[Editor's note: Over the holiday season, SonicNet is looking back at 1999's top stories, chosen by our editors and writers. This story originally ran on Tuesday, June 15.]

Eurythmics — the '80s synth-pop duo whose influence on rock extended

beyond their music to include singer Annie Lennox's gender-bending personas

— have reunited to record their first album in a decade.

The LP, due in October and as yet untitled, will be preceded by a single,

according to a source who requested anonymity at the duo's label, Arista Records.

The reunion will include the band's first

tour since 1989. Dates and venues for the outing are not yet determined.

"It wasn't acrimonious before, and it's a happy thing now," said an

anonymous spokesperson for the band's management, 19 Management. "It's

not a reunion, because they never broke up."

The duo, Lennox and guitarist/producer Dave Stewart, haven't released a

studio album since 1989's We Two Are One.

Lennox and Stewart first announced their intention to work together again

at England's equivalent of the Grammy awards, the Brit Awards, on Feb.

16. They were honored that night for their "Outstanding Contribution to

British Music," notching their eleventh Brit award, the most ever by a

group.

"This is the Eurythmics at their very, very best," band manager Simon

Fuller said in a prepared statement.

With the enigmatic, striking Lennox and the stoic Stewart at the helm,

Eurythmics were one of the most successful and durable bands of the '80s.

Formed out of the ashes of Lennox and Stewart's late-'70s post-punk band

the Tourists, the classically trained musicians and onetime lovers burst

onto the world scene in 1983 with their second album, Sweet Dreams

(Are Made of This).

The album's title track (

href="http://www.sonicnet.com/artists/clip.cgi?track=%7Ebb-XXXXXX%2F0034578_0101_00_0002.ra">RealAudio

excerpt) — along with a visually arresting video in which

Lennox blurred gender lines in a man's suit and a bright orange buzz cut

— became a worldwide hit and quickly catapulted the pair beyond the

ranks of the many disposable synth-pop bands littering the musical landscape.

With a mix of R&B warmth and Stewart's sometimes robotic-sounding

production, the pair scored numerous hits throughout the '80s, including

"Love Is a Stranger," "Who's That Girl?," "Right By Your Side," "Here

Comes the Rain Again" and Lennox's 1985 duet with soul legend Aretha

Franklin, "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves" (RealAudio excerpt).

Stewart began a side gig as a producer in the mid-'80s, working on albums

by such stars as folk icon Bob Dylan, soul-pop singer Daryl Hall and

Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger.

Following the 1989 release of We Too Are One, the group went on

hiatus and Lennox released a 1992 double-platinum solo album, Diva.

Meanwhile, Stewart sporadically released solo albums and continued

producing a variety of acts, from rocker Tom Petty to Australian

pop-sensation Natalie Imbruglia.