Manhattan Records ...

. The album spawned two ''Billboard'' Hot 100 hit singles; "

Crazy in the Night (Barking at Airplanes) "Crazy in the Night (Barking at Airplanes)" is a song by American singer-songwriter Kim Carnes and the lead single from her ninth studio album, ''Barking at Airplanes'' (1985). Written by Carnes, and co-produced with Bill Cuomo, the track was insp ...

" (No. 15) and "Abadabadango" (No. 67). The 2001 reissue includes the

Trevor Horn Trevor Charles Horn (born 15 July 1949) is an English music producer, label and recording studio owner, musician and composer. He is best known for his production work in the 1980s, and for being one half of the new wave band The Buggles (wit ...

and

Geoff Downes Geoffrey Downes (born 25 August 1952) is an English keyboardist who gained fame as a member of the new wave group The Buggles with Trevor Horn, the progressive rock band Yes, and the supergroup Asia. Born in Stockport, Downes moved to London ...

written track "I Am a Camera", which was previously recorded by Yes on their 1980 ''

Drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

'' studio album (as "

Into the Lens "Into the Lens" is a song written by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes. It was originally released in 1980 by progressive rock band Yes, of which Horn and Downes were a part, as a part of the album ''Drama'', before being reworked as "I Am a Camera" ...

") and by Downes and Horn themselves on the final Buggles studio album, ''

Adventures in Modern Recording ''Adventures in Modern Recording'' is the second and final studio album by English new wave group the Buggles, released on 11 November 1981 by Carrere Records. Although the Buggles began as a duo of Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, the album ended ...

'' (1981).

Writing and recording

''Barking at Airplanes'' is the first studio album Carnes co-produced since ''

St. Vincent's Court ''St. Vincent's Court'' is the fourth studio album by Kim Carnes, released in 1979 (see 1979 in music). The album's single, "It Hurts So Bad", which peaked at #56 on ''Billboard'' magazine's Pop Singles chart. Track listing # "What Am I Gonn ...

'' (1979). The album is noted by ''

Nashville Scene ''Nashville Scene'' is an alternative newsweekly in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1989, became a part of Village Voice Media in 1999, and later joined the ranks of sixteen other publications after a merger of Village Voice Media with ...

'' as the first

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

album produced by a woman. Carnes wrote "Don't Pick Up the Phone" and "Crazy in the Night" on a

ARP String Ensemble The Solina String Ensemble, also marketed as the ARP String Ensemble, is a fully polyphonic multi-orchestral synthesizer with a 49-key keyboard, produced by Eminent BV (known for their ''Solina'' brand). It was distributed in the United States by ...

. "Crazy in the Night" was inspired by her son Collin's fear of the dark. The track opens with three loud door knocks followed by Collin saying, "Who is it?". Carnes' writing was inspired by films including ''

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big c ...

'' (1927) and ''

Black Orpheus ''Black Orpheus'' (Portuguese: ''Orfeu Negro'' ) is a 1959 romantic tragedy film made in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus and starring Marpessa Dawn and Breno Mello. It is based on the play '' Orfeu da Conceição'' by Vinicius de Morae ...

'' (1959), with a direct reference to the latter in the track "He Makes the Sun Rise (Orpheus)". "Bon Voyage" features a sample of tannoy announcements recorded at

Charles de Gaulle Airport Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, ), also known as Roissy Airport or simply Paris CDG, is the principal airport serving the French capital, Paris ( and its metropolitan area), and the largest intern ...

by a staff member at the French branch of

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

Release and promotion

''Barking at Airplanes'' was released on May 5, 1985, by

EMI America EMI America Records was started in 1978 by EMI as a second US label next to Capitol Records. It absorbed Liberty Records in 1984. In the late 1980s, EMI America was consolidated with Manhattan Records to form EMI Manhattan Records, which later ...

. In 2001, the album was reissued by

EMI-Capitol Special Markets EMI-Capitol Special Markets was an EMI subsidiary handling distribution for special markets. It bought 3C Records in the early nineties. It later operated as EMI Music Marketing and EMI Music Distribution in North America but have since been abs ...

with three bonus tracks; a cover version of "

" (retitled as "I Am a Camera") by Yes, "Forever" written by

Steven Van Zandt Steven Van Zandt (né Lento; born November 22, 1950), also known as Little Steven or Miami Steve, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He is a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin ...

, and a

demo Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to: Music and film *Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than release * ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes * ''Demo'' (Deafhea ...

version of Carnes singing "

Make No Mistake, He's Mine "Make No Mistake, He's Mine" is a song written by Kim Carnes, recorded as a duet with Barbra Streisand in 1984. The duet was subsequently recorded as "Make No Mistake, She's Mine" by Ronnie Milsap and Kenny Rogers in 1987. Both versions of the so ...

". Carnes became aware of this reissue during an interview with ''

'' in 2020, and said she never intended for them to be released. "

" was released as the album's

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...

on April 1, 1985. It spent a total of sixteen weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, peaking at no. 15. The song also reached no. 24 on the

Dance Club Songs Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...

chart and no. 22 on the ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' Top 100 Singles chart. The single charted highest in South Africa where it peaked at no. 3. The track received two remixes by Rusty Garner. "Abadabadango" was released as the album's second single in July 1985. It spent four weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 peaking at no. 67. The track received two extended remixes by Rusty Garner and Jack Witherby. "Rough Edges" was released in the US and Canada as the album's third single in October 1985. In the same year, "Bon Voyage" was released as a single exclusively in the Netherlands.

Critical reception

In a retrospective review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

described ''Barking at Airplanes'' as a "cohesive and consistent album" and her best outing since ''

Mistaken Identity Mistaken identity is a defense in criminal law which claims the actual innocence of the criminal defendant, and attempts to undermine evidence of guilt by asserting that any eyewitness to the crime incorrectly thought that they saw the defendan ...

''. ''

People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

'' stated that Carnes has "never recorded an album as pleasing as this", noting her "enchanting" voice.

Track listing

Personnel

* Kim Carnes – lead vocals, backing vocals (1-5, 7-10) * Bill Cuomo – synthesizers (1, 3, 4, 9), drum programming (1, 2, 6), Kurzweil synthesizer (5, 10),

Yamaha DX7 The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units. In the early 1980 ...

(5, 10), keyboards (6, 7), additional synthesizer (8),

Roland JX-3P The Roland JX-3P is a synthesizer produced by Roland Corporation of Japan from 1983-1985. The "3P" in its name refers to "Programmable Preset Polyphonic". It is notable as one of the company's first synthesizers (along with the Jupiter-6) to inc ...

(10) * Duane Hitchings – synthesizers (8),

Oberheim DMX The DMX is a programmable digital drum machine manufactured by Oberheim. It was introduced in 1980 at a list price of and remained in the company's product line until the mid-1980s. The Oberheim DMX was the second digital drum machine ever to b ...

programming (8) *

Waddy Wachtel Robert "Waddy" Wachtel (born May 24, 1947) is an American musician, composer and record producer, most notable for his guitar work. Wachtel has worked as session musician for other artists such as Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, Kim Carnes, Randy N ...

– electric guitar (1), backing vocals (1, 6), guitars (2, 6, 8) *

Lindsey Buckingham Lindsey Adams Buckingham (born October 3, 1949) is an American musician and record producer, best known as the lead guitarist and male lead vocalist of the band Fleetwood Mac from 1975 to 1987 and 1997 to 2018. In addition to his tenure with Fl ...

– guitars (3), lead and backing vocals (3) * Craig Hull – guitars (3, 9) * Chas Sanford – guitars (4) *

Ry Cooder Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, an ...

– guitars (7) *

Erik Scott Erik Scott (January 17, 1948 – October 11, 2019) was an American bassist, record producer, and songwriter. Scott played bass for the band Flo & Eddie in the 1970s as well as Alice Cooper in the early 1980s, for whom he also produced. In the 199 ...

– bass (3, 6, 7, 9) * David Jackson – bass (4) *

Leland Sklar Leland Bruce Sklar (born May 28, 1947) is an American bassist and session musician. Sklar rose to prominence as a member of James Taylor's backing band, which coaleced into a group in its own right, The Section. This group of musicians so frequ ...

– bass (5, 10) *

Craig Krampf Craig Krampf (born October 22, 1954) is an American drummer, percussionist, arranger, record producer and songwriter. The majority of his notable credits are as a studio drummer. Since the 1970s, he has played on albums by other artists ranging f ...

– drum programming (1, 2, 6), backing vocals (1, 6), drums (3, 9, 10), Oberheim DMX (3, 9) *

Gary Mallaber Gary Mallaber (born October 11, 1946 in Buffalo) is a Los Angeles session drummer, percussionist and singer. He attended Lafayette High School, where he and Bobby Militello, along with other musicians, were mentored by saxophonist Sam Scam ...

– drums (4) * Paulinho da Costa – percussion (2, 4, 5, 9) * Jerry Peterson – saxophone (3, 4, 8, 9) * Dave Ellingson – backing vocals (1-4, 6, 7, 8, 10) * Daniel Moore – backing vocals (1, 4, 6, 7, 8), lead vocals (8) * Julia Tillman Waters – backing vocals (4, 7-10) * Maxine Waters Willard – backing vocals (4, 7-10) *

Niko Bolas Niko Bolas is an American music producer, sound engineer, and consultant and business developer in the fields of virtual reality and Internet radio. In 1989, Bolas founded Fakespace Music with Mark Bolas, Ian McDowall and Christian Greuel, which, ...

– backing vocals (6) * Martha Davis – backing vocals (7) *

James Ingram James Edward Ingram (February 16, 1952 – January 29, 2019) was an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He was a two-time Grammy Award-winner and a two-time Academy Awards, Academy Award nominee for Academy Award for Best Original ...

– backing vocals (7)

Production

* Kim Carnes – producer * Bill Cuomo – producer (1-7, 9, 10) * Duane Hitchings – producer (8) * Mark Ettel – recording engineer * Sabrina Bucharek – second engineer * Tony Chiappa – second engineer * Judy Clapp – second engineer * Denny Densmore – second engineer * David Egerton – second engineer * Steve MacMillan – second engineer * Niko Bolas – additional engineer * Richard Bosworth – additional engineer * Duane Seykora – additional engineer * Mike Shipley – mixing (1-5, 8, 9, 10) * Ian Taylor – mixing (6, 7) *

George Marino George Marino (April 15, 1947 – June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s. Biography Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He at ...

– mastering * Sue McGonigle – project coordinator * Henry Marquez – art direction * Jay Vigon – design * Richard Seireeni – design * Eric Blum – back cover photo * Greg Corman – front cover photo *

Matthew Rolston Matthew Russell Rolston is an American artist, photographer, Music video director, director and creative director, known for his lighting techniques and detailed approach to art direction and design. Rolston has been identified throughout his care ...

– inner sleeve photos * Michael Brokaw – direction

Studios

* Recorded at

Ocean Way Recording Ocean Way Recording was a series of recording studios established by recording engineer and producer Allen Sides with locations in Los Angeles, California, Nashville, Tennessee, and Saint Barthélemy. Ocean Way Recording no longer operates record ...

and

Record One Record One is a recording studio complex in the Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Originally founded in 1979, the studio has been the site of numerous commercially successful and award-winning record ...

(Los Angeles, California). * Mixed at

Larrabee Sound Studios Larrabee Sound Studios is a recording studio complex in North Hollywood, California, originally established in 1969. Facilities Located at 4162 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, Larrabee has six studios, three tracking spaces, and a produ ...

and

Galaxy Studios Galaxy Studios is a music recording, mixing, mastering and post-production facility established in 1980 by two brothers, Wilfried and Guy Van Baelen. It is the origin of Auro 3D sound technology, invented and developed by CEO Wilfried Van Bae ...

(Hollywood, California). * Mastered at Sterling Sound (New York City, New York).

Writing and recording

Release and promotion

Critical reception

Track listing

Personnel

Production

Studios

Charts

Release history

References

External links