October 1985.

Oh yes, what a vocal line up in my head this morning. Annie Lennox, Aretha Franklin and The Charles Williams Gospel Choir. That’s my Tuesday off to a flying start.

Written by Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart this was, according to Lennox, a challenge to write a feminist anthem that would get played on the radio. In a 1991 interview she recalls that she woke up one morning and wrote the lyrics, almost as though she’d had a vision of it. Believing it needed a fantastic woman to share the vocals, the pair approached Tina Turner but she declined saying the song was too feminist. Aretha Franklin however jumped at the chance to record the song.

The track appeared on both the Eurythmics’ album Be Yourself Tonight and Aretha Franklin’s album Who’s Zoomin’ Who? and was the third single released from both albums. It gave them a top twenty hit in seven countries including reaching the top ten in Ireland and New Zealand. In the UK it spent twelve weeks on the chart and peaked at number nine.

Over thirty years later this song is still, in my opinion, the ultimate feminist anthem that Lennox was originally hoping for.