"I Only Have Eyes for You" is a romantic love song by composer

Harry Warren Harry Warren (born Salvatore Antonio Guaragna; December 24, 1893 – September 22, 1981) was an American composer and the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song ...

and lyricist

Al Dubin Alexander Dubin (June 10, 1891 – February 11, 1945) was an American lyricist. He is best known for his collaborations with the composer Harry Warren. Life Al Dubin came from a Russian Jewish family that emigrated to the United States from Swit ...

, written for the film ''

Dames ''Dame'' is an honorific title and the feminine form of address for the honour of damehood in many Christian chivalric orders, as well as the British honours system and those of several other Commonwealth realms, such as Australia and New Zeala ...

'' (1934) when

Dick Powell Richard Ewing Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) was an American actor, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility, and successfully transformed into ...

introduced it. Several successful recordings of the song were made in 1934; later, there were charted versions by The Flamingos (1959) and Art Garfunkel (1975).

Charting versions

Popular 1934 versions

Ben Selvin (vocal by Howard Phillips), Eddy Duchin (vocal by Lew Sherwood), and Jane Froman.

The Flamingos version

The Flamingos recorded a

doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...

adaptation of "I Only Have Eyes for You" at Bell Sound Studios in New York City in 1958. Their version was commercially successful, peaking at number 11 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and number 3 on the ''Billboard''

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs 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 ...

chart. This recording has become recognised as a genre-defining work and has been frequently included in numerous lists; it was ranked as the 73rd biggest hit of 1959 by ''Billboard'', while ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' magazine placed it at number 158 on their list of the "

500 Greatest Songs of All Time "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" is a recurring survey compiled by the American magazine '' Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and industry figures. The first list was published in December 2004 i ...

". This version was used in a commercial for

Amazon Alexa Amazon Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesiser named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Echo Dot, Echo Studio ...

and was featured in The Crown (season 2) and

Euphoria (American TV series) ''Euphoria'' is an American teen drama television series created and principally written by Sam Levinson for HBO and based on the Euphoria (Israeli TV series), Israeli miniseries of the same name created by Ron Leshem and Daphna Levin. The ser ...

. It was also featured in the 2018 thriller '' Breaking In''.

Cliff Richard version

A 1964 recording by

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million ...

and the Norrie Paramor Orchestra peaked at number 31 on the Australian chart.

The Lettermen version

A 1966 recording by

The Lettermen The Lettermen are an American male pop vocal trio. The Lettermen's trademark is close-harmony pop songs with light arrangements. The group started in 1959. They have had two Top 10 singles (both No. 7), 16 Top 10 singles on the Adult Contempor ...

went to number 4 on the US Easy Listening chart and number 72 on Hot 100.

Jerry Butler version

In 1972,

Jerry Butler Jerry Butler Jr. (born December 8, 1939) is an American soul singer-songwriter, producer, musician, and retired politician. He was the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group the Impressions, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame i ...

's version on

Mercury records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it ...

spent eight weeks on the Billboard R&B chart, reaching a positional high of number 20. It also charted in the Billboard Hot 100, reaching number 85.

Art Garfunkel version

A recording of the song by Art Garfunkel was a number-one hit on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in October 1975 for two weeks. In the US, the song reached number 18 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and No. 1 on the ''Billboard''

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

chart. Garfunkel performed "I Only Have Eyes for You" on the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ea ...

episode of ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves ...

''.

Other selected notable versions

The song has been recorded by many artists, including

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...

(1952),

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the " Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1940s, 1950s, and ...

(1962), Sunny Ozuna (1968), Robert Knight (1970), David Porter (1970), Carmen McRae (1972), Jermaine Jackson (1972), The Escorts (1973), Erroll Garner (1974),

Eddie Floyd Edward Lee Floyd (born June 25, 1937) is an American R&B and soul singer and songwriter, best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s, including the No. 1 R&B hit song " Knock on Wood". Biography Floyd was born in ...

(1977),

The Main Ingredient The Main Ingredient was an American soul and R&B group best known for their 1972 hit song " Everybody Plays the Fool". Early history The group was formed in Harlem, New York City in 1964 as a trio called the Poets, composed of lead singer Do ...

(1981), Billy Paul (1985),

Zapp Zapp may refer to: People *Jim Zapp (1924-2016), baseball player *Robert-Richard Zapp, a German U-boat commander during World War II *Walter Zapp, a Baltic German inventor, designer of miniature cameras *Zapp Brannigan, a fictional character from t ...

(1985),

Etta James Jamesetta Hawkins (January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012), known professionally as Etta James, was an American singer who performed in various genres, including gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, rock and roll, and soul. Starting her career in 1954, sh ...

(1999), George Benson (2000),

Carly Simon Carly Elisabeth Simon (born June 25, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, memoirist, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records; her 13 Top 40 U.S. hits include " Anticipation" (No. 13), " The Right Th ...

(2005), Summer Camp (2009),

Tashaki Miyaki Tashaki Miyaki is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 2011, they immediately began to garner the attention of taste makers such as ''The Guardian'', ''NME'', Mojo Magazine, KCRW and ''The New York Times'' for their pais ...

(2015), and

Boyz II Men Boyz II Men (pronounced ''boys to men''), also known as B2M, is an American vocal harmony group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. They are currently a trio composed of baritone Nathan ...

(2017).

References

Notes Sources * ''The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits'', 6th Edition, 1996 {{DEFAULTSORT:I Only Have Eyes For You 1930s jazz standards 1934 songs 1950 singles 1959 singles 1966 singles 1975 singles Art Garfunkel songs Vikki Carr songs The Flamingos songs The Lettermen songs Jerry Butler songs Song recordings produced by Richard Perry Carmen McRae songs UK Singles Chart number-one singles Pop standards Songs with music by Harry Warren Songs with lyrics by Al Dubin Songs written for films End Records singles Columbia Records singles