Released: October 16, 1981

Songwriter: Annie Lennox David A. Stewart

Producer: Conny Plank Eurythmics

Takes a step back
From the vacant chair
Looking in the mirror
While she's combing her hair
Wipes the dust from a cup
While she's cleaning up
Wonders very slightly
What she's doing there

A simple reflection
Can be too revealing
Years are for counting
Years are for stealing
She's a mathematician

Calculator
Counting daily
Counting forever...

Cold clean glass and a razor blade
Fly on the table and a passing car
Closes the curtain to keep in the shade
Closes her head and now she's counting down

Dust is collecting
But she doesn't notice
Counting for ever
She's a calculator
No-one can see her

She's invisible now
No-one can see her
And the dust is collecting

Eurythmics

While working as a waitress at a health food restaurant in London, Annie Lennox met Dave Stewart, with whom she formed the band Catch with singer-songwriter Peet Coombes. Catch released one single before adding two more members and changing their name to The Tourists. Under that name, the band scored five UK hits before Coombes' substance abuse broke the band apart.

Lennox and Stewart continued writing together – with Stewart moving from guitar to synthesizer and Lennox adopting an androgynous look – and formed Eurythmics. Within a few years, the duo was propelled into international stardom when “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)”, a single from their second album, became a top ten hit in nine countries.

Over the decade, the duo moved away from their dark new wave sound and S&M imagery, evolving into a more mainstream synthpop band. In that time, they scored twenty-one UK top 40’s (ten of which were also US top 40 hits). In 1990, Eurythmics quietly disbanded and Lennox took a break from music to have her first child.