The Sounds Of America: 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)'
1A
NPR
4.3 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 30 April 2023
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The registry contains recordings of all types, from music and radio broadcasts to dramatic performances and speeches. This does not mean they necessarily originated in America or that they were created by Americans. But all have had some significant impact on American culture or history. Our series, "The Sounds of America" takes a closer look at some of these selections.
This edition profiles the British pop duo Eurythmics, best known for their 1983 hit "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).
Eurythmics members Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart take us inside the story of the song, the part played by a U.S. disc jockey, being dirt poor, and the role of a cow.
The Sounds of America is produced by Jennie Cataldo for Accompany Studios.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Jen White. You're listening to the 1A podcast, and it's time for another |
| 0:05.0 | installment of our series, The Sounds of America. This month and next, we're |
| 0:10.1 | celebrating some of the audio recordings added to the National Recording |
| 0:13.8 | Registry at the Library of Congress this year. Each has been picked for their |
| 0:17.9 | aesthetic, historical, or cultural importance to society. This doesn't |
| 0:22.8 | necessarily mean they originated in America or that they were created by |
| 0:26.8 | Americans, but they've had some significant impact on American culture or history. |
| 0:31.5 | Today, we profile the British pop duo The Eurythmics, best known for their 1983 |
| 0:37.1 | hit, Sweet Dreams are made of this. And to tell the story of Sweet Dreams, we begin |
| 0:42.1 | with the artists themselves. Hi there, I'm Annie Lennox. I'm a singer, songwriter, |
| 0:49.0 | member of Eurythmics. Hi, I'm Dave Stewart from Eurythmics, and our song is Sweet |
| 0:57.3 | Dreams are made of this. |
| 0:59.0 | Sweet Dreams are made of this. Who am I to disagree? I travel the world and the seven seas. |
| 1:10.2 | Everybody is looking for something. One of the reasons Sweet Dreams came about was a |
| 1:18.3 | little bit of my frustration of not being able to engineer and produce and do |
| 1:23.3 | everything needed to sort of get what's in your head onto some recording device. |
| 1:29.8 | When Eurythmics broke through, I think people in the UK were probably more |
| 1:37.3 | familiar with their history than we were in America. I'm Jillian Gar and I'm the |
| 1:43.5 | author of She's a Rebel, The History of Women in Rock and Roll. David Annie had |
| 1:48.2 | a completely different band before that. The Tourist and they had a kind of a |
| 1:53.6 | smallish hit with a cover of I Only Want to Be With You by Dusty Springfield. |
| 1:57.8 | I don't know what it is and make you love you so. I only know whatever. |
... |
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