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One of the strangest phenomena of early ’80s pop is that U.K. pop duo Naked Eyes – who stormed the Top 10 in America in the summer of 1983 with a thunderous synth version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Always Something There to Remind Me” – completely missed the chart at home. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that a forthcoming expanded edition of their debut, featuring three unreleased demos and a fistful of non-album tracks, takes its cues from the American version of the album.

Available October 10, the newly deluxe edition of Naked Eyes, mastered by Phil Kinrade at AIR Mastering, offers the album as it was released by EMI America in 1983, not long after a slightly extended and resequenced edition, known overseas as Burning Bridges, was released to relative obscurity. This new CD pressing – available the same day as a 2LP set – includes both songs exclusive to Burning Bridges that were also released as single B-sides stateside (“A Very Hard Act to Follow” and “The Time is Now”) plus U.K. B-sides “Pit Stop” and “Sweet Poison.” (Chrysalis Records, who holds the rights to the album now, reissued the album on CD in 2018, but did not include the latter track.) Two U.S. remixes of hits “Always Something There” and “Promises, Promises,” engineered by John “Jellybean” Benitez, are also included, as are demos of album tracks “Emotion in Motion” and “Voices in My Head” plus a demo of unreleased song “Waiting in the Wings.” Surviving vocalist Pete Byrne has also penned new liner notes for the accompanying 12-page booklet.

Naked Eyes – comprised of Byrne and keyboardist Rob Fisher – were arguably the second-most famous group to emerge from the English city of Bath in the early ’80s. (Interestingly, the duo was briefly bandmates with the most famous, forming the synth-driven combo Neon with Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith – the nucleus of Tears for Fears – plus TFF’s longtime touring guitarist Neil Taylor and drummer Manny Elias.) Byrne and Fisher connected with electronic-friendly producer Tony Mansfield for their debut, armed with a cadre of demos that impressed the label brass at EMI. One of them was “Always Something There to Remind Me,” the Bacharach-David tune taken to No. 1 by British singer Sandie Shaw but only a middling hit for either Shaw or soul singers Lou Johnson and R.B. Greaves. (Dionne Warwick’s version never made it past the demo stage.)

With an infectious synth and electronic drum-driven backing track (powered by pealing bells in the introductory hook) and a one-take vocal Byrne reportedly nailed after attending a party with Paul McCartney at Abbey Road, “Always Something There” had all the hallmarks of a guaranteed worldwide early ’80s hit. Except…it wasn’t. In England, the track eked out a No. 59 chart placement; other audiences were far more receptive, taking the tune to the Top 10 in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Follow-up “Promises, Promises” (which ironically shared a name with another Bacharach-David favorite) was another winner, anchored by funky guitar and bass, mysterious synth hooks and another passioned vocal from Byrne. It just missed the Top 10 in America, peaking at No. 11. (In the early 2000s, a Naked Eyes compilation revealed an interesting bit of trivia also repeated on this disc: New York remixer Jellybean Benitez, who sweetened the track for U.S. audiences, had a go at a never-released 12″ mix. In the song’s extended bridge, he had his then-girlfriend contribute a spoken-word interlude, giving an early spotlight to Madonna, who’d start her journey as a pop legend that same year.)

Despite the success of those two singles, Naked Eyes as an album was slightly more than modest even in America, and follow-up Fuel for the Fire, mostly produced by Mansfield except for minor Top 40 hit “(What) in the Name of Love” and follow-up single “Sacrifice” (which were helmed by Arthur Baker), fared little better. The duo went their separate ways and enjoyed success as session musicians: Byrne sang backing vocals on Stevie Wonder’s “Part-Time Lover” alongside Luther Vandross, Philip Bailey and others, and even produced a series of albums for then-child actresses Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen. Fisher, for his part, was one-half of short-lived duo Climie Fisher – they of the soft-rock banger “Love Changes (Everything)” – and worked regularly until his death in 1999 after a surgery to treat cancer. Several tracks the duo was working on before Fisher’s death were released on the album The Real Illusion in 2001, and Byrne has since performed under the Naked Eyes name as a fixture of many ’80s nostalgia tours.

This new edition of Naked Eyes opens October 10 and can be pre-ordered below. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Naked Eyes (Deluxe Edition) (Chrysalis CRCX1102, 2025)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

* previously unreleased

1. Always Something There to Remind Me
2. Fortune and Fame
3. When the Lights Go Out
4. Voices in My Head
5. Low Life
6. Promises, Promises (U.S. Single Version)
7. I Could Show You How
8. Emotion in Motion
9. Burning Bridges
10. Could Be
11. Waiting in the Wings (Demo) *
12. Voices in My Head (Demo) *
13. Emotion in Motion (Demo) *
14. A Very Hard Act to Follow
15. The Time is Now
16. Pit Stop
17. Sweet Poison
18. Always Something There to Remind Me (Jellybean Extended Remix)
19. Promises, Promises (Jellybean 12″ Dance Mix)

Tracks 1-10 released as EMI America ST-17089, 1983
Tracks 14-15 released on Burning Bridges – EMI EMC 3426 (U.K.), 1983
Track 16 released on “Always Something There to Remind Me” U.K. single – EMI 5334, 1982
Track 17 released on “Voices in My Head” U.K. single – EMI 5363, 1983
Track 18 released on EMI America 12″ promo SPRO-9923, 1983
Track 19 released on Everything and More – One Way/EMI Music Special Markets 72435 39815 2 5, 2002