By the late 1970s, Kenny Rogers commissioned Kim Carnes to write all the songs for his 1980 concept album Gideon. Along with her husband, David M. Ellingson, Carnes co-wrote all 12 tracks and also shared one duet with Rogers, “Don’t Fall in Love with a Dreamer.”
Released a year before Carnes’ global success with her cover of the 1974 Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon-penned “Bette Davis Eyes,” her single with Rogers peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 on the Country chart, and earned them a Grammy nomination.
Carnes, who also played with Rogers in the New Christy Minstrels during the mid-’60s, had already released four albums and established herself as a songwriter since the 1960s, and wrote the 1974 song, “Song for a Rainy Day,” for David Cassidy and “Stay Away” for Barbra Streisand’s 1978 album Songbird.
Nearly a decade after their first duet, Rogers called on Carnes again to write a song he could sing with another female artist for his 1989 album Something Inside So Strong. Carnes teamed up with “Bette Davis Eyes” writer Weiss on “The Heart Won’t Lie,” a ballad of two lovers who can’t deny their feelings for one another.
Looking back over the years
Of all the things I’ve always meant to say
But the words didn’t come easily
So many times through empty fears
Of all the nights, I tried to pick up the phone
So scared of who might be answering
You try to live your life from day to day
But seeing you across the room tonight
Just gives me away
‘Cause the heart won’t lie
Sometimes life gets in the way
But there’s one thing that won’t change
I know, I’ve tried
The heart won’t lie
You can live your alibi
Who can see you’re lost inside
A foolish disguise?
The heart won’t lie