The Night Has a Thousand Eyes

Bobby Vee

They say that you're a runaround lover

"No," you say, "It isn't so"

But if you put me down for another

I'll know, believe me, I'll know

'Cause the night has a thousand eyes

And a thousand eyes can't help but see

If you are true to me

So remember when you tell those little white lies

That the night has a thousand eyes

You say that you're at home when you phone me

And how much you really care

Though you keep tellin' me that you're lonely

I'll know if someone is there

'Cause the night has a thousand eyes

And a thousand eyes can't help but see

If you are true to me

So remember when you tell those little white lies

That the night has a thousand eyes

One of these days you're gonna be sorry

'Cause your game I'm gonna play

And you'll find out without really tryin'

Each time that I kiss astray

'Cause the night has a thousand eyes

And a thousand eyes will see me true

And no matter what I do

I could never disguise all my little white lies

'Cause the night has a thousand eyes

So remember when you tell those little white lies

That the night has a thousand eyes  

This upbeat song by Bobby Vee upon first listening may not seem like it belongs on a horror music page. However, there’s something essentially creepy about the image of the night having a thousand eyes, something reminiscent of the Dali sequence in Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1945).

This is the most innocuous of the songs listed here about watching and being watched.  Although there is a certain horror in being disempowered and objectified by the gaze, this song offers no threat of punishment for transgression, merely the threat of constant observation--a threat that's more nebulous but, perhaps, more frightening for that very fact.