{"id":157060,"date":"2025-09-20T12:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T12:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/157060\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T12:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T12:53:09","slug":"annie-lennox-gave-our-song-a-second-chance-says-bedfordshire-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/157060\/","title":{"rendered":"Annie Lennox gave our song a second chance, says Bedfordshire man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

Annie Lennox won a Grammy Award in 1995 for best female pop vocal performance for No More I Love You’s<\/p>\n

Forty years ago, two friends wrote a song in a London flat that would end up being covered by Annie Lennox and win a Grammy Award.<\/p>\n

Musicians Joe Hughes and David Freeman were in Muswell Hill, north London, perfecting their latest offering. <\/p>\n

Joe left the flat and was riding to his home in Crouch End when the chorus kept on going through his head.<\/p>\n

He says he knew straight away “it was really good”, so cycled back, knocked on the window and sang it through the letterbox to David.<\/p>\n

That song ended up being No More I Love You’s, which was covered by Lennox in 1995 and won her a Grammy Award for best vocal pop performance the following year.<\/p>\n

\"BarryBarry Plummer<\/p>\n

Joe Hughes (right), Dave Stewart and David Freeman, toured together<\/p>\n

Joe, who is originally from Coventry and now lives in Oakley, Bedfordshire, says in 1985 he was writing with his “very good friend” David, whom he had met at school. <\/p>\n

He said: “I didn’t realise immediately what a great song it was. <\/p>\n

“I was riding home and all I could think going through my head was the chorus and that is really good. <\/p>\n

“I rode back and knocked on his window and sang it through the letterbox, we then knew it was a great song so we said we’ve got to keep working on it.”<\/p>\n

The song’s introduction was written by David, as well as the lyrics. <\/p>\n

“I said we need a ‘la la part’ that people can sing along with, the example I gave was The Passenger, by Iggy Pop.<\/p>\n

“With lightening speed he did it, and we went ‘yeah’,” he added. <\/p>\n

What followed was a few sleepless nights with friends who helped the pair produced a four-track demo. <\/p>\n

Joe was a carpenter at the time and was working on Dave Stewart’s, the other Eurythmics band member, narrow boat. <\/p>\n

“Unbeknown to me, my work colleague gave Dave Stewart the demo which included No More I Love You’s.<\/p>\n

“He said [Stewart] came running up to them and said it was ‘great’ and signed us to his publishing company.<\/p>\n

“We released the song as The Lover Speaks and it ricocheted off the outer edge of the charts and into oblivion,” Joe says. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Lover Speaks<\/p>\n

Joe Hughes (right) and David Freeman released The Lover Speaks in 1985<\/p>\n

Yet Joe and David’s talents led to them touring with Eurythmics, which is where he believes Lennox heard the song. <\/p>\n

“All I know is Annie was recording an album of covers called Medusa and in a TV interview I heard her say she wanted to give our song a second chance. <\/p>\n

“I’m very grateful that she did, as it changed my life. <\/p>\n

“I was told she was going to record the song in early 1994 so I didn’t know if it was going to be on the record or even released as a single. <\/p>\n

“I didn’t tell anyone, it was the hardest secret to keep, and I only heard it when it was on the radio. <\/p>\n

“I was left overjoyed, thrilled. <\/p>\n

“Annie’s version is quite different as ours was how a rock band would do it, I think hers is beautiful, and it’s the one everyone knows,” he added. <\/p>\n

He said his original version does sometimes get played as his eldest daughter, Ellie Ciccone-Hughes, heard it in a restaurant on a Greek Island. <\/p>\n

“We still get royalties and I’m very grateful for them,” Joe added. <\/p>\n

\"HarryHarry Williams<\/p>\n

My Girl the River, features Joe Hughes, Rue Hughes and Kris Wilkinson Hughes<\/p>\n

Joe says the other amazing gift the song has given him is his wife, Kris Wilkinson Hughes and child Rue Hughes. <\/p>\n

In 1988 Joe was sent to Nashville, US, to work on music, where through mutual friends he met Kris which sparked a long-distance friendship and she eventually moved to the UK. <\/p>\n

To celebrate the song’s 40th anniversary Joe has recorded an acoustic version of the song with his band, My Girl The River, which includes Kris and Rue. <\/p>\n

“When we play it live I introduce it as as song I co-write that you may recognise and we hear a few gaps coming from the audience. <\/p>\n

“I’m always grateful that we had this great fortune of Annie Lennox covering this song”, he says. <\/p>\n

Kris says: “Annie is a very special lady. I wouldn’t have met my lovely husband and had my gorgeous family and I wouldn’t have been in the UK for the past 25 years. <\/p>\n

“It’s an honour to sing a song that one of the best vocalists on the planet made instantly recognisable.<\/p>\n

“Our new version is our thank you to Joe and David for writing such a beautiful song.”<\/p>\n

You might also be interested in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images Annie Lennox won a Grammy Award in 1995 for best female pop vocal performance for No…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-157060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}