[Note: The Eurythmics were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.]
Not many bands from the 1980’s have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Even as the grunge movement has started to find its more notable bands inducted, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has largely skipped over the more deserving singers and bands from the 1980’s [1]. Among the notable bands from the 1980’s that has not been inducted, for reasons that are curious (given that their profile is similar to bands like The Police or Blondie, even if those groups started in the 70’s). Among the bands of their generation, they have generated strong album sales (over 75 million records worldwide [2] and have a solid group of signature songs that remain popular and even essential as part of the pop/rock of the 1980’s, undimmed by the intervening years. Even without considering the solo work of Dave Stewart (notable in songwriting and producing) as well as Annie Lennox, as a duo alone they have achieved a great deal of success in both the US and UK that is worthy of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, not least as an example of a strong male-female duo that has helped to inspire similar groups like Everything But The Girl and La Roux (to name but a few), besides providing an influence on bands like Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (who are in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame themselves).
The Contribution Of The Eurythmics
In looking at the contribution of the Eurythmics, it is important to note the critical and popular appeal of their body of work. In the United States alone, they have had one multi-platinum album, two platinum albums, and three additional gold albums [2], a solid output mostly from 1983 to 1990. They were even more successful in Great Britain, which should not be surprising. Among their singles, three remain signature songs played in heavy rotation on 80’s stations even today: “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This),” “Would I Lie To You?” and “Here Comes The Rain Again,” besides those three top 10 hits, they had an additional 7 top 40 hits in the United States (and 11 additional top 40 hits in the UK) with songs such as “Love Is A Stranger,” “Who’s That Girl?,” “Right by Your Side,” “There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart),” “Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves (with Aretha Franklin),” “Missionary Man,” and “Don’t Ask Me Why.” Their music, which combined the evocative and passionate singing of Annie Lennox along with driving guitar work by Dave Stewart, provided a solid template of male instrumental prowess and female vocals that have inspired a large number of imitators. They not only achieved crossover success on the mainstream pop charts but had credibility within the mainstream rock community as well as with the Grammys and others (they were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005, for example [3]). The band showed a strong ability to collaborate with other artists, from Aretha Franklin to Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers to Stevie Wonder to Candy Dulfer to Michael Kamen (who conducted their Touch album) [4], all of which were successful efforts. Whatever the personal drama between the two members of the band, they clearly were deeply embedded with other successful and notable artists of their time, and their work remains relevant.
Why The Eurythmics Deserve To Be In The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame
By whatever standard one looks at the band, they have a career of high quality that merits recognition, including previous awards and recognitions, record sales, enduring songs, influence on other artists (both in their own time and today), and Grammy and Ivar Novello awards. They had the same sort of cutting edge taste in music videos and soundtrack work that Peter Gabriel had, lyrics full of biting wit and somewhat dark themes that nonetheless did not prevent them from having a successful career commercially as well as critically. As a solid rock & roll act in the 1980’s, an age that is commonly (although mistakenly) thought to be a wasted era when it came to rock & roll music, their career provides evidence that edgy and profound music could be made in an age of rampant commercialism where a sustained career was hard to find. Indeed, the band kept up a grueling pace of nearly an album a year throughout the decade, which certainly contributed to their difficulties and a certain sense of exhaustion from touring and recording. Few bands today could tally their musical production and success in fifteen or twenty years of a career.
Why The Eurythmics Aren’t In The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame
They appear to be lumped in with the rest of the bands of their decade and not looked at for themselves. Their career did not begin in the 1970’s, so they were not able to get a pass into the hall that way (like the Police and Blondie or Heart [5]) nor did their career extend into or past the grunge era, so they have been left competing among the other bands of the 1980’s in seeking to avoid critical oblivion. The fact that their music has endured makes this task easier.
Verdict: Put them into the hall. They’ve earned it, like a lot of other bands.
[1] See, for example, the following non-exhaustive list:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/why-arent-they-in-the-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-chicago/ (although they count for the 1970’s too).
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurythmics_Discography
Edge Induced Cohesion 
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