“Sold!”: The Eurythmics against everyone

“Sold!” When in the spring of 1985 they sent in the “Be Yourself Tonight” stores, Annie Lennox and David Stewart found themselves facing the most bitter and cruel of criticism. Consciously. Yes, because after having made a big sequel, and a name, among the protagonists of the New-Wave and European Synth-Pop scene of the early 80s with works such as the 1981 debut with “In the Garden”, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” and “Touch” of 1983 and the soundtrack of “Nineteen Eighty-Four” (the 1984 film directed by Michael directed by Michael Radford, based on George Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece), at the time of entering the studio to compose, record and produce the songs contained in what would have been their fourth studio album, the Eurythmics felt that the times were ripe to spread the cards on the table. And surprise. Even at the cost of dividing, as they actually did. When years after the release of “Be Yourself Tonight” David Stewart in an interview remembered what the album in the Eurythmics career had meant, the mind of the duo said: “We were removing from the box in which we had been put”. A metaphor that lends itself very well to explain how the Eurythmics had been perceived until the exit of “would i lie to you?”, The first single extracted from the heel, of which he anticipated the exit a few days, and how much he changed later.

With “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” and “Touch” Annie Lennox and David Stewart had earned the state -of -the -art group status, among the most experimental of the British New Wave circuit of the early 1980s, thanks to those productions focused on the lyssergic sounds of the synthesizers and the disturbing but incredibly fascinating use of the voice by Lennox. For fans of zero day, “Be Yourself Tonight” represented since the first listening an evident removal from the formula that had characterized the discs of the duo. The commercial success of the album made the rest: accomplices Hit as the same “would i light to you?”, “Sisters are doin ‘It’s for themselves”, “It’s alright (Baby’s Coming Back)” and – above all – that “There must be an angel (Playing with my Heart)” which became a real catchphrase and that in the years he would have been re -entitled by the artists in the years More disparate (from Luciano Pavarotti to Kylie Minogue), the new thirty -three laps of the Eurythmics in the United Kingdom exceeded the 600 thousand copies sold, while in the United States it even pushed over million.

To the new Look of Lennox, who abandoned the androgynous one that had characterized his character until then and became, in the words of the biography Lucy O’Brien, “a blonde blonde rocker”, joined the choice of the duo to marry the more pop sounds – hence the accusation of having sold himself – but seasoned with elements of R&B. Mainly recorded in Paris, with subsequent take carried out in Detroit and Los Angeles, “Be Yourself Tonight” saw Lennox and Stewart combine with each other elements of Motown and rock music. From that world, the R&B, the guests of the album also arrived. Stevie Wonder played harmonica in all tracks. Aretha Franklin duets with Annie Lennox on “Sisters Are Doin ‘It for Themselves”, in which recordings also participated in a Gospel choir, The Charles Williams Sinters. The bass of “would i light to you?” And of the same “Sisters Are Doin ‘It for Themselves” was played by Nathan East, Gà alongside Barry White and Jarreau. To represent the most rock quota, however, Elvis Costello (his vocal harmonies of “Adrian”), guitarist Mike Campbell (one of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, who more or less in the same period recorded with Bob Dylan “Empire Burlesque”) and keyboardist Benmont Tench (also in Heartbreakers). “There has always been a soul influence in writing, and it can certainly be heard in the composition of” Love is a Stranger “. But with “Be Yourself Tonight” suddenly there were a couple of traces that went to my love and Annie for that stuff. So songs like “would i light to you?” And “There must be an angel” started coming out. We started playing many live concerts from “Sweet Dreams” onwards, and when you play live, you realize: “Ok, we need some songs with which we can really unleash us, who will drive the audience crazy”. And “would i light to you?” It was one of those songs, “Stewart explained.

At the exit of the album he did not follow any tour, due to Lennox’s convalescence from the nodules to the vocal cords with which he had had to deal already during the “be Yourself tonight” session (and who also forced them to skip the Live Aid concert of 1985): “I had laryngitis and I could not do too many take, and I feel things in the song that I could have done better. But see, when you make a record you have all the kinds of limitations and at the end of the day it is your decision, and you are making these decisions throughout the path hoping to have something you can say: “I am very proud of this, perhaps it could have been a little different” “, the singer would have said about the roughness of her vocal performance on” Sisters are doin ‘it for themselves “with Areth Franlin, 1986 Grammy Awards nomination as “Best R&B vocal performance of a duo or group”. But despite this, the album became the greatest commercial success of the Eurythmics, as well as one of the most important and beautiful records of the 80s.