Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

For the album, see Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (album).

"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)"
Picture sleeve for most releases
Single by Eurythmics
from the album Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
B-side"I Could Give You a Mirror"
Released21 January 1983 (1983-01-21)
Genre
Length3:36 (single/album version)
4:48 (12" version)
LabelRCA
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)David A. Stewart
Eurythmics singles chronology
"Love Is a Stranger"
(1982) 		"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)"
(1983) 		"Who's That Girl?"
(1983)
"Love Is a Stranger (1991 reissue)"
(1991)
"Sweet Dreams '91 (Remix)"
(1991)
"I Saved the World Today"
(1999)
Music video
"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" on YouTube

"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is a song by British synth-pop duo Eurythmics. It was released as the fourth and final single from their second album of the same name in January 1983. It was their breakthrough hit, establishing the duo worldwide. It reached number two on the UK Singles Chart in March 1983, and number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 six months later; it was their first single released in the US.

With Annie Lennox appearing with orange cropped hair and wearing a man's business suit in the music video, the BBC stated Lennox's "powerful androgynous look" was the music video that "broke the mold for female pop stars“.[6] Rolling Stone called the song "a synth-pop masterpiece that made Lennox and Dave Stewart MTV superstars".[7]

After the song's rise, the duo's previous single, "Love Is a Stranger", was re-released and also became a worldwide hit. On Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time issue in 2003, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" was ranked number 356.[8] In 2020, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[9] In 2023, it was selected by the US Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry.[10] Eurythmics have regularly performed the song in all their live sets since its release—with an early television performance coming on the BBC's Top of the Pops in February 1983—and it is often performed by Lennox on her solo tours.

Recorded by Eurythmics in a small project studio in the attic of an old warehouse in north London where they were living, the song's success heralded a trend of musicians abandoning larger recording studios for home recording methods.[11][12] In 1991, the song was remixed and reissued to promote Eurythmics' Greatest Hits album. It re-charted in the UK, reaching number 48, and was also a moderate hit in dance clubs. Another remix by Steve Angello was released in France in 2006, along with the track "I've Got a Life".

  1. ^ Judith A. Peraino (2005). University of California Press (ed.). Listening to the Sirens: Musical Technologies of Queer Identity from Homer to Hedwig. University of California Press. p. 241. ISBN 978-0520215870. "Marilyn Manson entered the mainstream in 1995 with a cover song of the 1980s synth-pop hit "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by the Eurythmics"
  2. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Eurythmics - Greatest Hits (1991) Review at AllMusic. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
  3. ^ Borthwick, Stuart; Moy, Ron (2004). "Synthpop: into the digital age". Popular Music Genres: An Introduction. Routledge. p. 130. ISBN 9780415973694.
  4. ^ Larry Starr, Christopher Alan Waterman (2007). Oxford University Press (ed.). American popular music: from minstrelsy to MP3, Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195300536. ""Sweet Dreams" is a good example of commercial new wave music of the early 1980s, an outgrowth of the 1970s new wave/punk scene promoted by major record labels."
  5. ^ Breihan, Tom (20 July 2020). "The Number Ones: Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)". Stereogum. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
  6. ^ "Sweet Dreams: remembering the music video that broke the mould for female pop stars". BBC. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  7. ^ "Eurythmics Perform 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)' in 1983". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  8. ^ "The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". RollingStone.com. Archived from the original on 16 October 2007. Retrieved 8 June 2009.
  9. ^ "All Grammy Hall of Fame Inductees". 18 October 2010. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  10. ^ "2023 National Recording Registry selections". Library of Congress. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  11. ^ Bell, Adam Patrick (2018). Dawn of the DAW: The Studio as Musical Instrument. Oxford University Press. p. 23. ISBN 9780190296629.
  12. ^ Newell, Philip Richard (2000). Project Studios: A More Professional Approach. Focal Press. pp. 7–8. ISBN 9780240515731.