Photo: Winter/Getty

Born December 25th, 1954 Key Tracks "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," "Here Comes the Rain Again" (Eurythmics), "Why" (solo) Influenced Beth Gibbons, Sinéad O'Connor, Duffy

"Anybody my age turning on MTV and seeing Annie Lennox sing 'Sweet Dreams' — that was enough right there," says Rob Thomas. "There was something so soulful in the way she sang songs like 'Walking on Broken Glass.' " Lennox combines a childhood love of Motown with an operatically powerful voice — crystalline in tone, yet sultry. She introduced R&B to New Wave with Eurythmics, and in her solo career, she invented a sort of New Age soul, based around shimmering synths, horn blasts and, most important, layer upon layer of that voice. "Annie is amazingly versatile," says Thomas. "She can sound like a beautiful angel — or she can make it sound like she's gargling glass. A great singer is somebody who makes you believe what they're saying, and you always believe Annie."

1. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
2. Here Comes the Rain Again
3. Why

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