I received a Sony Walkman for my 10th Birthday in 1983. Put the batteries in, plugged in and put the headphones on, dialed in a local radio station. This was the 1st song I ever heard on that Walkman.
This wasn't even released when I got my 1st walkman in December of '82. Instead, I tuned in to Fleetwood Mac's "Gypsy". 😀 Still have the "Sweet Dreams" single from '83.
I am so glad Annie got up from the fetal position when Stewart started playing that riff. This is one of those songs that is quintessential 80’s and I never get tired of listening to it.
This song is literally perfect. It's got this haunting but danceable vibe to it. One of the best duos in music history. I never get tired of this. Its timeless.
I remember reading somewhere the main "riff" of 'Sweet Dreams' as it was used came about from a little hook Dave Stewart was playing being accidentally played through the sampler backwards. Eurythmics are hugely underrated (IMHO) in the overall history of pop/rock/whatever music - one of the most consistently "good" bands ever. Nearly all their singles were fantastic and when I re-listened to all their albums a few years back I was truly astounded at how little filler, if any, there was. And that's before we get on to Annie Lennox's voice...
@@Producelikeapro I'm Australian and I still get the pronunciation of a lot of place names wrong, a lot of times you really have to be told by a local.
My parents had a "Best of the Eurythmics" tape we played on road trips. I must have heard that tape 1000 times. But I'm still not sick of this song or "Here Comes the Rain Again" (which I like even better, tbh). They're simple on the surface, but there's a depth to them that most dance tracks don't have.
@@bassonthemark8191 Must Be Talking To An Angel, with Stevie Wonder: fantastic. Their 1988 Mandela concert live performance is unsurpassed to this very day by any band if you ask me.
UA-cam recommended this video to me which is a bit odd given that, unlike most people, I almost never listen to music. Sweet Dreams, however, is one of the very few songs that I could listen to endlessly. Pure genius.
It's amazing to think that this song and Total Eclipse of the Heart were charting at the same time. Both are great songs, but sound like they belong to totally different eras.
When I think of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), it reminds me of "Blue Monday." Both songs used new technology to create new, bold soundscapes. Cold, precise, and unlike anything we'd heard before. "Sweet Dreams" and "Blue Monday became blueprints that many used but no one had the impact of those two songs.
I would like to add Soft Cell (Tainted Love), Ultravox (Oh Vienna) and Laurie Anderson (Oh Superman) to as prime examples of early 80's futuristic electropop.
@@funkaholic1972 I much later learned the breakthrough success of Soft Cell was one of the reasons you had groups like Einstürzende Neubauten on the same label as Depeche Mode. The feeling at the time, even with major labels, was that anything was possible.
that's what helped make the 80s so amazing if you were a teenager at the time. every teen could proudly say this was not our parents music. with the help of computer technology, these sounds were being created and heard for the first time.
First time I saw Eurythmics was the first night of a 4 day music festival - Narara '84 (other artists that night included Simple Minds, The Pretenders, Talking Heads and Def Leppard). Annie blew me away with her powerful voice and the music was strangely hypnotic. Edit: Although not intuitive, Wagga Wagga is pronounced "Wogga Wogga".
"Everything about this song is incredible" -- including the video. I'm not anywhere as knowledgeable about "music" as you are, but when I think of this song, I always think of the video -- and the cow.
An iconic song of the 80's but timeless too. It still stands up and does not sound dated. When I first heard it I thought this was a "Techno" electronic group even the name Eurythmics sounds like that to me and I thought for sure Dave Stewart must be a keyboard player...much to my surprise a year or so later when I found he was primarily a guitarist! As well of course with all the other production things he did like with Tom Petty. Thanks once again!
I was a kid in the 90s (born 86) and at the time, had the impression that this song was from, like, 1993, not 1983. It felt totally avant-garde even then.
Listen to Dave Stewart's guitar solo on "Don't Ask Me Why," a criminally underrated Eurythmics song from later in the decade. He was definitely no slouch on guitar!
Songs like this one, is responsible for my synth obsession. Like you said, it's like robotic like, the straight beats, the beefy synths, and often the two person combo. You need that soulful singer, to round off the starkness of the synths eg Eurythmics, Soft Cell, Yazoo, PSBs, etc
i felt exactly the same on hearing this.. there are not many tracks you remember distinctly hearing for the very first time, but this is one. I was 10 years old and I'd been away on a school trip, no radios were allowed during the trip and we didn't see any television. On returning home, I remember getting off the school coach and someone was playing this track on a radio. I stopped dead in my tracks and said 'what is that?' a friend said.. 'sweet dreams..' It was like nothing I'd ever heard before. I felt like I'd missed this massive moment in music. something monumental had happened while I'd been away. music had changed forever.
I’m always impressed with the levels of research that you carry out. Many thanks from back in England… …and maybe Gil Scott-Heron - the revolution will not be televised? An articulate, angry young man, a mean drummer, tight bassist, cool flautist, and the invention of rap.
YES!!!!!! This is wonderful and so inspirational to indie artists everywhere. A small amount of gear but imagination and craft win! You should interview Dave on your show. It would be a good re-spark for his visibility too.
As soon as I hear this track, I’m instantly transported back to 83. Being 19 then and in a band, the Eurythmics simply stood out and no matter what music rang your bell at that time, it just made you dance or tap your foot..... brilliant!!!
Those two keyboards parts are panned left and right and that was the secret to figure the parts out exactly. I played this song in a cover band for many years and it’s not easy to play live and cover everything that’s going on. Everyone says I look pissed off when playing Sweet Dreams, ha ha. It’s like “leave me alone, I’m busy over here”.
Fantastic song & sound and what a voice! Classic. I started my studio with an 8-track tape machine and whatever cheap gear I could get, I loved the 80s DIY attitude. Great video, thanks Warren!
You know what was so wonderful about the early eighties synth pop practitioners was that so many of them came out with soundscapes and aesthetics that were uniquely their own. That hasn't been the case for ages now.
I still play the whole album loads, I rediscovered it about 10 years old after avoiding 80’s music from my teenage years for years. This album, plus the 2 albums “In the garden” and “Savage” are genius, getting only better with time. They were a good team and they made great music. That image of Anne with the cropped short red hair in a suit holding a cane is still incredible. People forget the fuss her image caused, she really stood out from the crowd even if she “borrowed” from Grace Jones lol. This band had everything, people need to be reminded. Enjoyed this, I’ve not heard those quotes before. The song itself gave them both a lifelong career - that’s how good the song is. Great video.
That's something I learned from the Black Hole Sun essay. People invest so much time and money and energy trying to replicate the sound of vocals passing through a blown-out low-watt speaker, and Chris Cornell just goes and brings in a blown-out low-watt speaker and puts a mic in front of it.
During my years between HS and college, i bought the Tourists first(?) self-titled album. Even apart from the two singles, their arrangements on songs like Blind Among the Flowers and The Loneliest Man in the World were unique. So hearing the Eurythmics Sweet Dreams wasn't so much a revelation as a vindication to me.
The Eurythmics had a great sound that helped define the eighties. The music stood on its own, but this was the same time MTV was taking off and their videos were Da Best. Yes, Annie made some folks jaws drop.
Remember listening to this in the car with my mom growing up in Virginia. 7 years old and I was stunned. Nobody knew what to think of the otherworldliness, yet the subject matter was so human. Money for Nothin, Dire Straights....has that one been done yet?
One of the finest songs ever written, regardless of the production. Then put it with the amazing production, it’s just a masterpiece. My favorite little touch in this song is the timing of the background vocal pads between the verses. Interesting phrasing across those bars, while absolutely supporting the songs motion.
iTS ONE of these rare songs that makes you go "Åhh!" when you hear the first notes, and they just complies you to turn the volume _up_ ! Bowie, Supertramp, 10cc, ELO are some of the others, that has managed to make tracks with this strength. Amazingly Eurythmics did it more than once with "Love is a stranger", and even "Here comes the rain again". These tracks are fantastic car/road-music, but equally powerful at home, on a bleak rainy miserable night, where your special one did not show up as expected..
Annie Lennox, the Scots song bird! 1 of the BEST female vocalists to come out of the UK for over 40 years! WHAT a voice that girl has! And it all started here!
Eurythmic - Rain. You can say anything, but Rain is the BEST SONG EVER. Sweet Dreams is the crowning glory of Synth Wave and it's very good, but compared to Rain it's maybe 10%. There are so many melodic lines in "Rain", so many sounds, no beat riff note is boring or out of place. You can listen to a song zilion times and every time find some new detail even better than the last time you listened the song. Sweet Dreams are still one of the best songs ever, but Rain is out of the league. Better than the best. A masterpiece.
The MCS (Movement Percussion Computer) showing in this video is the mk-II, it came out in Orange or Black casing, very rare british made system, also you can use it as a word processor. But if you want to see the mk-I, go to the Sweet Dreams video, is the computer Dave Stewart is typing on, the monitor and computer are separate, can be the prototype. Is analog base sound cards, the sound is very similar to the Simmons SDSV, but in the mk-II they added digital sounds and in the later units maybe sampling and MIDI. Users that I remember, Genesis, Kajagoogoo, Thompson Twins, Eurythmics and Vince Clarke.
In my opinion one of the main aspect of this marvelous song is the addition of the warmth of Annie Lennox' voice and the coldness of the Dave Stewart's synth lines. It almost always works, contrasts of ice and fire/soul and robotic, and you can hear such things, warm voice and cold synths, with Yazzo (Alison Moyet's warm & bluesy voice + Vince Clark's synths) or even with DM (Dave Gahan's pseudo baritone voice + V Clark then A Wilder synths and 12bits samplers). Anyway, I love this song, thank you for having made a video about it and I'm still in love with Mrs Lennox! 😉
Duran Duran seem underrated to me. It wasn't until I saw them live in 2004 that I realised they're in fact very good musicians. An analysis of "Save A Prayer" would be awesome. Or anything by Depeche Mode (the opening riff to "World In My Eyes" is my favourite, an absolute killer! Those crisp synth sounds! ) - I used to joke that there would never be an 80s revival because it was all crap :) How wrong I was to under appreciate my own era. The current 80s revival (The Weeknd etc) is well deserved.
Every time I hear the opening bars of this classic I am transported to my eighties childhood... I get this weird nostalgia where going back there feels like going to the future...
The Tourists 1st album has never been released on CD for some reason. I've always found that surprising given how famous they both were in the eighties.
Blue Monday was also 1983, and it was also a song that stood out just as much as Sweet Dreams. Owner of a Lonely Heart gets an honorable mention in the "completely unique and changed music" category.
I was 16 y/o when 'Sweet Dreams' hit MTV. I was a confirmed punker but , like a meteor' based solely on the vid and all the information I could find about Annie and Stewart, I was crazy in love with Annie's on screen persona, I have followed Annie to this day and she got me into a neo-noir creative path that has lasted for 40 years!
I feel like so much great art (music, movies, etc) from this era is at least in part a product of limitations faced by the artists... and this song is a great example of that. I wonder, would the vocal have that same eerie haunting quality if it hadn't been recorded on that pencil mike in a big lively room? Would the downbeat/"1" beat in the drums have that huge, almost timpanic quality if not for the "detuned tom sample" experiment?
I listened to the song on the radio in the dark in September 1983. I remember my new 4th grade teacher was really hard and it was the first week of school and cried myself to sleep listening to the song wondering how hard the year would be.
I remember when I heard this song back in fall 1983 ... it made it around the world that year. And it wasn't so much robots as it was the sound of the future .... It was, and still is, a great piece of music.
Another essential song from the 1980's. The song stopped time. You had to listen to it. You had to watch the video if it was on MTV. I still love this song today. It would be in my top 100 songs of all time.
This song is my origin in music appreciation. I remember listening to this over and over in the dark on my walkman knock-off when I was 11. Thanks for this Warren.
Fantastic video! I 100% relate to what you said about how songs like these stood out back when they came out. I felt EXACTLY the same way when I was a kid! ❤️😊
Yes, love the review. You cannot underestimate the impact of electronic music in the early 80’s. I went to see Japan at Leicester Uni and Blancmage were the support and when they started the drum machine through the PA was titanic.
You're right. First time I heard the album, I was bewildered and hooked. A great title track, now iconic, but my favourite track on the same album is, 'This City Never Sleeps', whose laid back groove, muted simple guitar & bass phrase, combine beautifully with the distant soaring electric lead and evocative soundscape of ambient synth textures, and overlaid field recordings of tube trains. A fantastic canvass for Annie's superb vocals. In fact, this vid evoked such a strong memory for me of the track, I had to go and listen to it again, and I got the same chill. Probably a good job I didn't have to chose the single off the album 🤣
Yes! Loved Eurythmics (and Annie Lennox! Wow!) back then, and thought them brilliant - particularly loving the "Sweet Dreams" and "Touch" albums, of which every track is pretty good. And, yes, loved "This City Never Sleeps" for its haunting quality - and that distinctive ambient sound of a London tube train! The whole thing sounded literally underground!
i remember standing in the hall of a meat factory, stacking pieces of pork of dubious quality into boxes for freezing, as a 16 year old kid earning some cash in the holidays. This played frequently on the radio over the din of meat saws etc, the whole scene is etched into my brain. I was identifying as more of a blues or rock fan at the time but this song was so mesmerizing. I cherish this memory.
Forgot to mention the video! which totally blew my mind back in the day! Surreal, dark, catchy, classy, cool, state-of-the-art, technological, cows, computers, electric violin, Annie’s looks! It was 🤯. Still is.
Love your history lessons! What a Great Music Connaiseur Channel👏🏼 cant Gert enough! - Hot Chocolate every 1‘s winner Baby - Robert Palmer - addicted to Love - Tina Turner - i can‘t stand the Rain Love the 80‘s and 70‘s!!
Hearing this song for the first time when I was 7 charted the course of my life. I asked my mom what made that sound and she said it was something called a “synthesizer.” 8 years later with the very first two paychecks I ever earned I bought an ESQ-1 from a friend. I’ve been making electronic music ever since and I see no future in which I stop. Thank you for doing this video. It was great to hear this story.
Hi Warren, for a minor correction of the pronunciation of Wagga Wagga ( as a resident of said place for over 30 years), it sounds like Wogga Wogga, or as the locals tend to call it Wagga. I remember seeing The Tourists poster (along with Inxs) still hanging on the walls of the College Student Union Building in the 1980's.
They are one of the first bands I remember in my younger side of youth.Love Is A Stranger is mesmerising too.Later on, The Miracle Of Love is beautiful.Annie's voice, speaking or singing, is just gorgeous.
Amazing choice. I remember reading about Dave Stewart hitting a rubber hose against a door for a snare sound. Got to see them live in NYC and blew us away. DX7s had hit the market and then sold out, crazy times.
I don't actually like electronica and find the fizzing oscillators and buzz-cut waveforms ugly. But this song is a great hybrid, the tones being bearable, the groove infectious, and all the inhumanity of the instrumentation that I hate so much is completely vitalised by Annie's fantastic voice and delivery. Great choice, Warren.
I didn’t realize the whole song is a chorus so it makes sense that their other songs can be paired with it like “Who’s that Girl”. It also explains why “1984” fell flat. There wasn’t enough substance in that song.
Awesome - thx A few tunes same era that gave me sort of the same vibe as Sweet Dreams are: Visage - Fade to Grey Yazoo - Situation 12 inch Talk Talk - Such a Shame 12 inch US However, Sweet Dreams stood the test of time better and is a statement to this day. Love this channel…
Great video and I feel the same way about this song and Cars too! The other thing that was happening before this was the availability of better portable audio. When I got my first walkman, I tuned into FM and this was on the first channel I tuned to. It sounded amazing. 1983 had some other iconic songs like Blue Monday. Hard to believe this song is almost 40 years old!
I love this song, there's so many massive songs that don't have a chorus, which proves A&R men don't know everything, Virginia Plain, The Model, Bohemian Rhapsody, Space Oddity and many more
What other songs do YOU think changed music? Comment below!
U2 - Pride
Tackle "Don't You Want Me" by The Human League. The song had a massive role in shaping the culture of the 80s that long persists to this day.
Stevie Wonder - Superstition!
Straight out of Compton - NWA
Closer - NIN
Buffalo stance neneh cherry
I received a Sony Walkman for my 10th Birthday in 1983. Put the batteries in, plugged in and put the headphones on, dialed in a local radio station. This was the 1st song I ever heard on that Walkman.
That’s amazing! I remember the first time I heard it, it was magical!
This wasn't even released when I got my 1st walkman in December of '82. Instead, I tuned in to Fleetwood Mac's "Gypsy". 😀
Still have the "Sweet Dreams" single from '83.
I am so glad Annie got up from the fetal position when Stewart started playing that riff. This is one of those songs that is quintessential 80’s and I never get tired of listening to it.
Indeed! What an amazing talent! Perfect combo! They made such amazing music together!
So cool they could put aside their differences romantically to keep working on their art together. Idk I find that super sweet
This song is literally perfect. It's got this haunting but danceable vibe to it. One of the best duos in music history. I never get tired of this. Its timeless.
It is indeed timeless! Thanks for sharing
That keyboard part is insane. Even now.
Yes! It certainly is
When you hear this song for the first time, you'll never forget where you were
Agreed 100%!
Yeah, same here, ... and I'm trying to think if there's any other song that I can say this about, and I'm drawing a blank...
Exactly....I was at home, 1983, I just froze the moment I heard this!
Herbi Hancock's "Rock It" gave me the same feeling.
yep lol. i was on duty as a lifeguard when I first heard this
I remember reading somewhere the main "riff" of 'Sweet Dreams' as it was used came about from a little hook Dave Stewart was playing being accidentally played through the sampler backwards. Eurythmics are hugely underrated (IMHO) in the overall history of pop/rock/whatever music - one of the most consistently "good" bands ever. Nearly all their singles were fantastic and when I re-listened to all their albums a few years back I was truly astounded at how little filler, if any, there was. And that's before we get on to Annie Lennox's voice...
They were pioneers that's what they both were.
Warren is a great presenter and has one of the nicest accents on UA-cam.
But only Australians know how to say Wagga Wagga. It is "WOGAWOGA" .
You’re very kind and yes, I misspoke and didn’t know the proper pronunciation
@@Producelikeapro I'm Australian and I still get the pronunciation of a lot of place names wrong, a lot of times you really have to be told by a local.
And a real local its just: Woga
I knew I would search through the comments and find this. My ears were burning when I heard Warren say Whaga Whaga.
Oohhhhh my ears are bleeding!!!!!
My parents had a "Best of the Eurythmics" tape we played on road trips. I must have heard that tape 1000 times. But I'm still not sick of this song or "Here Comes the Rain Again" (which I like even better, tbh). They're simple on the surface, but there's a depth to them that most dance tracks don't have.
Such a wonderful band! Doesn’t much better than this
“Here Comes The Rain Again” also my favorite. “Who’s That Girl?” IMO another great Eurythmics track.
@@bassonthemark8191 Must Be Talking To An Angel, with Stevie Wonder: fantastic. Their 1988 Mandela concert live performance is unsurpassed to this very day by any band if you ask me.
@@bassonthemark8191 Have you seen the Mandela 1988 live version? It blows your socks off.
@@bassonthemark8191 masterpiece!
UA-cam recommended this video to me which is a bit odd given that, unlike most people, I almost never listen to music. Sweet Dreams, however, is one of the very few songs that I could listen to endlessly. Pure genius.
Fabulous! Glad you watched it
1983 was a damn fine year for music. I'd put it up against any other year.
Fantastic year indeed
1984 and 1986 were also great years in music, movies, and entertainment in general.
It's amazing to think that this song and Total Eclipse of the Heart were charting at the same time. Both are great songs, but sound like they belong to totally different eras.
Agreed 100% Eric
That was the beauty of late 70's to early 80's music. So many styles and genres on the radio.
Jim Steinman was always in his own era.
As a 9 year old, hearing that song and seeing Annie in the video for the first time blew me away. An iconic song.
Agreed 100%!
I was only 5 at the time but the song always stuck out to me and still does. Here Comes the Rain Again hits me the same way.
When I think of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), it reminds me of "Blue Monday." Both songs used new technology to create new, bold soundscapes. Cold, precise, and unlike anything we'd heard before. "Sweet Dreams" and "Blue Monday became blueprints that many used but no one had the impact of those two songs.
I would like to add Soft Cell (Tainted Love), Ultravox (Oh Vienna) and Laurie Anderson (Oh Superman) to as prime examples of early 80's futuristic electropop.
@@funkaholic1972 I much later learned the breakthrough success of Soft Cell was one of the reasons you had groups like Einstürzende Neubauten on the same label as Depeche Mode. The feeling at the time, even with major labels, was that anything was possible.
that's what helped make the 80s so amazing if you were a teenager at the time. every teen could proudly say this was not our parents music. with the help of computer technology, these sounds were being created and heard for the first time.
@@thebeardedseeker5633 LOL, you are right! My dad hated synths and drum machines, while I loved them from the moment I first heard them...
Label: "The song has no chorus"
Dave Stewart: "That's because it is a chorus"
Haha exactly!!
First time I saw Eurythmics was the first night of a 4 day music festival - Narara '84 (other artists that night included Simple Minds, The Pretenders, Talking Heads and Def Leppard). Annie blew me away with her powerful voice and the music was strangely hypnotic.
Edit: Although not intuitive, Wagga Wagga is pronounced "Wogga Wogga".
Agreed 100%! Annie is such an amazing singer! That must have been an incredible show in ‘84!
Really, it's just pronounced as a singular "wogga"
Wogga
Anne Lennox and David a Steward what a duo. If I was a Millionaire film maker i would love to make a movie bio on them 😎🎶
"Everything about this song is incredible" -- including the video. I'm not anywhere as knowledgeable about "music" as you are, but when I think of this song, I always think of the video -- and the cow.
Haha Thanks ever so much for sharing
Never forget hearing it first. Amazing piece of music. Annie's voice was like nothing I'd heard before
Thanks ever so much Ross!
Annie Lennox has one of the best voices in rock music. And she also writes a great song. Her DEVA album is a masterpiece.
Summed up absolutely perfectly.
There's no track quite like it. 💛
Agreed! It’s a masterpiece
An iconic song of the 80's but timeless too. It still stands up and does not sound dated. When I first heard it I thought this was a "Techno" electronic group even the name Eurythmics sounds like that to me and I thought for sure Dave Stewart must be a keyboard player...much to my surprise a year or so later when I found he was primarily a guitarist! As well of course with all the other production things he did like with Tom Petty. Thanks once again!
Very well said! Totally iconic!
I was a kid in the 90s (born 86) and at the time, had the impression that this song was from, like, 1993, not 1983. It felt totally avant-garde even then.
@@hobbified agreed, timeless classic
yeah , not sound dated.....well said..
That 'unheard' factor was spot on Warren.
Listen to Dave Stewart's guitar solo on "Don't Ask Me Why," a criminally underrated Eurythmics song from later in the decade. He was definitely no slouch on guitar!
Songs like this one, is responsible for my synth obsession.
Like you said, it's like robotic like, the straight beats, the beefy synths, and often the two person combo.
You need that soulful singer, to round off the starkness of the synths eg Eurythmics, Soft Cell, Yazoo, PSBs, etc
i felt exactly the same on hearing this.. there are not many tracks you remember distinctly hearing for the very first time, but this is one. I was 10 years old and I'd been away on a school trip, no radios were allowed during the trip and we didn't see any television. On returning home, I remember getting off the school coach and someone was playing this track on a radio. I stopped dead in my tracks and said 'what is that?' a friend said.. 'sweet dreams..' It was like nothing I'd ever heard before. I felt like I'd missed this massive moment in music. something monumental had happened while I'd been away. music had changed forever.
Very well said! Still sounds absolutely amazingly fresh to me!
I was 23 and I said wow #1 for sure. I've only been right about that one other time.
@@louisreinitz5642 what was the other time?
@@Producelikeapro Money for nothing - Dire Straits
@@louisreinitz5642 nicely done!
I’m always impressed with the levels of research that you carry out. Many thanks from back in England…
…and maybe Gil Scott-Heron - the revolution will not be televised? An articulate, angry young man, a mean drummer, tight bassist, cool flautist, and the invention of rap.
HUGE Gil Scott Heron fan and YES he is on the list!! The Revolution Will Not Be Televised!
YES!!!!!! This is wonderful and so inspirational to indie artists everywhere. A small amount of gear but imagination and craft win! You should interview Dave on your show. It would be a good re-spark for his visibility too.
Thanks ever so much! Yes, huge fan!
As soon as I hear this track, I’m instantly transported back to 83. Being 19 then and in a band, the Eurythmics simply stood out and no matter what music rang your bell at that time, it just made you dance or tap your foot..... brilliant!!!
Very well said Karl! Thanks for sharing!
Those two keyboards parts are panned left and right and that was the secret to figure the parts out exactly. I played this song in a cover band for many years and it’s not easy to play live and cover everything that’s going on. Everyone says I look pissed off when playing Sweet Dreams, ha ha. It’s like “leave me alone, I’m busy over here”.
The key to the groove is that the left hand is doing a kind of "Crazy Train" riff.
Love these deep dives on early electronic stuff
Thanks ever so much!!
Fantastic song & sound and what a voice! Classic. I started my studio with an 8-track tape machine and whatever cheap gear I could get, I loved the 80s DIY attitude. Great video, thanks Warren!
Thanks for sharing Willem!
Annie is just a unique emotional singer and personality and Dave is a stylist composer...
The combination was pure magic.!!!
You know what was so wonderful about the early eighties synth pop practitioners was that so many of them came out with soundscapes and aesthetics that were uniquely their own. That hasn't been the case for ages now.
I still play the whole album loads, I rediscovered it about 10 years old after avoiding 80’s music from my teenage years for years. This album, plus the 2 albums “In the garden” and “Savage” are genius, getting only better with time.
They were a good team and they made great music. That image of Anne with the cropped short red hair in a suit holding a cane is still incredible. People forget the fuss her image caused, she really stood out from the crowd even if she “borrowed” from Grace Jones lol.
This band had everything, people need to be reminded.
Enjoyed this, I’ve not heard those quotes before. The song itself gave them both a lifelong career - that’s how good the song is.
Great video.
It only goes to show you don’t need to have lots of equipment to write a great song. It just takes creativity and passion.
Agreed 100%!
That's something I learned from the Black Hole Sun essay. People invest so much time and money and energy trying to replicate the sound of vocals passing through a blown-out low-watt speaker, and Chris Cornell just goes and brings in a blown-out low-watt speaker and puts a mic in front of it.
During my years between HS and college, i bought the Tourists first(?) self-titled album. Even apart from the two singles, their arrangements on songs like Blind Among the Flowers and The Loneliest Man in the World were unique. So hearing the Eurythmics Sweet Dreams wasn't so much a revelation as a vindication to me.
I remember the Tourists very well and loved them too! Yes, always revolutionary!
The Eurythmics had a great sound that helped define the eighties. The music stood on its own, but this was the same time MTV was taking off and their videos were Da Best. Yes, Annie made some folks jaws drop.
Remember listening to this in the car with my mom growing up in Virginia. 7 years old and I was stunned. Nobody knew what to think of the otherworldliness, yet the subject matter was so human.
Money for Nothin, Dire Straights....has that one been done yet?
Exactly what I thought! Who are these aliens? What is this incredible music? Yes, Dire Straits coming soon
一番好きな曲ですね。
80'sの曲でありながら、決して古さを感じない新しさを保っている。
Agreed! A very modern sounding track
I remember hearing this as a kid in the 80s and it really stood out from everything else.
That’s my experience too!
1983 was an incredible year for music,and youre right nothing sounded like this or Blue Monday (same year)
Yes! Both great songs! Here’s Blue Monday:- ua-cam.com/video/Iyzk1Gwwu7c/v-deo.html
One of the finest songs ever written, regardless of the production. Then put it with the amazing production, it’s just a masterpiece.
My favorite little touch in this song is the timing of the background vocal pads between the verses. Interesting phrasing across those bars, while absolutely supporting the songs motion.
iTS ONE of these rare songs that makes you go "Åhh!" when you hear the first notes, and they just complies you to turn the volume _up_ !
Bowie, Supertramp, 10cc, ELO are some of the others, that has managed to make tracks with this strength. Amazingly Eurythmics did it more than once with "Love is a stranger", and even "Here comes the rain again". These tracks are fantastic car/road-music, but equally powerful at home, on a bleak rainy miserable night, where your special one did not show up as expected..
Annie Lennox, the Scots song bird! 1 of the BEST female vocalists to come out of the UK for over 40 years! WHAT a voice that girl has!
And it all started here!
"It's special. Completely unique." ~ Warren Huart.
That says it all. Excellent content....as always, Warren.
Thanks ever so much Scott!
This song is solid. It always sounds new.
Eurythmic - Rain. You can say anything, but Rain is the BEST SONG EVER. Sweet Dreams is the crowning glory of Synth Wave and it's very good, but compared to Rain it's maybe 10%. There are so many melodic lines in "Rain", so many sounds, no beat riff note is boring or out of place. You can listen to a song zilion times and every time find some new detail even better than the last time you listened the song. Sweet Dreams are still one of the best songs ever, but Rain is out of the league. Better than the best. A masterpiece.
The MCS (Movement Percussion Computer) showing in this video is the mk-II, it came out in Orange or Black casing, very rare british made system, also you can use it as a word processor.
But if you want to see the mk-I, go to the Sweet Dreams video, is the computer Dave Stewart is typing on, the monitor and computer are separate, can be the prototype.
Is analog base sound cards, the sound is very similar to the Simmons SDSV, but in the mk-II they added digital sounds and in the later units maybe sampling and MIDI.
Users that I remember, Genesis, Kajagoogoo, Thompson Twins, Eurythmics and Vince Clarke.
The Eurythmics are just brilliant.
Agreed 200%!!
In my opinion one of the main aspect of this marvelous song is the addition of the warmth of Annie Lennox' voice and the coldness of the Dave Stewart's synth lines.
It almost always works, contrasts of ice and fire/soul and robotic, and you can hear such things, warm voice and cold synths, with Yazzo (Alison Moyet's warm & bluesy voice + Vince Clark's synths) or even with DM (Dave Gahan's pseudo baritone voice + V Clark then A Wilder synths and 12bits samplers).
Anyway, I love this song, thank you for having made a video about it and I'm still in love with Mrs Lennox! 😉
Exactly what I was going to say!
You don't need much money, just one of the best singers of all time
But don't dream of trying to buy a Movement Systems Drum Computer on eBay. 😀
Duran Duran seem underrated to me. It wasn't until I saw them live in 2004 that I realised they're in fact very good musicians. An analysis of "Save A Prayer" would be awesome. Or anything by Depeche Mode (the opening riff to "World In My Eyes" is my favourite, an absolute killer! Those crisp synth sounds! ) - I used to joke that there would never be an 80s revival because it was all crap :) How wrong I was to under appreciate my own era. The current 80s revival (The Weeknd etc) is well deserved.
One of my favorite songs. It's hypnotic. A masterpiece.
Agreed! Masterpiece
Every time I hear the opening bars of this classic I am transported to my eighties childhood... I get this weird nostalgia where going back there feels like going to the future...
The first time I heard it on the radio, back in the 83, I told to myself "this is what the future sounds" like.
The Tourists 1st album has never been released on CD for some reason. I've always found that surprising given how famous they both were in the eighties.
I didn't know that! Thanks for sharing!
Those sounds, those images, everything so ahead of their time.
Blue Monday was also 1983, and it was also a song that stood out just as much as Sweet Dreams. Owner of a Lonely Heart gets an honorable mention in the "completely unique and changed music" category.
Yes, you couldn't get away from that orchestra stab for fifteen years! 😀
AL has a very unique voice. It wouldn't have worked so well without her.
It is songs like this that drove a stake thru the heart of disco, for which I will be forever grateful.
I was 16 y/o when 'Sweet Dreams' hit MTV. I was a confirmed punker but , like a meteor' based solely on the vid and all the information I could find about Annie and Stewart, I was crazy in love with Annie's on screen persona, I have followed Annie to this day and she got me into a neo-noir creative path that has lasted for 40 years!
I feel like so much great art (music, movies, etc) from this era is at least in part a product of limitations faced by the artists... and this song is a great example of that. I wonder, would the vocal have that same eerie haunting quality if it hadn't been recorded on that pencil mike in a big lively room? Would the downbeat/"1" beat in the drums have that huge, almost timpanic quality if not for the "detuned tom sample" experiment?
I told my dad I liked this song so he bought me Touch. That opening, with the synth arp and the pizzicato strings, blew my minds
Spot on!!!! Thank you for this!!! 🎶”Hold your head up… moving on…keep your head up… moving on”🎶
I listened to the song on the radio in the dark in September 1983. I remember my new 4th grade teacher was really hard and it was the first week of school and cried myself to sleep listening to the song wondering how hard the year would be.
Thanks ever so much for sharing
My mom, who did not speak a lick of English loved this song.
Thanks for sharing
I remember when I heard this song back in fall 1983 ... it made it around the world that year. And it wasn't so much robots as it was the sound of the future ....
It was, and still is, a great piece of music.
Thanks for the great comment
Another essential song from the 1980's. The song stopped time. You had to listen to it. You had to watch the video if it was on MTV. I still love this song today. It would be in my top 100 songs of all time.
Being out of 'playing action' won't affect you making these brilliant analysis videos. 😎👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
In middle school, my alarm went off and played this song … it was so unique I didn’t move a muscle …
Wow! I was blown away by this song, hugely influential and still is!
Hearing this for the first time as a kid. Then seeing the video. Amazing even now.
Yes! Agreed! Thanks very much
This song is my origin in music appreciation. I remember listening to this over and over in the dark on my walkman knock-off when I was 11. Thanks for this Warren.
Saw them in 1983 at the Wax Museum Club in Washington DC. Stunning. Simply Stunning.
You don’t need any instruments when Annie is singing. I saw her singing unaccompanied on a talk show in the 80s and couldn’t believe the perfection.
My 10 year old daughter loves it.
She has great taste
Fantastic video! I 100% relate to what you said about how songs like these stood out back when they came out. I felt EXACTLY the same way when I was a kid! ❤️😊
Marvellous! Thanks ever so much
Yes, love the review. You cannot underestimate the impact of electronic music in the early 80’s. I went to see Japan at Leicester Uni and Blancmage were the support and when they started the drum machine through the PA was titanic.
Agreed Gary! Love Japan as well!
It’s an iconic song! 😇
It certainly is!!
It’s the perfect pop song!
It certainly is!
You're right. First time I heard the album, I was bewildered and hooked. A great title track, now iconic, but my favourite track on the same album is, 'This City Never Sleeps', whose laid back groove, muted simple guitar & bass phrase, combine beautifully with the distant soaring electric lead and evocative soundscape of ambient synth textures, and overlaid field recordings of tube trains. A fantastic canvass for Annie's superb vocals. In fact, this vid evoked such a strong memory for me of the track, I had to go and listen to it again, and I got the same chill. Probably a good job I didn't have to chose the single off the album 🤣
Yes! Loved Eurythmics (and Annie Lennox! Wow!) back then, and thought them brilliant - particularly loving the "Sweet Dreams" and "Touch" albums, of which every track is pretty good. And, yes, loved "This City Never Sleeps" for its haunting quality - and that distinctive ambient sound of a London tube train! The whole thing sounded literally underground!
i remember standing in the hall of a meat factory, stacking pieces of pork of dubious quality into boxes for freezing, as a 16 year old kid earning some cash in the holidays. This played frequently on the radio over the din of meat saws etc, the whole scene is etched into my brain. I was identifying as more of a blues or rock fan at the time but this song was so mesmerizing. I cherish this memory.
Thanks ever so much for sharing!
I remember when this song came out, it just hit every nerve, even at 11 years old. It was an incredible sound.
Here comes the rain again is another awesome song and in some ways a follow up to sweet dreams.
Agreed! Masterpiece
Can’t think of a better synth pop song other than Blue Monday that stands out from the 1980’s. They’re both amazing songs
Forgot to mention the video! which totally blew my mind back in the day! Surreal, dark, catchy, classy, cool, state-of-the-art, technological, cows, computers, electric violin, Annie’s looks! It was 🤯.
Still is.
Love your history lessons! What a Great Music Connaiseur Channel👏🏼 cant Gert enough!
- Hot Chocolate every 1‘s winner Baby
- Robert Palmer - addicted to Love
- Tina Turner - i can‘t stand the Rain
Love the 80‘s and 70‘s!!
Glad you like them! Thanks ever so much for the great suggestions!
Even today, this song sounds as fresh as a daisy.
Hearing this song for the first time when I was 7 charted the course of my life. I asked my mom what made that sound and she said it was something called a “synthesizer.” 8 years later with the very first two paychecks I ever earned I bought an ESQ-1 from a friend. I’ve been making electronic music ever since and I see no future in which I stop. Thank you for doing this video. It was great to hear this story.
Hi Warren, for a minor correction of the pronunciation of Wagga Wagga ( as a resident of said place for over 30 years), it sounds like Wogga Wogga, or as the locals tend to call it Wagga. I remember seeing The Tourists poster (along with Inxs) still hanging on the walls of the College Student Union Building in the 1980's.
Thanks ever so much for the great comment and the excellent insight!
They are one of the first bands I remember in my younger side of youth.Love Is A Stranger is mesmerising too.Later on, The Miracle Of Love is beautiful.Annie's voice, speaking or singing, is just gorgeous.
Amazing choice. I remember reading about Dave Stewart hitting a rubber hose against a door for a snare sound. Got to see them live in NYC and blew us away. DX7s had hit the market and then sold out, crazy times.
Very cool! Thanks for sharing
I don't actually like electronica and find the fizzing oscillators and buzz-cut waveforms ugly. But this song is a great hybrid, the tones being bearable, the groove infectious, and all the inhumanity of the instrumentation that I hate so much is completely vitalised by Annie's fantastic voice and delivery.
Great choice, Warren.
3 mins in and my mind is already being blown. Thanks again, Warren for the deep education.
Thanks ever so much Lee!
Thanks ever so much Lee!
I didn’t realize the whole song is a chorus so it makes sense that their other songs can be paired with it like “Who’s that Girl”. It also explains why “1984” fell flat. There wasn’t enough substance in that song.
Timeless masterpiece. The way it was made shows that you can make it big if you make-do with what you have, and think outside the box.
The video for the song was amazing also
Absolutely
This and Missionary Man are my favorite songs by Eurythmics.
Thanks ever so much
Awesome - thx
A few tunes same era that gave me sort of the same vibe as Sweet Dreams are:
Visage - Fade to Grey
Yazoo - Situation 12 inch
Talk Talk - Such a Shame 12 inch US
However, Sweet Dreams stood the test of time better and is a statement to this day.
Love this channel…
Thanks ever so much Henrik!!
Great video and I feel the same way about this song and Cars too! The other thing that was happening before this was the availability of better portable audio. When I got my first walkman, I tuned into FM and this was on the first channel I tuned to. It sounded amazing. 1983 had some other iconic songs like Blue Monday. Hard to believe this song is almost 40 years old!
I love this song, there's so many massive songs that don't have a chorus, which proves A&R men don't know everything, Virginia Plain, The Model, Bohemian Rhapsody, Space Oddity and many more
Agreed 100%!
Sweet Dreams...I'll never forget hearing it the first time...it was magical. My favorite music for decades.