“Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” is a song by the British new wave music duo Eurythmics. Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart and wrote the song after the Tourists had broken up and they formed Eurythmics. Although the two of them also broke up as a couple, they continued to work together. They became interested in electronic music and bought new synthesizers to play around with. According to Stewart, he managed to produce the beat and riff of the song on one of their new synthesizers, and Lennox, on hearing it, said: “What the hell is that?” and started playing on another synthesizer, and beginnings of the song came out of the two dueling synths.
According to Lennox, the lyrics reflected the unhappy time after the break up of the Tourists, when she felt that they were “in a dream world” and that whatever they were chasing was never going to happen. She described the song as saying: “Look at the state of us. How can it get worse?” adding “I was feeling very vulnerable. The song was an expression of how I felt: hopeless and nihilistic.” Stewart, however, thought the lyrics too depressing and added the “hold your head up, moving on” line to make it more uplifting. Commenting on the line “Some of them want to use you … some of them want to be abused”, Lennox said that “people think it’s about sex or S&M, and it’s not about that at all”.
“Sweet Dreams” was created and recorded in two places, first in the Eurythmics’ tiny project studio in the Chalk Farm district of London, above a picture framing shop, then in a small room at The Church Studios in North London. The home studio was equipped with a Tascam 80-8, 8-track half-inch tape recorder, a Soundcraft mixer, a Roland Space Echo, a KLark Teknik DN50 spring reverb, a B.E.L. Electronics noise reduction unit, and a single Beyerdynamic M 201 TG microphone. The gear was purchased second-hand after Lennox and Stewart obtained a bank loan for £5000.
Stewart recalls he was in a manic mood while Lennox was depressed. Stewart was upbeat because he had just survived surgery on a punctured lung, and felt like he had been given a new lease on life. Lennox was feeling low because of the poor results from past musical work. She perked up when she heard Stewart first experimenting with the song’s bass line sequence. She “leaped off the floor” and started to fill in the song with the Oberheim synth. According to Stewart, the record company did not think the song was suitable as a single as it lacked a chorus. However, when a radio DJ in Cleveland kept playing the song from the album, and it generated a strong local response, the label decided to release it.
“Sweet Dreams” was Eurythmics’ commercial breakthrough in the United Kingdom and all over the world. The single entered the UK chart at number 63 in February 1983 and reached number two the following month for one week. Although it is one of the most successful songs of the genre Synthpop of the 80s, it could not reach Number 1, held up by the successful ballad of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler.
“Sweet Dreams” was the first-ever single released by Eurythmics in the United States when it was released in May 1983. The single debuted at number 90 and slowly eased up the chart. By August, the single had reached number two and stayed there for four weeks, kept from the top by the Police’s “Every Breath You Take” before “Sweet Dreams” took the number one spot.
