Top 10 Annie Lennox Songs

Photo: Britt Berger, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Although best known for her work on the beloved duo the Eurythmics, Scottish-born Annie Lennox has enjoyed a successful solo career. She often covers other people’s songs, but is an accomplished songwriter. Her songs are full of emotion, poetry, and pain, but sometimes a ray of hope shines through. All of her songs feature her unique and remarkably flexible, soulful voice. Here are the top 10 Annie Lennox songs. Here, we will focus only on the songs she wrote.

# 10 – Dark Road

The song is better known for its gorgeous video, which was the first to premiere on Amazon. However, the song itself is worthy of any top 10 Annie Lennox song list. It starts off slow, builds up to a gospel-like crescendo with dark notes and a church organ, and has a poignant ending. This can be found on the 2007 album, Songs of Mass Destruction, although it first appeared on Annie Lennox’s MySpace page – back when MySpace was a thing. This was released as a single but did not do well. It has done well with fans.

# 9 – Sing

This was a different kind of song for Annie Lennox – a hopeful one and one not about the end of a love affair. This was a song for all women to speak up and not give up. Annie Lennox had 23 other women singers as guest stars on this, including Madonna, Melissa Etheridge, Pink, Shakira, Bonnie Raitt, Gladys Knight, and Dido. The official video featured a bit of a Nelson Mandela speech. The song raised money to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. It was the second single off the 2007 album Songs of Mass Destruction. It’s been remixed many times.

# 8 – Love Song for a Vampire

Although a vampire is mentioned in the title, and this appears to grace the final credits of the bizarre Anthony Hopkins 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the lyrics are not vampire-specific. They could be applied to anyone who’s experienced the loss of love. Add to the mix a subtle yet powerful electrical background and magnificent harmonies consisting of multiple layers of Annie Lennox’s voice, and you’ve got yourself one of the best songs to appear on a 1990s movie soundtrack. Annie Lennox herself – and quite a lot of other people – disliked the movie.

# 7 – Ghosts in My Machine

It’s all too much for Annie Lennox, and fans are so grateful, since it means she produced great music like Ghost in the Machine. This is a funky, piano-driven song with upbeat music, set to some pretty bleak lyrics like, “Oh, womankind was born of pai,n” but do not worry, she still loves you, baby. The song features some wonderful vocal gymnastics from Annie Lennox. This appears on 2007’s Songs of Mass Destruction.

# 6 – Love Is Blind

Love is not only blind, but it also makes Annie Lennox want to slit her wrists, according to this song from 2007’s Songs of Mass Destruction. This time, Annie Lennox hasn’t lost her lover; she’s doing all she can to keep the relationship going. This is a tense, driving song that builds to a powerful ending: Annie Lennox singing a cappella, “So screwed up.” Amazing that this song was never chosen as a single. Do your ears a favor and check it out.

# 5 – Cold

“Dying is easy, it’s living that scares me to death,” is one of the best lines Annie Lennox ever wrote. This great lyric is framed by a great song, soulful and trippy and, of course, overflowing with emotion. Comparing cold to a color was also an inspired touch. This song shows off Annie Lennox’s powerful and elastic voice, as well as her songwriting skills. The official video features a brief musical introduction with church bells, not found on the album version, from 1992’s Diva. It is also noted as the first single released only on CD and cassette, not vinyl.

# 4 – Walking on Broken Glass

Annie Lennox is the queen of looking back on failed relationships. Here, the comparison to the end of a love affair and walking on broken glass is apt, as well as “living in an empty room with all the windows smashed.” This richly-arranged tune, with an effective use of backing strings, will stay in your head for years. The cinematic video was based on the popular 1998 movie Dangerous Liaisons and featured cameos by John Malkovich and Hugh Laurie, who was then unknown in America but well-known for his comedy work in the UK.

# 3 – Pavement Cracks

Things are going badly for Annie Lennox here, and that’s when she writes her best stuff. She makes a great comparison between walking through a city and the break-up of a love affair. As if trying to read the future, she looks at cracks in the pavement for any glimpse of her future and finds none. This also has a great tune, a hard-edged bridge, and the usual gorgeous background harmonies. This is the perfect song for a good cry. It appears on Annie Lennox’s 2003 album Bare.

# 2 – Why

Sometimes songs can take years to write, and sometimes they take ten minutes. Why is one of the latter? Like Little Bird, this song explores her feelings about flying solo, though it could also be interpreted as another break-up song. With a long, slow, and sinuous melody, it was unlikely to ever break the top 5, but it did in the UK and hit #1 in Italy. Not only that, in 1992 it won the prestigious Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. Not bad for ten minutes of work. The lush video of Annie Lennox getting ready to go on stage won two MTV Music Video Awards.

# 1 – Little Bird

As Peter Gabriel had his song about breaking from the group Genesis, Solsbury Hill, so does Annie Lennox with her song, often interpreted as her feelings breaking away from the Eurythmics. The popular video even suggests this, as many of her Eurythmics personas are shown and suitably dismissed. However, the lyrics are merely the black-and-white lines in a coloring book. The listener can fill in the colors with their own life experiences. It also has a killer hook, and you can dance to it. What more can you want? That’s why Little Bird tops our list of the top 10 Annie Lennox songs. It first appeared on 1992’s Diva.