"All She Wants Is" is a song by English rock band Duran Duran. It was released in December 1988 as the second single from their fifth studio album, Big Thing (1988), and reached No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States.
Cash Box called it a "growling, thumping rock extravaganza that's danceable.
The video for "All She Wants Is" was shot in London with video director Dean Chamberlain, a well-known photographer who had previously taken pictures and filmed a video for the side project Arcadia. The clip won a 1988 MTV Video Music Award for innovation.
The single B-side is an original medley called "I Believe/All I Need to Know".
There are 7 official mixes of "All She Wants Is". They are often credited with different names on different releases. The remixes were all done by Shep Pettibone.
"All She Wants Is" (album version) – 4:33
"All She Wants Is" (45 mix) / (7" version) – 4:32
"All She Wants Is" (US master mix) – 7:19
"All She Wants Is" (US master dub) / (Latino dub) – 6:45
"All She Wants Is" (Euro house mix) / (Euro dub mix) – 7:33
"All She Wants Is" (Euro house dub I) / (Euro house dub) / (House dub) – 7:07
"All She Wants Is" (Euro house dub II) – 5:43
"All She Wants Is" can be heard as background music playing in a bar in the 2003 film Monster.
"All She Wants Is" was used in season 5, episode 5 of Cold Case in 2007.
Faithful Dawn recorded a cover of the song which was only available on a limited edition EP at Whitby 5.5 in 1998.
"A View to a Kill" is a song by English rock band Duran Duran, released on 6 May 1985. Written and recorded as the theme for the James Bond film of the same name, it became one of the band's biggest hits. It is the only James Bond theme song to have reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100; it also made it to number two for three weeks on the UK Singles Chart while stuck behind Paul Hardcastle's "19". The song was the last track recorded by the most famous five-member lineup of Duran Duran until their reunion in 2001 and was also performed by the band at Live Aid in Philadelphia, their final performance together before their first split.
The following year, composer John Barry and Duran Duran were nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "A View to a Kill". Following Barry's death in 2011, the band paid tribute to him for their encore at the Coachella Festival later that year, with Simon Le Bon reappearing in a tuxedo for a pared-down version backed by an orchestra, before launching into the familiar full-band hit version. Bassist John Taylor introduced the song by saying, "We lost a dear friend of ours this year. A great English composer familiar to Hollywood, his name was John Barry. We're gonna play this for him."
The song was written by Duran Duran and John Barry, and recorded at Maison Rouge Studio and CTS Studio in London with a 60-piece orchestra.
Duran Duran were chosen to do the song after bassist John Taylor (a lifelong Bond fan) approached producer Cubby Broccoli at a party and somewhat drunkenly asked, "If I give you a fiver, can I write a theme tune please." The band was then introduced to Bond composer John Barry, and also composer/producer Jonathan Elias (with whom Duran Duran members would later work many times). An early writing meeting at Taylor's flat in Knightsbridge led to everyone getting drunk instead of composing.
Singer Simon Le Bon said of Barry: "He didn't really come up with any of the basic musical ideas. He heard what we came up with and he put them into an order. And that's why it happened so quickly because he was able to separate the good ideas from the bad ones, and he arranged them. He has a great way of working brilliant chord arrangements. He was working with us as virtually a sixth member of the group, but not really getting on our backs at all."
Due to a clear separation of areas of responsibility, the cooperation between band and composer turned out to be largely harmonious. The band was in charge of the actual songwriting while Barry created the final arrangement, including the orchestral parts. The song was finally completed in April 1985 and released that May. In the UK, it entered the singles chart at No. 7 before peaking at No. 2 the following week, and remained at that position for three weeks. In the US, it entered the charts at No. 45, and on 13 July it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It remains the only Bond theme to achieve this chart placing.
The song's music video was filmed in the Eiffel Tower and was directed by the duo of Godley & Creme. The video opens with the iconic gun barrel sequence and is centered around the scene from the film where Max Zorin's henchwoman May Day kills private detective Achille Aubergine in front of James Bond at the Tower. It then cuts to the band walking by the Tower on a secret mission: Simon Le Bon, disguised as a tourist, wearing a gray trenchcoat and carrying a Walkman; John Taylor, a long-haired tourist dressed in black; Nick Rhodes, a photographer working with a top model (Gail Elliott); Andy Taylor, a blind accordionist who plays the Bond theme on the accordion; and Roger Taylor, a supervisor inside a van. The band's actions coincide with events shown from the movie, while Bond pursues May Day through the Tower, culminating in her escape via parachute. The video ends with a beautiful young girl approaching Le Bon to question him, "Excuse me... aren't you?", where he breaks the fourth wall to say, "Bon. Simon Le Bon." However, her moving Le Bon's arm to talk to him causes him to accidentally activate a detonator concealed inside his Walkman, blowing up the Eiffel Tower.
"Hungry Like the Wolf" is a song by English new wave band Duran Duran. Written by the band members, the song was produced by Colin Thurston for the group's second studio album, Rio (1982). The song was released on 4 May 1982 as the band's fifth single in the United Kingdom, 8 June 1982 in the United States. It reached No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart, and received a platinum certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
The music video for "Hungry Like the Wolf" was directed by Russell Mulcahy and filmed in Sri Lanka. Although the band initially failed to break into the US market, MTV placed the "Hungry Like the Wolf" video into heavy rotation. Subsequently, the group gained much exposure; the song peaked at the No. 3 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1983, and Duran Duran became an international sensation. The video won the first Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video in 1984.
"Hungry Like the Wolf" was written and recorded on a Saturday in the spring of 1982, at the basement studios of EMI's London headquarters. The song was built throughout the day as each band member arrived, and by the evening it was essentially complete.
"That track came from fiddling with the new technology that was starting to come in," guitarist Andy Taylor said in an interview with Blender magazine.
Rhodes came up with an idea for the backing track in the car while he was going to the studio. He started playing with the Roland Jupiter-8 keyboard, while lead vocalist Simon Le Bon was working with the lyrics. The lyrics were inspired by Little Red Riding Hood, and the repeating of the word "do" at the end of each verse takes its melody from the instrumentals in Gordon Lightfoot's song "If You Could Read My Mind." Andy Taylor worked out a Marc Bolan-ish guitar part, a very Marshall-sounding Les Paul guitar lick that was added to the track. Then the bass and drums were added, and the whole track was finished that day, including Le Bon's vocal melody and lyrics. The laugh at the beginning of the song and the moans during the song's fade-out were performed and recorded live by Rhodes' girlfriend at the time.
The group re-recorded the song for the Rio album a few months later at London's AIR Studios with producer Colin Thurston, who also recorded the hits "Too Shy" for Kajagoogoo and "I Want Candy" for Bow Wow Wow. Andy Taylor remembers: "He was a great organizer and arranger, we gave him far more ideas and music than the track actually needed, and he was important in the process of whittling them down to the essential elements." Thurston and the band decided to keep the demo's original electronic backing track and just re-record the other instruments and vocals.
John Taylor has stated that he "[doesn't] really know" what the lyrics mean, speculating that the song is probably about "meeting girls" and/or "wanting to have sex with someone."
In 1982, music video director Russell Mulcahy, who had directed the band's first video, "Planet Earth," was brought back to make the music video for "Hungry Like the Wolf" and two other songs for the band's 1983 video album. The band had a vision of jungles and exotic women, and Mulcahy suggested Sri Lanka, a country he had just visited. EMI spent $200,000 to send the group to Sri Lanka; the band made a stopover there in April, en route to a scheduled Australian tour. Keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist Andy Taylor remained behind to finish the mixing of the Rio album while the rest of the band began filming the video; they flew straight to Sri Lanka after handing over the final masters to EMI.
As it was described in the pop culture book The 1980s, the video was lush and cinematic, with shots of jungles, rivers, elephants, cafes and marketplaces evoking the atmosphere of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Andy Taylor, who contracted a stomach virus serious enough to require hospitalisation from accidentally drinking water in the lagoon during the shoot, describes the storyline as "Indiana Jones is horny and wants to get laid." In the video, lead vocalist Simon Le Bon's head rises in slow motion out of the river as rain pours down, evoking a scene in Apocalypse Now (1979). He then chases a tiger-like woman played by Bermuda model Sheila Ming, from open markets in the city through obstacles in the jungle. During the chase, Le Bon has his face mopped by a young boy and overturns a bar room table, culminating in a final chase and struggle in a jungle clearing, which is sexually suggestive. In the meantime, the other band members hunt for Le Bon.
Less than two months after the shoot of the video, the American cable television network MTV put "Hungry Like the Wolf" into heavy rotation, playing it four times a day. The exposure eventually helped propel the single into the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100, and the Rio album into the top 10 of the albums chart. Les Garland, senior executive vice-president of MTV, said: "I remember our director of talent and artist relations came running in and said, 'You have got to see this video that's come in.' Duran Duran were getting zero radio airplay at the time, and MTV wanted to try to break new music. 'Hungry Like the Wolf' was the greatest video I'd ever seen." MTV named "Hungry Like the Wolf" the 15th most-played video of the network, and was 11th on the century-end MTV "100 Greatest Videos Ever Made." It won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video at the 26th Grammy Awards in February 1984, making it the first video to ever win that award. In 2001, VH1 rated it 31st on the "VH1: 100 Greatest Videos."
"Hungry Like the Wolf" remains one of Duran Duran's most popular songs and a fan favourite. As of October 2021, it was the band's most streamed song in the UK, with 40.4 million streams.
Greatest is a greatest hits compilation album by English new wave/synth-pop band Duran Duran, released in 1998.
Greatest is an update of the 1989 tenth anniversary compilation album, Decade. The new release includes songs from their eponymous debut album through 1997's Medazzaland (excluding 1995's Thank You). The album includes all 14 songs featured in Decade: Greatest Hits, plus "New Moon on Monday" and four singles from the '90s. However, several songs on the disc are presented in their edited forms in order to fit on a single CD.
The album was released by EMI after parting ways with the band following the disastrous Medazzaland album release in 1997, marking the first of many releases designed to capitalize on the band's extensive EMI-controlled back catalog. To coincide with the release of the Greatest album in the United Kingdom, the song "Electric Barbarella" was released as a single in that territory. This track was originally released as a single in North America in 1997 to promote the Medazzaland album (which was never released officially in the UK). "Electric Barbarella" was also the basis for a retroactive correction in licensing payments in the band's favour, after guitarist Warren Cuccurullo discovered that the song was mistakenly credited as having been licensed by Capitol Records instead of the band itself (rights had reverted to the band).
By 2008, the collection had sold 1.3 million copies in the United States, and was certified Platinum by the RIAA. The collection is the band's most commercially successful release overall, but to date, a full collection of Duran Duran's singles on one album still has not been released.
Track listing
"Is There Something I Should Know?" – 4:10 (Non-album single)
"The Reflex" {The Dance Mix – Edited Version} – 4:24 (from Seven and the Ragged Tiger 1983)
"A View to a Kill" – 3:34 (from A View to a Kill 1985)
"Ordinary World" {Single} – 4:42 (from Duran Duran (The Wedding Album) 1993)
"Save a Prayer" (US Single) – 3:47 (from Rio 1982)
"Rio" (US edit) – 4:45 (from Rio)
"Hungry Like the Wolf" {Single} – 3:25 (from Rio)
"Girls on Film" – 3:27 (from Duran Duran 1981)
"Planet Earth" – 3:57 (from Duran Duran)
"Union of the Snake" – 4:22 (from Seven and the Ragged Tiger)
"New Moon on Monday" – 4:16 (from Seven and the Ragged Tiger)
"The Wild Boys" – 4:17 (from Arena 1984)
"Notorious" {45 mix} – 4:00 (from Notorious 1986)
"I Don't Want Your Love" {Shep Pettibone 7"} – 3:48 (from Big Thing 1988)
"All She Wants Is" {7" 45 mix} – 4:26 (from Big Thing)
"Come Undone" {Edit} – 4:15 (from Duran Duran (The Wedding Album))
VHS edition
The album release was followed in 1999 by the release of a videotape compilation of the band's groundbreaking music videos, also entitled Greatest. It was not released on DVD at the time. The video album was certified platinum by the RIAA on January 29, 2004.
Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the '80s is a series of compilations issued by Rhino Records, on both CD and audio cassette, featuring various artists from the new wave era 1977–1985.
The series contained 15 volumes. The first five were released on 21 June 1994, volumes 6–10 on 18 October 1994, and the last five volumes on 20 June 1995. Additional themed volumes—New Wave Dance Hits, New Wave Women, New Wave Halloween, and New Wave Christmas—came out in subsequent years. Rhino Records discontinued the series, due to rights issues and with no plans to re-release them. Many of the songs in the series are mastered from the 7" single masters. The series includes some songs making their first CD appearance (in some rare cases, their only CD appearance).
The fourth volume was released on both CD [R2 71697] and audio cassette on 21 June 1994. Includes liner notes by Andrew Sandoval.
"Freedom of Choice"Devo3:24
"Generals and Majors"XTC4:07
"Switchin' to Glide"The Kings2:36
"Up All Night"The Boomtown Rats3:38
"The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)"The Greg Kihn Band2:51
"Too Much Information" is the third single released from Duran Duran's 1993 album, Duran Duran, popularly known as The Wedding Album.
The song's lyrics deal mainly with the commercialisation of the music industry and feature the tongue-in-cheek line "Destroyed by MTV / I hate to bite the hand that feeds me / so much information", alluding to the belief that MTV were largely responsible for the band's success in the United States in the early 1980s.
In the UK, "Too Much Information" became the band's third Top 40 single from the album. The song fared poorly on the U.S. Billboard pop and adult contemporary charts, though performed much better on the alternative rock and club charts.
The video for "Too Much Information" was filmed by director Julien Temple in Santa Monica on 27 August and featured the elaborate stage setup designed for the band's 1993 Dilate Your Mind tour.
"Come Undone" is a song by British band Duran Duran. It was released in March 1993 as the second single from the album Duran Duran (The Wedding Album). It is their 24th single overall.
With their commercial and critical success reestablished by the previous single "Ordinary World", "Come Undone" continued to showcase more of the band's entry into the adult contemporary radio format. The single proved to be the group's second consecutive US top ten hit from The Wedding Album. It was also popular in the UK and other international markets, with Israel being the only country to make it the number one song of 1993.
The group's guitarist at the time, Warren Cuccurullo, is credited with developing the instrumentation for "Come Undone", most importantly its guitar hook, which he developed while trying to do a re-interpretation of "First Impression" from their 1990 album Liberty. In 2005, Cuccurullo revealed to author Steve Malins that he and Nick Rhodes had originally planned on using the song for a project outside of Duran Duran with Gavin Rossdale, but had changed plans when singer Simon Le Bon took a liking to the music and began to come up with lyrics on the spot.
Rhodes expanded on the song's creation during the album's 20th anniversary in 2013.
It was something that Warren and I started writing alongside some other stuff that we’d been playing around with, and Simon came in and heard what we were doing. He said, 'Wow, I love that!’ And so it became a Duran Duran song. [Simon] came up with a really great melody – we already had the 'can’t ever keep from falling apart' section – and he very quickly made it his, or himself part of it".
The song was included as a last minute addition to their self-titled album in 1993, with the lyrics being written by Le Bon as a gift for his wife, Yasmin.
The group's bassist, John Taylor, did not actually play bass on this track, although he does in the music video. Nick Rhodes and John Jones both contributed synth bass on the track during his absence. Tessa Niles was credited with backing vocals. The song also contains a sample from The Soul Searchers' song "Ashley's Roachclip".
According to John Jones,
at the time we had completed and mastered the Wedding Album and had started the cover album "Thank You". One day we took the drum loop and bass groove from a demo of mine called "Face to Face" and added the ultra cool guitar riff that Warren had come up with for a new "cover" version of "First Impression". After a couple of hours of tweaking we played the track over the phone to Capitol in Los Angeles and they loved it and said they wanted it on the Wedding album! When Nick arrived that afternoon the intro was carved into a song that we played to Simon that night. He was back the next day with the lyrics and the melody and I think we finished the vocals the day after that. On the fourth day we finished the track detail and sent it to David Richards in Switzerland to be mixed.
Lamya Al-Mugheiry sang the backing vocals in the Unplugged version of the song for MTV in November 1993.
The "Come Undone" video was directed by Julien Temple. Shots of the band were filmed in the London Aquarium, prominently featuring an arowana; these were interspersed with short vignettes of people "coming undone" in various ways. These vignettes include a little girl seeing her parents together, an older couple who have survived a flood, an alcoholic and a man who is revealed to be a cross-dresser. Also seen in the video is a woman struggling underwater to break free of the chains that bind her. LeBon and Taylor's Vivienne Westwood wardrobe were likely a nod to the band's early New Romantic era.
A portion of the music video can be seen in the "No Laughing" episode of the MTV show Beavis and Butt-head, which was aired on July 1993.
"Ordinary World" is the first single from Duran Duran's self-titled 1993 album, commonly known as The Wedding Album. The single reached number one on the US Hot 100 Airplay, the US Mainstream Top 40, and the Canadian RPM Top Singles charts. It also peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, number two on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart and number six on the UK Singles Chart.
The song won an Ivor Novello Award in May 1994. Lead vocalist Simon Le Bon sang the song with Luciano Pavarotti, in a War Child benefit concert.
By the early 1990s, Duran Duran's popularity had faded. Their album Liberty had proved a commercial failure, its two singles failing to make a significant showing on British or American charts. It was not until Capitol leaked "Ordinary World" to a radio station in Jacksonville, Florida in the second half of 1992 that it looked like Duran Duran mania might yet hit again. The single proved so popular that Capitol had to push the US release date up, ultimately releasing it in December.
The keyboards in the song were arranged and performed by Nick Rhodes and John Jones. The drums were played by Steve Ferrone at Maison Rouge. The guitar solo that characterizes this song was arranged and performed by Warren Cuccurullo, former player with Frank Zappa. His instrumental rock trio version became a staple of his solo shows and was included on one of his solo albums "Roadrage".
The music video was filmed by director Nick Egan at Huntington Gardens in San Marino, California and the song later featured in the soundtrack to the film Layer Cake in 2005.
Simon LeBon later performed the song with Pavarotti at a WarChild benefit. The performance was released on home video as Pavarotti & Friends: Together for the Children of Bosnia.
The lyrics to "Ordinary World" were written by Simon Le Bon as the second of a trilogy of songs for his late friend David Miles; the others being "Do You Believe in Shame?" (1988) and "Out of My Mind" (1997).
"Ordinary World" is one of two Cuccurullo-era songs ("Come Undone" being the other) which were played when Duran Duran did their reunion tour, both Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor insisting on playing it. Cuccurullo was brought in to teach Andy Taylor how to play it. It has remained in the set list ever since.
"Skin Trade" is the second single from Duran Duran's Notorious album, and the band's 15th single in total. It was released in January 1987, reached #22 on the UK Singles Chart, and #39 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The music for "Skin Trade" was written long before Simon LeBon finally finished the lyrics. The title for the song was derived from the Dylan Thomas book Adventures in the Skin Trade which John Taylor had on him during recording of the album. It was shortened to "Skin Trade" and LeBon eventually wrote the melody and lyrics for the track while spending an evening in Taylor's Upper West Side Manhattan apartment. The lyrics reflect on how everyone is selling themselves, and "there's a little hooker in each of us".
The single was quite a departure for the band. Not only was Simon LeBon singing in a Prince-style falsetto, but a horn section played a prominent role in the track, as played by The Borneo Horns. The band persevered with the single and many aspects of their future business took inspiration from "Skin Trade". They called their publishing company Skin Trade Music Ltd. and the Notorious tour was called the "Strange Behaviour Tour". Likewise, a 1987 remix EP and a 1999 double CD collection of remixes were also called Strange Behaviour.
In a retrospective review of the single, Allmusic journalist Donald A. Guarisco praised the song. He wrote: "The music lends contrast to the angry tone of the lyrics by creating a sultry, mellow melody that juxtaposes verses with a soft, hypnotic ebb and flow with an ever-ascending chorus that revs up the song's inherent drama."
The "Skin Trade" video was the second filmed for the band by directors Peter Kagan and Paula Greif, after "Notorious". Film of band members performing was treated with a rotoscope-like effect, adding vivid colors to details like a person's eyes or jewelry. Like so many other Duran Duran videos, "Skin Trade" included a beautiful woman - in this case German supermodel Tatjana Patitz. Her image was rotoscoped for some scenes as well, and her dancing figure was superimposed on several different vividly colored abstract backgrounds.
Session drummer Steve Ferrone and guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, who would later become a full member of the band, appeared in the video, although their faces are not often seen. Cuccurullo also contributed the power chords and harmony parts on the bridges of the album track, with session guitarist Nile Rodgers playing the others.
"Skin Trade" was nominated for Best Special Effects in a Video and Best Cinematography in a Video at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, but lost to Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" and Robbie Nevil's "C'est La Vie", respectively.
"Skin Trade" was the first chart disappointment in the band's career. Not only did it fail to repeat the huge success of "Notorious" but it failed to get the top 20 on either side of the Atlantic, and that was a first for the band since their very earliest releases. "Skin Trade" later grew to become a fan favourite, but the change of style and direction were shocking at the time.
"Notorious" is the fourteenth single by the English new wave band Duran Duran. It was released internationally by EMI on 20 October 1986. "Notorious" was the first single issued from Duran Duran's fourth album Notorious (1986), and the first released by Duran Duran as a 3-piece band after the departure of Roger Taylor and Andy Taylor. It was a commercial success worldwide, reaching number seven on the UK Singles Chart and number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, behind "Walk Like an Egyptian" by The Bangles, and was a success in various other countries.
"Notorious" marked the debut of the new streamlined trio version of Duran Duran, as Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor had left the band by the time the album was released. In fact, the acrimonious nature of Andy Taylor's departure was reflected in the song to a certain degree. According to songwriter Simon Le Bon, the lyric "Who really gives a damn for a flaky bandit" was a direct dig at the guitarist.
As a trio, the band had enlisted the help of Nile Rodgers to take over production duties. His funk influences can be heard throughout the single - for example, the tempo and the use of The Borneo Horns brass section. Rodgers also played the guitar on the single.
The video for "Notorious" was shot on 23 September 1986 by directors Peter Kagan and Paula Greif, and bore an uncanny resemblance to the video the duo had filmed in June of that year for Steve Winwood's "Higher Love". The video was shot in black and white Super-8 with a hand-held camera, with quick cuts and changes of zoom and focus. It featured the three-piece band performing the song on a sound stage, with scantily clad dancers in the background choreographed by Paula Abdul.
The young model Christy Turlington appeared in outdoor scenes with the band. A still photo from this location was used as the cover of the album Notorious.
"The Wild Boys" is the twelfth single by the English new wave band Duran Duran, released on 26 October 1984 in the United Kingdom and on 3 November 1984 in the United States.
The song was the only studio track on the band's live album Arena (1984), and was produced by Nile Rodgers, who had previously remixed the band's previous single "The Reflex". It was recorded at the end of July 1984 at Maison Rouge Studios in London.
"The Wild Boys" became one of the band's biggest hits, reaching number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks, behind "Out of Touch" by Hall & Oates and "Like a Virgin" by Madonna, and also hitting number one on the US Cash Box. It peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, and also reached the top position in Germany, Italy and Canada. It also became the band's biggest charting single in Australia, reaching number three.
The idea for the song came from longtime Duran Duran video director Russell Mulcahy, who wanted to make a full-length feature film based on the surreal and sexual 1971 novel The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead by William S. Burroughs. He suggested that the band might create a modern soundtrack for the film in the same way that Queen would later provide a rock soundtrack for Mulcahy's 1986 film Highlander. Singer Simon Le Bon began writing some lyrics based on Mulcahy's quick synopsis of the book, and the band created a harsh-sounding instrumental backdrop for them.
The single was issued with six separate collectible covers – one featuring each individual band member and one of the band collectively.
The video for "The Wild Boys" was directed by Russell Mulcahy. The cost totalled over one million pounds, a staggering sum for music videos at the time, as his design filled one entire end of the "007 Stage" at Pinewood Studios with a metal pyramid and a windmill over a deep enclosed pool, and called for a lifelike robotic face, dozens of elaborate costumes, prosthetics, and makeup effects, and then-cutting-edge computer graphics. The choreography of dance routines was undertaken by Arlene Phillips, including intricate stunts and fire effects added to the cost. Mulcahy meant the video to be a teaser for his full-length Burroughs film, demonstrating his vision to the movie studios he was wooing, but that project was never made.
The video featured all of the band members imprisoned and in peril, wearing uncharacteristically rough and ragged outfits similar to the pieced-together clothing of the film Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. John Taylor was strapped to the roof of a car suffering a psycho-torture with pictures of his childhood and early past, Nick Rhodes was caged with a pile of computer equipment, Roger Taylor was put in a hot-air balloon that was dangling from the ceiling, leaving him high off the ground, and Andy Taylor was bound (guitar and all) to a ship's figurehead. Singer Simon Le Bon, strapped to the spinning windmill which dunked his head beneath the water with each revolution, supposedly found himself in real difficulty when the windmill stopped with his head underwater. He was given a tube to breathe through and the issue was promptly fixed, but the British tabloids had a field day exaggerating Le Bon's "near death experience". Le Bon himself has dismissed this story in more than one interview as an "urban myth", claiming nothing of the sort happened.
"The Wild Boys" was named British Video of the Year at the 1985 Brit Awards.
The 8:00 12" "Wilder Than Wild Boys" extended mix, the only official contemporaneous remix, is actually the full length version. It continues after the album/single version's fade out with another instrumental section, then repeats the chorus to fade. This mix was also used for the full length promo video.
To promote the release of the compilation album Greatest in 1998, EMI commissioned a number of remixes, including two mixes of "The Wild Boys" that were released only on promo discs:
"The Wild Boys [ASAP & PM Project Remix]" 3:42 appeared on a one-track promo CD in Spain
"Wild Boys 98 [4 On Da Floor Remix]" 3:10 appeared on a one-track promo CD in Belgium
In 2004, noted remixer Paul Dakeyne produced the 7:30 "Wicked 'n Wild Dub" for DMC, the UK-based remix service.
The original single B-side, "(I'm Looking For) Cracks In The Pavement (Live)", was recorded at the 5 March 1984 show at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. This is the same concert where the video for "The Reflex" was filmed.
