Pete Byrne, the English singer whose warm, earnest voice turned a Burt Bacharach standard into one of the defining hits of the early MTV era, died Sept. 14 in Los Angeles. He was 74. Naked Eyes announced that Byrne died peacefully after a brief illness. A cause of death was not released.
Born Peter James Byrne on June 9, 1952, in Islington, North London, and raised in Bath, he spent the late 1970s moving through a series of short-lived groups. Those included a duo with Jeff Starrs, the band Studio, and Neon — a lineup that also featured future Tears for Fears members Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, along with keyboardist Rob Fisher, who would become Byrne’s essential partner. After Neon dissolved, Byrne and Fisher decided the two of them were enough. They formed Naked Eyes in 1982, signed with EMI, and recorded at Abbey Road with producer Tony Mansfield.
Their debut — titled Burning Bridges in the U.K. and simply Naked Eyes in the United States — arrived in 1983 and reached No. 32 on the Billboard 200. The lead single was a sleek, synth-driven cover of Bacharach and Hal David’s “Always Something There to Remind Me.” Byrne’s boyish, slightly aching vocal sat atop Fisher’s sparkling keyboards and a crisp electronic pulse. The record peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became a staple of the second British Invasion, sitting comfortably alongside Duran Duran, A Flock of Seagulls and the other MTV-era imports. Follow-up singles “Promises, Promises” (No. 11), “When the Lights Go Out” (No. 37) and “(What) In the Name of Love” (No. 39) gave the duo four Top 40 hits across two albums.
Naked Eyes never mounted a full-scale tour in their original incarnation; the pair preferred the studio and found it difficult to recreate their layered sound live. After the 1984 album Fuel for the Fire, they went their separate ways. Byrne contributed backing vocals to Stevie Wonder’s 1985 hit “Part-Time Lover” and later wrote songs for film and television, including material for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Fisher died in 1999 at 42. Byrne released a solo album, The Real Illusion, in 2001 that included unfinished songs the two had written together, then revived the Naked Eyes name. Later records included the covers collection Fumbling with the Covers (2007) and the original set Disguise the Limit (2021). In recent years he appeared on 1980s package tours, including dates with Wang Chung, Men Without Hats and The Motels.
Byrne is survived by his children Merlin, Dylan and Chloe; siblings Eileen, Sandy, Carol and Steve; and his former wife, Elena. A private family service is planned. Those wishing to honor him have been asked to support his music. The songs he left behind — especially that indelible Bacharach cover — still turn up on playlists, in commercials and on the radio whenever someone needs a reminder of how brightly the mid-1980s could gleam.
