Bright Eyes (song)

"Bright Eyes" is a song written by British songwriter Mike Batt and performed by Art Garfunkel. It was written for the soundtrack of the 1978 British animated adventure drama film Watership Down. Rearranged as a pop song from its original form in the film, the track appears on British and European versions of Garfunkel's 1979 Fate for Breakfast and on the US versions of his 1981 album Scissors Cut. "Bright Eyes" topped the UK Singles Chart for six weeks and became Britain's biggest-selling single of 1979, selling over a million copies. Richard Adams, author of the original novel, is reported to have hated the song. A cover of the song was later used explicitly in the Watership Down television series as its theme song.

Background
The song was written, produced and arranged by Mike Batt for Watership Down, with original director John Hubley requesting a song about death. It plays when the rabbit Hazel, the lead character in the film, almost dies after being wounded by a farmer's gun and Fiver, his little brother is led to him by the Black Rabbit of Inlé.

Batt described recording the song as "one of the most difficult sessions" of his career as he wrote the lyrics with his father in mind who was terminally ill with cancer at the time.

The pop single arrangement of the song was very successful in the United Kingdom, staying at number one in the UK Singles Chart for six weeks in 1979, selling over one million copies, becoming the biggest-selling single of the year. In the United States, it failed to reach the Billboard Hot 100. It reached No. 29 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.

Personnel

 * Art Garfunkel – vocals
 * Mike Batt – arranger producer
 * Chris Spedding – acoustic guitar
 * Roland Harker – lute guitar
 * Les Hurdle – bass guitar
 * Roy J. Morgan – drums
 * Edwin Roxburgh – oboe
 * Ray Cooper – percussion

In popular culture
In 2023, the song featured heavily in the fifth episode of season six of the popular Netflix anthology series, Black Mirror, titled "Demon 79", which is set in 1979, the year of the song's release. The song serves as the episode's opening and closing theme.