It’s one of the most famous anthems in pop music – and it was the breakthrough for Eurythmics and their Aberdeen-born singer Annie Lennox.
But when Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) was released 40 years ago this week – on January 21 1983 – she and Dave Stewart were on the point of walking away from the music industry after years of struggling to find the hit song which would steer them to the next level.
Some in the industry viewed the lyrics as a message to be positive and look on the bright side of life. In reality, they were written by a duo who were at their wits’ end and Annie explained: “It’s basically me saying: ‘Look at the state of us. How can it get any worse? It was an expression of how I felt: hopeless and nihilistic”.
Eurythmics ‘sweet dreams’ came true after Top of the Pops
Yet, within a few weeks of it being played on the radio and the band appearing on Top of the Pops, it became a huge success and was described as the synth-pop classic which made Lennox and Stewart MTV superstars.
And they never looked back.
Since then, all the awards and recognition across the world have transformed them into one of the world’s most instantly recognisable duos.
And Annie, with her androgynous looks and charismatic live performances on stage, went to enjoy unprecedented success for a pop singer from the north east.
However, she and Stewart had endured plenty of privations after the release of their first album In the Garden, which was met with lukewarm reviews and briefly led to a split with their record label RCA.
‘I couldn’t go outside the door’
Annie, in particular was so devastated by the underwhelming response to the record that she returned from London to the Granite City and endured a fraught period where she suffered severe depression and bouts of agoraphobia.
She told the magazine The Face: “I spent a great deal of time crying. It was unbearable. I felt so claustrophobic and experienced such terror that I hit rock bottom.
“It was like having a scar – you never believe that you’ll recover or function again properly. My self-esteem dropped to an all-time low.
“I couldn’t go outside the door. Whenever I did, I started having panic attacks, I would get palpitations and come out in cold sweats. It was horrible.”
But there’s a saying that it’s always darkest before the dawn.
And while turning to a psychotherapist did not provide any solace – “I was more freaked out when I came out of her office than when I went in” – help was on the way.
From the person who had been her rock and would be so again.
Eurythmics resurgence
Early in the New Year in 1982, she renewed acquaintances with Stewart, who had been released from hospital after recovering from a collapsed lung and committed himself to creating new songs and ideas which would spark a Eurythmics resurgence.
And Annie recalled: “Dave was down in London, but he called me up and played something down the phone and said: ‘This is the new thing’.
“He was really excited about the songs and I knew that we had found our new direction.”
Now, all that was needed was finding somebody who would finance the project. And artistic serendipity happened in the most unlikely place; the Crouch End branch of Barclays Bank where Stewart met the manager Geoff Williams.
Dressed in a sharp suit and carrying a briefcase, he made his pitch with steely conviction. “I told him that Annie and I were going to do something absolutely amazing and the bank should invest in us. I made the point that we could buy the equipment we needed for £7,000 and then make all the albums we wanted.”
Within a few moments, Mr Williams had agreed to the proposal and jotted down a note that his customer was “a determined young man with a good head for business”.
Everything changed thereafter.
Almost immediately, the negative vibes of In the Garden vanished.
Sweet Dreams was unveiled to the public and struck a massive chord. It established the duo worldwide and its music video helped propel the song to No 2 on the UK Singles Chart and No 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
The hits kept on coming for the band
Indeed, it was such a huge success in the States that the song was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The hits subsequently arrived as if on a conveyor belt: Who’s That Girl, Here Comes the Rain Again, There Must Be an Angel, It’s Alright (Baby’s Coming Back), Would I Lie to You, Angel, Right by Your Side – and Annie teamed up with soul legend Aretha Franklin to produce the unforgettable Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves.
But it all started with Sweet Dreams.
As Annie said: “At the very beginning, when we were trying to make music together in Eurythmics, at the core of it all was the urge to create something of value and meaning that people would connect to.
“Now, when I am out and I meet people in the street, they will say things like: ‘Wow, I grew up with your music’. I don’t know them, but they know me through the music.”
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