Eurythmics Inducted Into Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame

Eurythmics are a duo who exceeded everybody’s expectations — maybe even their very own. Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox took their first shot at musical fame with a band referred to as the Vacationers within the late ’70s. The five-piece scored two small hits within the U.Ok. charts however had little success anyplace else, and by 1980, they broke up. Stewart and Lennox fashioned Eurythmics on their very own a 12 months later, with little success. Nevertheless, 15 months later, every part modified.

It was January 1983 after I turned conscious of the band. As one-half of Ramondo and the Blade, the Los Angeles morning-drive staff on the brand new wave-leaning KROQ, I had been taking part in their music “Candy Desires (Are Fabricated from This)” and getting requests for it. Nevertheless, it was solely after I noticed the music video on MV3, the syndicated music-TV present hosted weekday afternoons on L.A.’s KHJ Channel 9, that I noticed this was one thing particular. The video had no coherent story — a cow wandering round a convention room? — but it surely was Lennox’s managed, pitch-perfect vocals, paired together with her placing, androgynous appears and depth, that made it so memorable. The person’s go well with and tie and brutally brief, bright-orange crew minimize contrasted with the femininity of her vibrant purple lips and engaging eyes, making her an unforgettable determine as she pounded on a refined desk to the driving beat of the music. I wasn’t the one one who thought so: The night after the video’s first airing on MV3, whereas I used to be DJing on the 321 Membership in Santa Monica, I used to be bombarded with requests for “the music from the lady in males’s garments.”

Lennox and Stewart stood out from their contemporaries not solely with their look, however with their sound. The layers of music on “Candy Desires,” and subsequently, “Love Is a Stranger,” are lush and hypnotic, offering the right backdrop for Annie’s vocals to soar over. It’s uncommon that the music can survive and thrive over such an overwhelming look, however theirs did — and nonetheless does.

Eurythmics undeniably deserve a spot within the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame. Although they’re typically credited with opening up America to British new wave, they have been, actually, innovators and musical chameleons. The pair altered their sound many times, switching from synths (“Right here Comes the Rain Once more”) to R&B (“Would I Deceive You?”) to experimental different (“Beethoven”) to a feminist anthem that includes Aretha Franklin (“Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves”) to heartbreaking ballads (“Miracle of Love”) to, sure, straight-up, in-your-face, Grammy-winning rock (“Missionary Man”). It will likely be a few years earlier than we see and listen to the likes of Eurythmics explode from our radios once more.

Richard Blade may be heard on SiriusXM 1st Wave. Catch the whole Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame 2022 Induction Ceremony on HBO Nov. 19 at 8 p.m. ET, together with a simulcast on SiriusXM’s Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame Radio (channel 310). SiriusXM listeners may also catch dwell, backstage protection and commentary on Quantity on the SXM app and on Faction Speak (channel 103).