McCorkle was born in Berkeley, California. She studied modern languages at the University of California, Berkeley. McCorkle began singing professionally after hearing recordings of Billie Holiday in Paris in the late 1960s. She nearly became an interpreter at the European Commission in Brussels, but moved instead to London in 1972 to pursue a career in singing. While in the UK, she made two albums which, although well received, enjoyed only limited circulation.
In the late 1970s, McCorkle returned to the United States and settled in New York City, where a five-month engagement at the Cookery in Greenwich Village brought her to wider public attention and elicited rave reviews from critics.
During the 1980s, McCorkle continued to record; her maturing style and the darkening timbre of her voice greatly enhanced her performances. In the early 1990s, two of the albums McCorkle made for Concord Records, No More Blues and Sábia, were enormously successful and made her name known to the wider world. She was recorded by the Smithsonian Institution which at the time made her the youngest singer ever to have been included in its popular music series. McCorkle played Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls five times and Carnegie Hall three times, and was featured soloist with Skitch Henderson and the 80-piece New York Pops in a concert of Brazilian music.
Thanks to her linguistic skills, McCorkle translated lyrics of Brazilian, French, and Italian songs, notably those for her Brazilian album Sabia. McCorkle also had several short stories published and, in 1991, began work on her first novel. She published fiction in Mademoiselle, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and non-fiction in the New York Times Magazine and in American Heritage, including lengthy articles on Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, Irving Berlin and Mae West.
McCorkle suffered for many years from depression and cancer, and took her own life at age 55 by leaping off the balcony of her highrise Manhattan apartment. She was alone in her home at the time. The police immediately entered her home after identifying her body and found no foul play. Suicide was ruled the cause of death.
I Only Have Eyes For You
Susannah McCorkle Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I can't see anyone but you
Sha bop sha bop
Are the stars out tonight
I don't know if it's cloudy or bright
I only have eyes for you dear
But I can't see a thing in the sky
I only have eyes for you
I don't know if we're in a garden
Or on a crowded avenue
You are here and so am I
Maybe millions of people go by
But they all disappear from view
And I only have eyes for you
Susannah McCorkle's song "I Only Have Eyes For You" talks about a kind of love which seems to be blind, as the lyrics begin by saying "My love must be a kind of blind love". It is the kind of love that makes one unable to see anyone else but the person they are in love with. The second line "I can't see anyone but you" reinforces this kind of love. The chorus is repetitive and highlights the obsession of the singer for the person she loves. The sha bop sha bop which follows the first line of the chorus is an onomatopoeic sound, which might denote a certain carefreeness that the singer feels with the person she loves, suggesting that they can have fun together without any care in the world.
The second verse of the song explores how the singer's love for her partner limits her perception of the environment around her. She is so obsessed with her partner that she does not know whether the stars are visible tonight or not, emphasizing how her partner's presence takes precedence over her surroundings. The moon may be shining bright, but she is unable to appreciate its beauty because her focus is solely on her lover. The third and final verse explores how the same kind of love makes the singer lose her sense of space, as she notes that she is unsure whether they are in a garden or on a crowded avenue, but she knows that she only has eyes for her lover. Furthermore, she acknowledges that there may be other people around, but they do not matter because she only has eyes for the person she loves.
Line by Line Meaning
My love must be a kind of blind love
The love I have for you may not make rational sense, but it is strong and all-consuming.
I can't see anyone but you
You are the only person that I see and care about. My love is exclusive to you.
Sha bop sha bop
This is a fun, upbeat line that serves as a transition between the previous and next verses.
Are the stars out tonight
I am not aware of what's happening around me because my focus is solely on you.
I don't know if it's cloudy or bright
I am so enamored with you that I haven't even noticed the weather outside.
I only have eyes for you dear
I am completely fixated on you and nothing else matters. You are the center of my universe.
The moon may be high
Even if there were other things to see in the sky, I wouldn't be able to focus on them because of my intense feelings for you.
But I can't see a thing in the sky
My love for you is so strong that it has blinded me to everything else.
I don't know if we're in a garden
I am so focused on you that I can't even tell where we are at the moment.
Or on a crowded avenue
Whether we're alone or surrounded by other people doesn't matter to me, because I am only focused on you.
You are here and so am I
The only thing that matters is that we are together.
Maybe millions of people go by
Even if there are other people around, they are insignificant compared to you.
But they all disappear from view
In my eyes, no one else exists but you.
And I only have eyes for you
This line brings the song full circle, reiterating that my love for you is all-encompassing and all-consuming.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Peermusic Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Al Dubin, Harry Warren
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind