Songfacts®:

• In this song, Annie Lennox takes the voice of a lady who has no interest in a man's sensitive side - she needs a rough, macho type to light her fire.
  
  "'I Need A Man' was completely ironic," she explained in Q magazine. "There was a feminist saying you could read in women's toilets - 'A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.' It was that kind of statement."
• In their native UK, the Synclavier-based oddity "Beethoven (I Love to Listen To)" was released as the first single from Eurythmics' sixth album, Savage, followed by "Shame." "I Need a Man" was the third single, but the first in America, which had a lower tolerance for the duo's more eccentric songs.
• The music video is a sequel of sorts to the one for "Beethoven (I Love to Listen To)," where Lennox starts off dressed as a demure housewife but ends up in a Marilyn Monroe getup as she heads to the club to explore her wild side. In "I Need A Man," she shows up at the club in this look and sings the song on stage. We don't see anyone in the audience, so it's possible this is all taking place inside her head.
  
  The story concludes in the video for "You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart," where Lennox is in her natural look, finding solace in the desert.
  
  All three were directed by Sophie Muller, who had just started directing videos. She ended up becoming one of the top music video directors of her time and worked extensively with Lennox on her solo tracks.