"These Eyes" is a song by the Canadian

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

The Guess Who The Guess Who are a Canadian rock band formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1965. The band originated in 1962 and achieved an international hit single with a cover of "Shakin' All Over" in 1965 under the name Chad Allan and the Expressions. After c ...

. The song was co-written by the group's lead guitarist

Randy Bachman Randolph Charles Bachman (; born September 27, 1943) is a Canadian guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a founding member of the bands The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive. Bachman recorded as a solo artist and was part of a num ...

and lead singer Burton Cummings and originally included on the band's 1969 album '' Wheatfield Soul''. It was first released as a single (backed by "Lightfoot"), in their native Canada, where its chart success (#7), along with the influence of

CKLW-AM CKLW (800 AM) is a commercial radio station in Windsor, Ontario, serving Southwestern Ontario and Metro Detroit. CKLW has a news/ talk format. It features local hosts in morning and afternoon drive times, with syndicated Canadian hosts in midd ...

Windsor's radio station music director

Rosalie Trombley Rosalie Trombley (September 18, 1939 – November 23, 2021) was a Canadian music director of AM Top 40 radio station CKLW, also known as "The Big 8". She was known for her ability to select songs that would later become big hits. At the time, ...

, helped land them a U.S. distribution deal with

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

. It was then released in the U.S. in March 1969, and became a breakthrough success for the group, as it would be their first single to reach the top ten on the ''Billboard'' Pop Singles chart, peaking at number six, and would eventually be certified gold by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

for sales of over one million copies. It was also a top ten hit in South Africa. While it was actually the 18th single released by the band overall, it was the first from the line-up of Cummings, Bachman, Jim Kale, and

Garry Peterson The Guess Who are a Canadian rock band formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1965. The band originated in 1962 and achieved an international hit single with a cover of "Shakin' All Over" in 1965 under the name Chad Allan and the Expressions. After ...

as produced by Jack Richardson.

Background and writing

Bachman had the original piano chords with an original title of "These Arms". Cummings changed the title to "These Eyes" and added the middle eight. At first, the band didn't even want to release the song considering the gentle ballad too great a departure from their hard rock roots. The song features an orchestral arrangement by

Ben McPeek Benjamin Dewey McPeek (28 August 1934 – 14 January 1981) was a Canadian composer, arranger,Jeanette Leech. Seasons They Change: The Story of Acid and Psychedelic Folk'. Jawbone Press; 2010. . p. 80–. conductor, and pianist. Early life ...

Content

The song is noted for its repeated long section which starts in

C major C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and ...

, then goes up a whole tone to

D major D major (or the key of D) is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor. The D major scale is: : Ch ...

, then up a whole tone again in

E major E major (or the key of E) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, ...

, and finally in the coda to

F-sharp major F-sharp major (or the key of F) is a major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has six sharps. The F-sharp major scale is: : Its relative minor is D-sharp minor (or enharmonically E-f ...

, before the fade.

Personnel

* Burton Cummings - lead vocals,

Hohner Pianet The Hohner Pianet is a type of electro-mechanical piano built by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany and designed by Ernst Zacharias. The Pianet was a variant of his earlier reed-based Hohner electric piano, the Cembalet, which, like ...

electric piano *

- guitar *

Jim Kale Michael James Kale (born August 11, 1943) is a retired Canadian musician, best known as the original bassist for the rock band The Guess Who. He also served in the band Scrubbaloe Caine. In 1987, he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of ...

- bass *

- drums

Covers

Among the many cover versions released over the years, Junior Walker & the All-Stars' version reached number three on the

R&B Singles Chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

and number 16 on the ''Billboard'' Pop Singles in October 1969.

Alton Ellis Alton Nehemiah Ellis (1 September 1938 – 10 October 2008)Godfather ...

' cover of this song is featured on his 1970 album ''

Sunday Coming ''Sunday Coming'' is a 1970 album by Jamaican rocksteady singer Alton Ellis. It was produced by Clement "Coxsone" Dodd and recorded at his Brentford Road studio. The album was originally released on Dodd's Coxsone label and subsequently reissued ...

''. This reggae arrangement was produced by

Coxsone Dodd Clement Seymour "Coxsone" Dodd (26 January 1932 – 4 May 2004) was a Jamaican record producer who was influential in the development of ska and reggae in the 1950s, 1960s and beyond. He was nicknamed "Coxsone" at school due to his talent a ...

. In 1971 another reggae adaptation followed: "These Eyes (Crying every night)" by

Stranger Cole Stranger Cole, also known as StrangeJah Cole (born Wilburn Theodore Cole, 26 June 1942)Thompson, Dave (2002) ''Reggae & Caribbean Music'', Backbeat Books, , p. 335 is a Jamaican singer whose long recording career dates from the early days of ska ...

(produced by Byron Smith) followed by Tommy McCook and the Supersonics instrumental version titled "Mighty Alley". Subsequently

U-Roy Ewart Beckford OD (21 September 1942 – 17 February 2021), known by the stage name U-Roy, was a Jamaican vocalist and pioneer of toasting.Jo-Ann GreeneU-Roy Biography, AllMusic. Retrieved 11 April 2013. U-Roy was known for a melodic style ...

and Hopeton Lewis sang and toasted new lyrics over "Mighty Alley" to create the recording "Tom Drunk", both recordings produced by

Duke Reid Arthur "Duke" Reid CD (21 July 1915 – 1 January 1975) was a Jamaican record producer, DJ and label owner. He ran one of the most popular sound systems of the 1950s called Reid's Sound System, whilst Duke himself was known as The Troja ...

Herman Marquis Herman Marquis is a Jamaican saxophone musician who has played with many reggae artists including Burning Spear. He recorded for Arthur "Duke" Reid in the 1960s and was a member of The Revolutionaries and The Upsetters in the 1970s.Barrow, Steve ...

also issued an instrumental version titled "Tom's Version", produced by Byron Smith.

Michael Bolton Michael Bolotin
, The Jewish Historical Society of New Haven, 1998. (born February 26, 1953), known professio ...

, then known as Michael Bolotin, covered the song on his 1976 sophomore solo album '' Everyday of My Life''.

Natalie Cole Natalie Maria Cole (February 6, 1950 – December 31, 2015) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was the daughter of American singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole. She rose to success in the mid-1970s as an R&B singer with the h ...

covered the song on her 1981 album '' Happy Love'', her final album under her

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

contract. Canadian hip-hop artist

Maestro Maestro (; from the Italian ''wikt:maestro#Italian, maestro'' , meaning "wikt:master, master" or "teacher") is an honorific title of respect (plural: maestros or maestri). The term is most commonly used in the context of Western classical music ...

sampled this song for his 1998 Canadian hit " Stick to Your Vision" from the '' Built to Last'' album. In addition, the chorus (of which the first part states "These eyes/Seen a lot of shame in the game/These eyes/Seen a lot of pain in the fame/These eyes/Seen a lot of highs and lows/But that's just the way life goes") uses Burton Cummings' vocals for the words "these eyes" in a call-and-response manner. Canadian musician

Lawrence Gowan Lawrence Henry Gowan (born 22 November 1956) is a Scottish born Canadian singer and keyboardist. He was born in Glasgow and raised in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, Ontario. Gowan has been both a solo artist and lead vocalist and keyboard ...

released a cover of the song on his ''Best of...'' greatest hits release in 1997 as a tribute to the Guess Who being the first concert he ever saw when he was a child. The song was also covered by jacksoul on their 2006 album '' mySOUL''. The song was also featured in the 2007 American comedy film '' Superbad'' where it is sung by

Michael Cera Michael Austin Cera (; ; born June 7, 1988) is a Canadian actor and musician. He started his career as a child actor, voicing the character of Brother Bear on the children's television show ''The Berenstain Bears (2003 TV series), The Berenstain ...

. The band

Ween Ween is an American rock band from New Hope, Pennsylvania, formed in 1984 by Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo, better known by their respective stage names, Gene and Dean Ween. Generally categorized as an alternative rock band, the band are ...

would often perform a humorous cover of the song live called "Deez Nutz". In 2008, Gregg Gillis, better known to the public as Girl Talk, sampled the song for the track entitled "Set It Off" from his fourth album, ''

Feed the Animals ''Feed the Animals'' is the fourth studio album by American musician Gregg Gillis, released under his stage name Girl Talk by Illegal Art on June 19, 2008. Illegal Art originally released the album as a digital download through their website usi ...

''.

Angie Stone Angela Laverne Brown (born December 18, 1961) known professionally as Angie Stone, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. She rose to fame in the late 1970s as member of the hip hop trio The Sequence. In the early 1990s ...

did a soulful version of the song on her 2016 ''Covered in Soul'' album.

Other uses in popular culture

The Guess Who's version appears in a

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

TV commercial A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

for

JBL JBL is an American audio equipment manufacturer headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. JBL serves the customer home and professional market. The professional market includes studios, installed/tour/portable sound, cars, music ...

. This version was also used in the 2005

psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a genre combining the thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting. In terms of context and co ...

film ''

Stay Stay may refer to: Places * Stay, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the US Law * Stay of execution, a ruling to temporarily suspend the enforcement of a court judgment * Stay of proceedings, a ruling halting further legal process in a tri ...

'', directed by

Marc Forster Marc Forster (born 30 November 1969) is a Swiss filmmaker. He is best known for directing the feature films '' Monster's Ball'', '' Finding Neverland'', '' Stranger than Fiction'', ''The Kite Runner'', ''Quantum of Solace'', ''World War Z'', and ...

. The song is also featured in the 2007 comedy film '' Superbad''. Labatt USA used These Eyes for their advertisement for

Labatt Blue Labatt Brewing Company Limited (french: La Brasserie Labatt Limitée) is a Belgian-owned brewery headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1847, Labatt is the largest brewer in Canada. In 1995, it was purchased by Belgian brewer Int ...

in 2015.Archived a
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Wayback Machine

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 1960s ballads 1968 songs 1968 singles 1969 singles Baroque pop songs Songs written by Randy Bachman Songs written by Burton Cummings The Guess Who songs Junior Walker songs Michael Bolton songs Maestro Fresh-Wes songs Song recordings produced by Jack Richardson (record producer) RCA Records singles RCA Victor singles Angie Stone songs Pop ballads Soul ballads