Jackie DeShannon

After the song "Bette Davis Eyes" became a hit single, Bette Davis wrote letters to singer Kim Carnes and songwriters Donna Weiss and DeShannon and asked how did they know so much about her. One of the reasons Davis loved the Grammy-winning song is that her granddaughter heard it and thought her grandmother was "cool" for having a hit song written about her.

I was brought up with all kinds of music and it was natural for me to do anything I wanted. It's hard to believe that people would categorize you into one thing. I wanted to be an artist, just like Georgia O'Keeffe, and to be accepted for what I did. But being one of the first female singer / songwriters was a brand-new thing and people didn't know exactly what to make of it. If I came out with a [Hal David / Burt Bacharach] song like "What the World Needs Now Is Love" and followed it with "The Weight", what was that?