Eurythmics were a British new wave duo formed in 1980, consisting of Scottish vocalist Annie Lennox and English musician and producer Dave Stewart. They were both previously in the Tourists, a band that broke up in 1980. They released their first studio album, In the Garden, in 1981 to little success, but achieved global acclaim with their second album, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (1983). The title track became a worldwide hit, reaching number two in the UK Singles Chart, and number one in Canada and on the US Billboard Hot 100. Eurythmics went on to release a string of hit singles and albums, including "Love Is a Stranger", "There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)" and "Here Comes the Rain Again", before splitting in 1990.
Stewart became a sought-after record producer, while Lennox began a solo recording career in 1992 with her debut album Diva. After almost a decade apart, Eurythmics reunited to record their ninth album, Peace, released 1999. The album produced three singles – "I Saved the World Today", "17 Again" and "Peace Is Just a Word". The same year, they were awarded the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. They reunited again in 2005 to release the single "I've Got a Life", which peaked within the top ten on the singles charts in Scotland, the top twenty in the United Kingdom and reaching number one on the US Dance Club Songs Charts, as part of a new compilation album, Ultimate Collection.
Eurythmics have sold an estimated 75 million records worldwide. Their awards include the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist in 1984, the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1987, and the Brit Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Music in 1999. They were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
It was in a hotel in Wagga Wagga, Australia, while playing around with a portable mini-synthesizer that Lennox and Stewart decided to become a duo. Calling themselves Eurythmics (after the pedagogical exercise system that Lennox had encountered as a child), they decided to keep themselves as the only permanent members and songwriters, and involve others in the collaboration "on the basis of mutual compatibility and availability". The duo signed to RCA Records. At this time, Lennox and Stewart also split as a couple. During the period that Lennox and Stewart were in the Tourists, and later as Eurythmics, they were managed by Kenny Smith and Sandra Turnbull of Hyper Kinetics Ltd.
They recorded their first album, In the Garden, in Cologne with Conny Plank (who had produced the later Tourists sessions). The album, released in October 1981, mixed psychedelic, krautrock and electropop influences, and featured contributions from Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit (of Can), drummer Clem Burke (of Blondie), Robert Görl (of D.A.F.), and flautist Tim Wheater. A couple of the songs were co-written by guitarist Roger Pomphrey (later a TV director). The album was not a commercial success (though the debut single "Never Gonna Cry Again" made the UK charts at No. 63). Lennox and Stewart then activated their new Eurythmics mode of operation by touring the record as a duo, accompanied by backing tracks and electronics, carted around the country by themselves in a horse-box.
During 1982, the duo retreated to Chalk Farm in London and used a bank loan to establish a small eight-track studio above a picture framing factory, giving them freedom to record without having to pay expensive studio fees. They began to employ much more electronics in their music, collaborating with Raynard Faulkner and Adam Williams, recording many tracks in the studio and playing live using various line-up permutations. However, the three new singles they released that year ("This Is the House", "The Walk" and "Love Is a Stranger") all performed badly on initial release in the UK. Although their mode of operation had given them the creative freedom they desired, commercial success still eluded them and the responsibility of personally running so many of their affairs (down to transporting their own stage equipment) took its toll. Lennox apparently suffered at least one nervous breakdown during this period, while Stewart was hospitalised with a pneumothorax.
The duo quickly recorded a follow-up album, Touch, which was released in November 1983. It became the duo's first No. 1 album in the UK, and also spawned three major hit singles. "Who's That Girl?" was a top 3 hit in the UK, the video depicting Lennox as both a blonde chanteuse and as an Elvis Presley clone. It also featured cameo appearances by Hazel O'Connor, Bananarama (including Stewart's future wife, Siobhan Fahey), Kate Garner of Haysi Fantayzee, Thereza Bazar of Dollar, Jay Aston and Cheryl Baker of Bucks Fizz, Kiki Dee, Jacquie O'Sullivan and the gender-bending pop singer Marilyn, who would go on to musical success of his own that same year. The upbeat, calypso-flavoured "Right by Your Side" made the Top 10, and "Here Comes the Rain Again" (No. 8 in the UK, No. 4 in the US) was an orchestral/synth ballad (with orchestrations by Michael Kamen).
In 1984, RCA released Touch Dance, an Extended play of of four of the tracks from Touch, aimed at the club market. The remixes were by prominent New York City producers Francois Kevorkian and John Benitez. Also released in 1984 was Eurythmics' soundtrack album 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother). Virgin Group had contracted the band to provide a soundtrack for Michael Radford's modern film adaptation of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. However, Radford later said that the music had been "foisted" on his film against his wishes, and that Virgin had replaced most of Dominic Muldowney's original orchestral score with the Eurythmics soundtrack (including the song "Julia", which was heard during the end credits). Nevertheless, the record was presented as "music derived from the original score of Eurythmics for the Michael Radford film version of Orwell's 1984". Eurythmics charged that they had been misled by the film's producers as well, and the album was withdrawn from the market for a period while matters were litigated. The album's first single, "Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)", was a top 5 hit in the UK, Australia and across Europe, and a major dance success in the United States.
It was a major commercial success for Eurythmics on international albums charts, reaching the top five in regions including Australia (where it reached number one), New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Canada, Finland and the United Kingdom. Elsewhere, it reached the top ten in the United States, Switzerland and Germany.
It was nominated for the Billboard Music Award for Top Billboard 200 Album and Top Compact Disk Award at the 1985 Billboard Music Awards and the Brit Award for British Album of the Year at the 1986 Brit Awards. Two of the albums singles – "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves" and "Would I Lie to You?" were nominated for two awards at the 28th Annual Grammy Awards in 1986 for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal respectively.
In 1987, Lennox and Stewart released the album Savage. This saw a fairly radical change within the group's sound, being based mainly around programmed samples and drum loops (Lennox would later say that where Revenge was more of a Stewart album in sound, Savage was more of a Lennox one). Lyrically the songs showed an even darker, more obsessive side to Lennox's writing. A video album was also made, directed by Sophie Muller, with a video for each song. This was largely a concept piece, following characters portrayed by Lennox, specifically one of a frustrated housewife-turned-vamp (as exemplified in "Beethoven (I Love to Listen To)", a UK top 30 and Australian No. 13 hit). The brazen, sexually charged rocker "I Need a Man" remains a Eurythmics staple, as does "You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart". Much less commercial than the two previous albums, Savage was mostly ignored in the US, although rock radio in more progressive markets supported "I Need a Man". In the duo's native UK, however, the album was a top 10 success and was certified Platinum.
In 1989, Eurythmics released the album We Too Are One, which entered the UK Album Chart at No. 1 (their second No. 1 album after Touch) and gave the duo four UK Top 30 hit singles. The album was a return to the rock/pop sound of their mid-80s albums and was certified Double Platinum in the UK, and reached No. 7 in Australia, but was less successful in the US (although the single "Don't Ask Me Why" grazed the Billboard Top 40). Other singles from the album included "Revival", "The King and Queen of America" and "Angel". Accompanying the album, the duo conducted their Revival world tour from 8 September 1989 to 25 January 1990. Parts of the tour (both on and off-stage) were interspersed with promo videos for Eurythmics' 1990 video album We Two Are One Too.
In 1992, Lennox released her first solo album, Diva. The album was a critical and popular success, entering the UK album chart at No. 1 and achieving quadruple platinum status (more than any Eurythmics studio album had done), as well as producing a string of five hit singles. She followed this up in 1995 with her second album, Medusa, an album of cover versions. It became her second No. 1 album in the UK, reaching double platinum status both there and in the US.
Stewart, meanwhile, released the solo albums Greetings from the Gutter (1995), and Sly-Fi (1998), but neither was commercially successful.
In June 2003, Lennox released her third solo album, Bare, which was a top-five hit in the UK and the US., with three tracks reaching the top of the US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. She also recorded the song "Into the West" for Peter Jackson's film , where it appeared as the closing theme and earned Lennox the Academy Awards for Best Song. In November 2003, Eurythmics played three songs at the 46664 in Cape Town, South Africa, for which Stewart was one of the primary organisers. They played an unplugged version of "Here Comes the Rain Again", "7 Seconds" with Youssou N'Dour and "Sweet Dreams". Stewart collaborated with Rolling Stones vocalist Mick Jagger on the soundtrack to the movie Alfie, released in 2004, including the critically acclaimed "Old Habits Die Hard", which won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song from a Motion Picture.
On 7 November 2005, Eurythmics released Ultimate Collection, a remastered greatest hits package with two new songs. One of them, "I've Got a Life", was released as a single and reached No. 14 on the UK Singles Chart as well as spending three consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play in the US. Lennox and Stewart appeared on a number of TV shows to promote their new compilation album, which was a Top 5 hit and certified Platinum in the UK. On 14 November 2005, the duo's label, RCA, re-released their eight studio albums in remastered and expanded editions featuring rare , remixes and unreleased songs. The remasters were made available separately with expanded artwork, and also together in a collector's box set, entitled Boxed. However, the 1984 soundtrack album 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother) was not included in this re-release campaign as Virgin Records holds the rights to that album. Also in 2005, Eurythmics were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. In 2007, Lennox resumed her solo career with her fourth album, Songs of Mass Destruction, which was a top 10 success in the UK and the US. In 2009, she released her first solo "greatest hits" package, The Annie Lennox Collection. The same year, Lennox stated that although she and Stewart remain friends, she does not foresee any further Eurythmics projects in the future.
!Ref. |- | 1983 | "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" | Top Hot 100 Song | | |- | 1984 | rowspan=6|Themselves | Top Disco Artist – Duo/Group | | |- | rowspan=9|1985 | Top Artist | | rowspan=9| |- | Top Billboard 200 Artist | |- | Top Hot 100 Artist | |- | Top Hot 100 Artist – Duo/Group | |- | Top Dance Club Play Artist | |- | rowspan=2| Be Yourself Tonight | Top Billboard 200 Album | |- | Top Compact Disk | |- | "Would I Lie to You?" | Top Hot 100 Song | |- | "Sexcrime" | Top Dance Play Single | |- | rowspan=2|1986 | rowspan=2|Themselves | Top Billboard 200 Artist | | rowspan=2| |- | Top Hot 100 Artist |
Brit Awards
|- |1984 |Themselves |Best British Group | |- |rowspan="2" |1986 | Be Yourself Tonight |Best British Album | |- |rowspan="3" |Themselves |rowspan="3" |Best British Group | |- |1987 | |- |rowspan="3" |1990 | |- | We Too Are One |Best British Album | |- |"Don't Ask Me Why" |Best British Video | |- |1999 |Themselves |Outstanding Contribution to British Music | |- | 2010 | "There Must Be an Angel" | Live Performance of 30 Years |
Grammy Awards
|- | 1984 ||Themselves |Best New Artist | |- | 1985 | |Best Video Album | |- |rowspan="2"| 1986 |"Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves" (with Aretha Franklin) |Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal | |- |"Would I Lie to You?" |rowspan="2"|Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal | |- | 1987 |"Missionary Man" | |- | 1990 | Savage |rowspan="2"|Best Music Video – Long Form | |- | 1991 | We Two Are One Too |
MTV Video Music Awards
|- |1984 |"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" |Best New Artist | |- |rowspan=5|1985 |rowspan=5|"Would I Lie to You?" |Best Stage Performance | |- |Best Overall Performance | |- |Best Choreography | |- |Best Editing | |- |rowspan=2|Best Group Video | |- |rowspan=5|1987 |rowspan=5|"Missionary Man" | |- |Best Concept Video | |- |Most Experimental Video | |- |Best Special Effects | |- |Best Editing | |- |rowspan=2|1988 |"I Need a Man" |Best Group Video | |- |"You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart" |Best Direction |
Music & Media Year-End Awards
!Ref. |- | 1987 | Themselves | Group of the Year | |
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