When the video for “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” first made the rounds on MTV in 1983, Eurythmics seemed to have come out of nowhere. Their sound and look was a breath of fresh air, but the duo was hardly an overnight success. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) was not Eurythmics’ first album, and the title track was the fourth single to be released from it in the UK. While listeners in the U.S. can’t be blamed for thinking it was their first single ever (as it actually was in the U.S.), it was Eurythmics’ previous single that helped to pave the way for the massive success of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).”
In the U.S., “Love Is a Stranger” is known as the follow-up single—the song that scooched its way into the Top 40, partly by drafting off the hype from its chart-topping predecessor. But in the UK, it was the first hit single from Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), as well as radio listeners’ introduction to the synth-dominated sound that Eurythmics would become known for. Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart took a different approach when they recorded “Love Is a Stranger,” and it’s probably not an accident that it became that song that opened the door for a string of worldwide hits.
Eurythmics’ Sound Was a Work in Progress
Eurythmics had their origins in the ‘70s British band The Catch. Lennox and Stewart were founding members of the group, and after they changed their name to The Tourists, they had a brief string of successful albums and singles in the UK. The Tourists’ cover of Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Want to Be with You” became a Gold record in the UK and actually cracked the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., peaking at No. 83. When The Tourists dissolved in 1980, Lennox and Stewart branched off to form Eurythmics.
Though Lennox and Stewart were the only official members of Eurythmics, their initial concept was akin to the Steely Dan model as a duo that would work with a series of collaborators as needed. The first Eurythmics album In the Garden featured several guest instrumentalists, including Clem Burke of Blondie and Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit of Can. On Eurythmics’ first-ever single “Never Gonna Cry Again,” Lennox’s vocals are unmistakable, but its sound is closer to R&B-tinged pop than cutting-edge electronic pop. Lennox and Stewart largely dispensed with the pseudo-band model for Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), and with that came a drastic change in their sound.
Lennox Emerges From the “Mush of Sound”
The icy synths that were but one part of Eurythmics’ sound on In the Garden were brought front-and-center on Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). For the most part, they dominated the sound of the album. On the UK lead single “This Is the House,” an array of synthesized sounds and a funky bass line somehow overshadow Lennox’s distinctive vocals. The second single “The Walk” was more atmospheric than melodic. Neither single found a place on the UK Official Singles chart, or on the singles chart in any other country for that matter.
Despite the failure of those singles to become a hit, Eurythmics gave it one more try. As the third single, “Love Is a Stranger” wasn’t a big hit initially, but it did something its predecessors couldn’t. It entered the UK Official Singles chart in November 1982, peaking at No. 54. In an interview for Sounds magazine, Lennox noted she and Stewart made a conscious effort to mix “Love Is a Stranger” differently. She explained, “We did decide for ‘Love Is a Stranger’ that everything in it would be very clear. All that is there is seen to be there and nothing is hidden in a big mush of sound.” While synths feature prominently in the song, it is the first Eurythmics single designed to let Lennox’s performance shine.
In his online archive, former Sounds writer Mick Sinclair surmised “Love Is a Stranger” was able to break through because Eurythmics had finally distanced itself from its association with The Tourists. Sinclair wrote the song’s “relative success is a result of ears succumbing to the merits of the disc itself rather than minds being swayed by the ex-Tourists’ slag-tag that has stood in the way of acceptance in the fad-happy rock media.”
Eventually Catching On in the U.S.
The UK was ahead of the U.S. in its embracing of “Love Is a Stranger” not once, but twice. It would get rereleased as a single in the UK after “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” exploded as a No. 2 hit in March 1983. This time, “Love Is a Stranger” would rise all the way to No. 6. “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” would not debut on the Billboard Hot 100 until May, and its slow climb to the top spot meant that “Love Is a Stranger” would have to wait its turn to be released as a follow-up single. It made its Hot 100 debut in September—10 months after its initial UK chart debut—and would eventually peak at No. 23. Its video, just like the one for “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” would also receive heavy airplay on MTV.
Eurythmics would go on to release a total of 10 Top-40 singles in the U.S., with “Here Comes the Rain Again” and “Would I Lie to You?” joining “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” in the Top 5. While “Love Is a Stranger” doesn’t rank among Eurythmics’ biggest hits, it’s the song that may have made the other hits possible. The greatness of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” might have made that song’s success inevitable. Then again, had “Love Is a Stranger” been a third-straight failed single in the UK, perhaps we in the U.S. would still not know about Eurythmics or their signature hit.
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