Beethoven (I Love to Listen To)

"Beethoven (I Love to Listen To)"
Single by Eurythmics
from the album Savage
Released	October 1987
Format	7", 12", cassette single
Recorded	January 1987
Genre	Synthpop, electronica
Label	RCA
Writer(s)	Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart.
Producer(s)	David A. Stewart
Eurythmics singles chronology
"Missionary Man" (1987) "Beethoven (I Love to Listen To)" (1987) "Shame" (1987)
Music video Eurythmics - Beethoven (I Love To Listen To) on YouTube

"Beethoven (I Love to Listen To)" is a song by the British pop music duo Eurythmics, released as the first single (in the UK) from their 1987 album, Savage.

Background

Writing

It was written by group members Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart. Although not released as a single in the United States, the track appeared as a double A-side of the 12 inch single for "I Need a Man", and received heavy rotation on MTV. It was a Top 20 hit in several European territories and also in Australia.

Style

The Savage album returned Eurythmics to a more electronic sound and the "Beethoven" vocals are performed mostly as spoken-word from Lennox, with the exception of the repeated phrase "I love to" throughout the track.

Track listings

7": RCA (UK, GER, FR, SP, AUS)

1. "Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)" (7" Edit) – 3:59
2. "Heaven" (LP Version) – 3:24

12": RCA (UK, GER, FR, SP, AUS)

1. "Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)" (Dance Mix) – 5:18
2. "Heaven" (LP Version) – 3:24
3. "Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)" (LP Version) – 4:48

CD Single: RCA (UK, GER)

1. "Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)" (7" Edit) – 3:59
2. "Heaven" (LP Version) – 3:24
3. "Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)" (Dance Mix) – 5:18

CD single: RCA (JP)

1. "Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)" (7" Edit) – 3:59
2. "Heaven" (LP Version) – 3:24

Music video

Lennox as the housewife

Lennox as the vixen

Background

Music videos were produced for all twelve tracks on the Savage album, all directed by Sophie Muller, and most of them with a shared concept featuring character(s) played by Lennox who display characteristics of dissociative identity disorder or split personalities.

As the first part of this loose narrative, the "Beethoven" video begins with Lennox portraying a repressed, middle-class housewife, knitting in her apartment. She exhibits characteristics of obsessive-compulsive disorder through her habitual cleaning and chopping of vegetables. The video also includes a mischievous little girl who has blonde hair, and a man who is wearing make-up and an evening gown, neither of whom are directly noticed by the housewife even though they are in her living room with her. These characters are seemingly components of a new character that the dowdy housewife becomes as she has a nervous breakdown and transforms herself into a blonde, overtly sexual vixen. In this newly liberated persona she trashes the apartment that, as a housewife, she had kept meticulously clean. The video ends with her walking out into the street laughing. The Beethoven of this video and song is more akin to "Ludwig Van" in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange than to the historical figure.^[1]

Chart performance

Chart (1987)	Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[2]	13
Belgian Singles Chart	25
Dutch Singles Chart[3]	41
French Singles Chart[4]	74
German Singles Chart[5]	28
Irish Singles Chart[6]	11
Italian Singles Chart[7]	10
New Zealand Singles Chart[8]	6
Norwegian Singles Chart[9]	6
Polish Singles Chart	27
Swedish Singles Chart[10]	9
Swiss Singles Chart[11]	19
UK Singles Chart[12]	25

References

1. "Surrealistic Feminism in a 1987 Music Video," presentation by Michael J. Emery at the Florida State University Literature and Film Conference, 1993
2. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives: Australian Chart Book. p. 105. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. N.B. The Kent Report chart was licensed by ARIA between 1983 and 19 June 1988.
3. Steffen Hung. "Eurythmics - Beethoven". dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
4. "InfoDisc : Tout les Titres par Artiste". infodisc.fr. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
5. musicline.de / PhonoNet GmbH. "Chartverfolgung / Eurythmics / Single". musicline.de. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
6. "The Irish Charts - All there is to know". Irishcharts.ie. Archived from the original on 11 May 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
7. "Hit Parade Italia - Indice per Interprete: E". Hitparadeitalia.it. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
8. Steffen Hung. "Eurythmics - Beethoven". charts.org.nz. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
9. Steffen Hung. "Eurythmics - Beethoven". norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
10. Steffen Hung. "Eurythmics - Beethoven". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
11. Steffen Hung. "Eurythmics - Beethoven". hitparade.ch. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
12. "Eurythmics - Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)". Chart Stats. Retrieved 2011-06-09.