Song:A View To A Kill
Album:Greatest
Duran Duran was one of the biggest bands of the 80s. The 1985 theme to the James Bond film A View To A Kill was at the end of their initial run but it was also one of their two number one hits in the US. Duran Duran were from Birmingham, England formed in 1978 by bassist John Taylor and keyboard player Nick Rhodes. The name came from a character in the French sci-fi comic strip Barbarella though I think they may have got it from Roger Vadim's 1966 film starring Jane Fonda. The first lead singer was Stephen Duffy of Tin Tin and Simon Colley was the original bassist. Taylor played guitar. They didn't have a drummer. They used a drum machine. Colley left and auditions resulted in the hiring of guitarist Andy Taylor. John Taylor switched to bass. Duffy was replaced by Andy Wickett and he was lead singer for a year. They tried out different guys. But by 1980, they settled on Simon Le Bon as lead singer, Andy Taylor on lead guitar and they added drummer Roger Taylor. They sent out demos and signed with EMI. Their debut album was released in 1981. Their first big hit was their third single Girls On Film mostly because of the video. An edited version was played heavily on MTV. They toured the US and Hungry Like The Wolf was their first big hit in the US. It reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Another thing that gave them a big edge over other bands of the era was they appeared regularly in teen fan mags directed at teenage girls. That was Duran Duran's fanbase at the time. Their first US #1 hit was the 1984 single The Reflex. But there were problems brewing. John and Andy Taylor formed The Power Station with Robert Palmer and Tony Thompson. They scored two top ten hits. Le Bon and Rhodes released an album as Arcadia. Rhodes admits today that splitting into two bands was commercially self destructive. Then John Taylor drunkenly approached James Bond producer Cubby Broccoli at a party and asked him when he was going to get a decent band for one of his theme songs. This led to a meeting with Bond composer John Barry. Duran Duran wrote A View To A Kill and Barry produced and arranged the record. It was the first James Bond theme to top the Billboard Hot 100. You can get all of Duran Duran's hits on this budget comp. Then things fell apart. Roger Taylor quit due to exhaustion. Andy Taylor recorded the 1986 album Thunder in Los Angeles. The others released the 1986 album Notorious and the single Notorious reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Duran Duran continued though they weren't as successful as they were previously. They continued in the 90s until they left EMI in 1999. Duran Duran recorded for Hollywood and Epic. Their latest CD Paper Gods was released in 2015 on Warner Bros. They still tour. Andy Taylor is no longer a member but the other four guys still are. Rhodes took a break and was replaced by Amanda "MNDR" Warner. But he's back and he will be on the 2017 tour. Here's the video for A View To A Kill by Duran Duran.
They were big in the 80's the girls loved them and they got a lot of play on MTV. I liked "Rio" and "Save a Prayer". They were good during that time and were the right band for the 80's. Which is why they were so popular back then.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct about the origin of their name. It came from the film Barbarella, one of the characters had that name in the film.
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