Eurythmics, Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart — Right By Your Side

JUL 01 1983 · 12:00

Eurythmics, Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart — Right By Your Side (1983) Director: Chris Ashbrook & Jon Roseman Era: Early MTV Era (1983) - Peak year of the UK synth-pop and new wave explosion; Eurythmics at the height of their commercial and artistic momentum with the Touch album cycle. High. This video is a confirmed 1983 artifact from one of British pop's most visually inventive acts, co-directed by two figures central to the formation of the music video industry. Its quantitative profile — high saturation, warm temperature, fast pace — encapsulates the early-MTV performance clip at its most ebullient, offering researchers a clean comparative case study against the darker, colder aesthetic of concurrent Eurythmics work. Context: Released in October 1983, 'Right by Your Side' arrived at a pivotal moment for Eurythmics, consolidating their transformation from cult electronic act to mainstream British pop force. The song marked a deliberate stylistic departure — its calypso-inflected synth arrangement built around a Voyetra synthesizer steel-drum sound — signalling the duo's willingness to subvert audience expectations. The video's warm, exuberant theatrical aesthetic mirrors this tonal shift away from the cold, monochrome surrealism of 'Sweet Dreams.' Airing on MTV worldwide at a time when the channel was actively shaping pop visual culture, the clip contributed to Eurythmics' rapid international profile-building during 1983's densely competitive new wave moment. Director notes: Confirmed co-direction credit on both IMDb and IMVDb. The video was produced in 1983 to accompany the UK single release of 'Right by Your Side' in October 1983. The production reflects Roseman's house style of the period: theatrical, performance-driven clips shot under controlled lighting conditions. Ashbrook's cinematographic sensibility — visible in his concurrent work on 'Sweet Dreams' — characterises the warm, tungsten-heavy palette and tight editorial rhythm evident in the quantitative metadata. The video received MTV worldwide broadcast in 1983.