Pick of the
Week
“Hungry Like the
Wolf” by Duran Duran (1982)
My sister once shared an elevator with Duran Duran - that
is as close as I ever got to this ‘Second British Invasion’ band of ‘80’s fame.
With their slick designer clothes, professional production videos and pretty-boy
looks, they were Princess Diana’s favorite band at one point.
The first real attention they got in 1981 was with their
third single, “Girls on Film”. Directing duo, Godley and Creme told the
management to do something erotic that would get people’s attention and that
would be played on the new big screens that were starting to appear in night
clubs. The video showed girls mud wrestling, fighting a sumo wrestler, and
other suggestive images. The song went to number 3 in the U.K. and the voice of
Simon Le Bon was starting to be well known in the U.K. Unfortunately some of
the stops on their second tour coincided with riots; tension over unemployment
and racial unrest.
The core band in 1981 was Simon Le Bon (vocals), Nick
Rhodes (keyboards), John Taylor (bass), Andy Taylor (guitar) and Rodger Taylor
(drums). (None of the Taylors were related and there is no relation to the
drummer of the band Queen.)
By May of 1982 they release their second and most well
know album “Rio” with songs “Hungry Like the Wolf”, “Save a Prayer”, “My Own
Way” and title track “Rio”. They toured Australia, Japan and then opened for Blondie
on the American tour.
The ‘Rio’ album did not do so well in the U.S. at first. The
band was labeled as being ‘new romantic’, and it just did not work. They were
more than Spandau Ballet or Adam and the Ants weren’t they? The British press
had already dubbed them the ‘Fab Five’ comparing them to the Beatles. What was
wrong?
At wits end as to how to sell Duran Duran in the U.S.
Capital records hired famed producer David Kershenbaum to remix the songs more
in the style of the popular EP dance track ‘Carnival” that was gaining
popularity with DJs in the U.S. That was ticket. Appearing on a U.S. dance show
performing “Hungry Like a Wolf” and “Rio”, the rerelease in November of 1982
finally kick-started the U.S. market.
