"A Thousand Beautiful Things" by Annie Lennox

The problem with publishing a hat trick of Annie Lennox videos is not struggling to find that third video (as per usual) but represents nothing less than the epic battle between head and heart in trying to choose which three of literally dozens of incredible performances to include.

I mean, if I choose A Thousand Beautiful Things does that mean I can't show Walking on Broken Glass? Or No More I Love You's? What about Dark Road? Not even Waiting In Vain?

Talk about your Sophie's choice*...

[* '...a forced decision in which any and all options have equally negative outcomes' as per the 1979 William Styron novel and 1982 Alan J. Pakula film of the same name. ~ MSM]
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"Ev'rytime We Say Goodbye" by Annie Lennox

From 1990's AIDS charity album Red, Hot + Blue - which featured modern (if not always modernist) takes on the songs of Cole Porter - it's Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye, performed by Annie Lennox, in a video directed by Ed Lachman; the following year, while great with child, she sang the song to great effect in Derek Jarman's film Edward II.
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"Why" by Annie Lennox

How fucking amazing is this woman?

Normally I would be entirely peeved at having to forego posting the official video for this song - which is a work of art in its own right - but with Annie Lennox, any version of any of her songs is guaranteed to thrill; recorded live at the 25th Anniversary Gala for Arista Records, here she covers herself with astonishing aplomb, performing the smash hit song Why, from her 1992 debut solo album Diva on a grand piano.

Because what Christmas would be complete without an angel...?
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Happy Birthday Annie Lennox

Born on this day in 1954 in the Scottish city of Aberdeen, Annie Lennox is a classically trained musician with an intuitive zeitgeist-ometer that's been working overtime since 1981, when Eurythmics' first album, In the Garden, was released...

With more soul in her break than most singers have in their whole voice, Lennox's honeyed contralto slunk, shrieked, and otherwise basically blasted through seven albums, including some of the greatest pop music ever recorded:

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (1983), Touch (1983), 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother) (1984), Be Yourself Tonight (1985), Revenge (1986), Savage (1987), and We Too Are One (1989).

It was her 1992 debut solo album Diva, though, that made Lennox the durable icon she is today; 1995's Medusa deftly dodged the sophomore slump with a collection of material which aren't merely cover versions but instead re-imaginings, simultaneously demonstrating the sheer elasticity of pop music as well as her distinctive approach to it. In 1999 she reunited with Dave Stewart to record Peace; 2003 saw the release of Bare, another solo effort which is uber-acoustic, like a lullaby for our collective jangled nerves. 2007's epic Songs of Mass Destruction continued to demonstrate both the growth and maturity of Lennox's gift.

Already the owner of much coveted music industry hardware for both her group and solo projects, in 2004 Lennox was awarded 'the granddaddy of all chachkes' when she won an Oscar for her song Into the West, from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
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"Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)" by Eurythmics

This song doesn't have much to do with Beethoven - aside from his name in the title and a snippet from one of his famous melodies in the tune - but I can't help myself at this point; I'm a blogging fool. It must be all that banging my head on the desk I do for...  Er.  Inspiration.

From my personal favourite Eurythmics album, Savage, it's Beethoven (I Love to Listen to). The video was directed by Sophie Müller as part of a movie-length project which I first saw in 1990 and have never forgotten; this particular video occurs at the beginning of a three-video arc - alongside I Need A Man, and You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart.

Watch as a drab housewife (played to the hilt by famed hilt-player Annie Lennox) who is haunted by her childhood self and inner glamazon and - either loopy from the fumes of household solvents or else ready to check herself into the Laughing Academy - wigs out (quite literally) and breaks her shackles with a persona not unlike Courtney Love, only not scary.

It's still only available on VHS, though. To which I say: if those responsible don't soon put this amazing piece of work out on DVD I may have a breakdown like the one in this video, find those responsible, and have words with them. And as good a look as this is on Annie Lennox, well, that's how awful it looks on me. You've been warned.
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Bonus Video: "There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)" by Eurythmics

Apropo of the last post, guess what?!  The relatively recent innovation of VEVO has allowed for the embedding of oodles of scrumptious video content, including the above...  So I guess it turns out that some record company executives have decided to enter the digital age after all.  That just leaves the dinosaurs at Warner and EMI to play catch up or risk becoming extinct.

Even though it's technically Dave Stewart's birthday I feel like the one who's been given a present!
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"Julia" by Eurythmics

A Eurythmics video is one of those things I need very little provocation to post; to whit, today is the anniversary of the publication of George Orwell's spooky (not to mention eerily prescient) novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Eurythmics contributed music to Michael Radford's movie version of the novel - music which he disliked, and later refused to incorporate into the finished film; undismayed, the duo released the album anyway, since it was 1984 and the book was experiencing something of a resurgence in popular culture. Today, among Eurythmics fans at least, it's considered one of their best.

1984 (For the Love of Big Brother) contains many haunting and ethereal tracks drawn from the original text, including this one; named for the woman with whom Winston Smith carries on an illicit affair which provides his downfall, Julia is a pop song rendered most elegant by Dave Stewart's low-key arrangement and Annie Lennox's ethereal voice.
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"Ev'rytime We Say Goodbye" by Annie Lennox

I last published this video some four months ago - Christmas Day, to be precise - on the occasion of Annie Lennox's birthday; I'm republishing it here now because a) I love it so much, and b) it was used as the love theme in Derek Jarman's 1992 film Edward II.

Originally recorded for 1990's AIDS charity album Red, Hot + Blue, which featured modern (if not always modernist) takes on the songs of Cole Porter, it's Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye, performed by Annie Lennox, in a video directed by Ed Lachman.
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