EURYTHMICS

The Eurythmics was formed in 1980 with the split up of the late 1970s post-punk band called The Tourists. That same year, Annie Lennox (1954) and Dave Stewart (1950), both members of The Tourists, split up as a romantic couple. However, both musicians decided to continue to work together professionally, forming the group known as The Eurythmics.

Dave Stewart grew up in Northern England in a town called Sunderland. When he was 12, he hurt his knee badly landing himself in the hospital for quite some time. While rehabilitating in the hospital, a friend dropped off a guitar to help Dave through the long hours of boredom. For the next few years, Dave was determined to learn everything there was to know about guitar playing. His primary influences were folk rockers such as Robert Johnson and John Hurt. The first band he ever heard perform live was the English folk rock band called Amazing Blondel, whom he later joined as a roadie and as an occasional backing guitarist.

In the mid-1970s, Dave formed his own band called Longdancer, which performed at many engagements in small clubs throughout Europe. While in Germany, Dave was involved in a car crash, which brought him back to London to recuperate from a lung injury. One day, he and his friend, Peet Coombes, who also is a musician, went to a London restaurant to discuss forming a new band. That is where Dave Stewart first met Annie Lennox, his waitress.

Annie Lennox was born in the northeast coast of Scotland in a town called Aberdeen. Annie began to play around with music since the age of three with her toy piano. Her formal training began at the age of seven with piano lessons and singing in the local church choir. Annie then fell in love with the flute, which she learned to play when she was 11. She decided to become a classical flute player at the age of 17. She was accepted to the Royal Academy of Music in London but eventually dropped out because she had a difficult time fitting in. She then decided to carve out a new path in her career by singing. She would occasionally work as a vocalist, but earned most of her wages by waiting on tables. Then one fateful night, her waitress career would end when she waited on Dave Stewart, whose first words to her were, "Will you marry me?"

Though Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart were lovers for a time when they were part of The Tourists, they never did marry. However, the two certainly did find a perfect marriage among their artistic talents when they formed The Eurythmics. The name was taken from a form of teaching children music through dance. They wanted to become a major concert act with themselves at the nucleus of artistic creation among a number of additional musicians and performers.

The first album that the duo came out with was, In The Garden recorded on the RCA label. That winter, the duo lined up a series of concerts to promote the album. However, their efforts seemed futile for the album received weak sales and reviews claiming the album to be too electronic, Germanic, and cold. The disappointment ate at Annie's nerves, but Dave was determined that he could pull them out of the hole. That is exactly what he did in 1982 after he took out a bank loan for 7000 pounds. Annie and Dave began recording in the basement of a London timber warehouse. They experimented with all kinds of sounds including sounds made from wineglasses filled with water. At night when the timber machinery would be shut off they would record the vocals.

These first recordings made the album, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) which reached #2 on the UK charts. This song also allowed The Eurythmics to earn a contract with RCA in the U.S. The album was released in the U.S. in 1983 and received a large amount of success, reaching #1 in the Billboard list in September 1983.

The birth of MTV also gave The Eurythmics a new medium to explore and to use for self-promotion. By the year's end, the album was certified as gold and the group began to be classified as electro-pop.

Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart enjoyed experimenting with visual images in their musical videos on MTV. Often, Annie presented herself in a manner, which raised questions about her gender. She is a statuesque, beautiful woman who could easily have passed as a runway model. However, she chose to wear a man's suit and kept her locks cropped very short. The gender-bending image added to the duo's mystery, which only boosted their sales more.

By the end of 1983, The Eurythmics released their third album, Touch. This album included the popular songs; "Here Comes the Rain Again" (#3, UK, #2 US.), "Love is a Stranger," "Right by Your Side", and "Who's That Girl". Though The Eurythmics enjoyed the success that they earned with the album, "Touch," they also experienced a touch of disappointment in 1984 with the material they worked on for the film, 1984. The film did not earn great reviews. That same year the single, "Sexcrime (1984)" was banned by most American radio stations for containing material unsuitable for their listening audience.

1985 was a better year for The Eurythmics with the release of their album, Be Yourself Tonight, which was certified as platinum. This album had more of an R&B sound rather than their usual electro-pop sound. The album featured both Aretha Franklin in the duet, "Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves" and Stevie Wonder in the song, "There Must Be An Angel". The album also contained the hit "Would I Lie To You?" which was nominated in the Grammys for the Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with vocals.

During the summer of 1986, The Eurythmics released their sixth album, Revenge which included tracks co-written by Dave and Annie such as "Thorn in My Side," "When Tomorrow Comes," and "Missionary Man." The recordings were accompanied with their usual image rich videos and lively stage shows.

The seventh album, Savage, released in 1987, had a more disco than rock feel to it with Stewart taking dominance over the instrumentation and Lennox over the vocals. The Eurythmics did not tour to promote this album. Rather than that, they decided to make a compilation of videos featuring all the songs on the album. After this album, the duo decided to take a break from the Eurythmics to concentrate on family life.

Two years later, they reunited to record the album, We Too Are One that was titled deliberately to dismiss the numerous rumors surrounding their impending permanent dissolution. The record was promoted with an extensive world tour which was the last to be seen of the Eurythmics for a long time, as was anticipated by many.

Since the breakup, a Greatest Hits album was issued in 1991. Dave Stewart went on to put together a new band called Dave Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboys, in 1990, which put out two albums. He then became part of a duo called Vegas with singer Terry Hall. He then released a solo album entitled Greeting from the Gutter. Stewart then began to explore the Internet where he released an album called, Sly-Fi.

Annie went on to release two solo albums. The first, which was very successful, was entitled Diva and included the number one ballad in the U.K. titled Why. In 1995 she released her second album called Medussa.

In 1998, the unexpected happened, the Eurythmics reunited for one night as a gift for a retiring record company executive friend. Later that year, they teamed up for a charity concert supporting the fight against cancer. Then in 1999, after they received a special lifetime achievement award at the Annual British Award Ceremony, they announced their official reunion.

Page author: L.C.