Be Yourself Tonight

Eurythmics

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: May 1985
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000002W8I
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #183,617 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording
Casting off their rep for digital iciness, the Eurythmics got Be Yourself Tonight over on electric fire and the fluttering warmth of Annie Lennox's voice; the first two seconds of "There Must Be an Angel" are the prettiest seconds ever recorded. In fact, it's essentially a deep soul album in white-English-geek drag, from the Stax horns of "Would I Lie to You" to the guest shots by Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder to Lennox and Elvis Costello doing their best Marvin-and-Tammi impression on "Adrian." But the style points wouldn't matter without great songs and this disc has some of the band's finest: the best feminist anthem ever written, rockers that dig their heels in deep, and love songs fueled by real longing and joy. --Douglas Wolk

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome '80s album, August 13, 1999

By A Customer

I think this album is what definitely put Eurythmics in the history books. Their 2 previous albums, Sweet Dreams and Touch, brought them into '80s new wave. But as New Wave began to die down in 1985, instead of fading away like other numerous one-hit wonders of the decade, Lennox and Stewart came back strong. They proved to the music world that they were more than capable of just synthsizers and repititious lyrics. This album went platinum and spawned off 3 Top 40 hits, "Would I Lie To You?", which peaked at #5, becoming the duo's 3rd Top 10 hit in 3 years, "There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)", and the I-Am-Woman-Hear-Me-Roar anthem, "Sisters Are Doin' It (For Themselves), a powerful duet with the soul-diva herself, Aretha Franklin. Eurythmics weren't afraid at all to try new sounds, and it showed in Stewart's hard-rock guitar wizardy, and Lennox's engaging voice and video theatrics. An album definitely worth buying if you're doing an '80s revival collection.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Somewhere between the synths and the pop..., September 25, 1998

By A Customer

...lies Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox's fifth studio release, 1985's Be Yourself Tonight. Somewhere between the sobriety of the synthesizers in Sweet Dreams, Touch and the 1984 soundtrack and the mechanic rock and roll of Revenge is this collection of sometimes breezy, always soulful and 100% all-natural rock-n-roll.

There is no other Eurythmics album that is as outgoing as Be Yourself Tonight, no album with nearly the verve or the audacity. There are no apologies for the mix of synths and guitars here or for the mix of guitars and choirs, and that lack of restriction makes this album all the more worth having.

Hardly the least among the audacious elements is Lennox holding her own vocally in the face of The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, in "Sisters Are Doing it for Themselves." Lennox won critical accolades for her divinely-inspired singing of "There Must be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)," which features Stevie Wonder in two brilliantly spontaneous harmonica solos. And people remember and still sing along with the angry woman-getting-out-of-her-kitchen-and-dumping-her-man's-ass hit "Would I Lie to You?," featuring a delicious horn section.

There are songs here to fit any mood, it seems, and yet they somehow all come out with a touch of soul that Lennox and Stewart have not exuded before now. "I Love You Like a Ball and Chain" has understated sexual candor. "Conditioned Soul" runs the emotinoal gambit from lilly-white lovely to intensely frightened. "Adrian" features a beautiful duet between Lennox and Elvis Costello. "It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back)" mixes Caribbean rhythm and lush poetry: I will be your storm at seas, indeed.

One of my personal favorites is the original B-side to "Would I Lie to You," "Here Comes That Sinking Feeling," a song with the perfect mix of somber mood, undercurrent guitar licks and horns to keep you dancing. Like what Lennox sings about disappointment, this song leaves a smile before it goes.

This album spawned some memorable singles and came at a time when rock was in the middle of a pop-inspired period: just hard enough to claim that Bryan Adams was a rock star but just soft enough for you to appreciate the balladry of Phil Collins and Sting. Be Yourself Tonight at the time was -- and nowadays still is -- a breath of fresh, creative air.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive Eurythmics Sound, February 27, 2001

By	"littleghost" (Los Angeles, California United States) - See all my reviews

"Be Yourself Tonight" is the album that made Eurythmics graduate from cooly stylized New Wavers to a major rock 'n' roll force.

From the opening guitar licks of "Would I Lie To You," there is a directness to the music that wasn't there before. Although Eurythmics hadn't completely abandoned their previous use of electronics in their music (that wouldn't happen until 1986, when they released the "Revenge" album), here on "Be Yourself Tonight" they integrated keyboards with guitars, horns, drums (instead of a drum machine or the synthesized beats of "Sweet Dreams"). The songs fuse pop, soul, gospel, and classic rock. Overall, "Be Yourself Tonight" has an energy that Dave and Annie hadn't had since their days in their previous band, The Tourists, in the late 1970's.

And Annie Lennox's voice... wow! Her singing was always soulful, but here on "Be Yourself Tonight," Lennox sings with a new warmth. She sizzles on "Would I Lie To You," and she performs a vocal powerhouse duet with none other than Aretha Franklin on "Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves." She also shows a softer side for the first time here, especially on the lilting "It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back)" and alternates between hard rocker and beautiful balladeer within the verses and choruses of "Better To Have Lost In Love," the album's closing number.

The only thing missing from this album is "Grown Up Girls." This song was the B-side to the second single from this album: "There Must Be An Angel Playing With My Heart" (a collaboration with Annie's idol, Stevie Wonder). "Grown Up Girls" is Eurythmics' fiercest foray into disco (yes, disco). Annie's vocals are vocoded, and she alternates between singing in French and English. And the song never relents from its Hi-NRg beats-per-minute frenzy. With the predominance of house music in the 90's, and the advent of electronica, "Grown Up Girls" could still pack a dancefloor today. And considering how "Be Yourself Tonight" is such a timeless collection of all musical genres that Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox recorded, "Grown Up Girls" would have rounded out this album very nicely. (After all, "Be Yourself Tonight" only has 9 tracks... not uncommon for 80's albums, but short by today's standards.)

Over the course of their career, Eurythmics would move from rock to pop, and from acoustic to electric, and back again. While most of their albums contained either/or, the "Be Yourself Tonight" album has it all. This album represents the definitive Eurythmics sound, and the songwriting and production values sound as fresh and inspired in the new millenium as they did at the time of this album's original release in the mid-80's. TREAT YOURSELF TONIGHT and buy this CD!