Essential Duran Duran Songs

 A character on Miami Vice named 'The Noog Man' tried selling "hot" merchandise to the detectives Crockett and Tubbs and claimed to have the music of Duran Duran, front runners of fashion pop. Well I've also got them- they're my chosen band for this week.

10. "Is There Something I Should Know" (Is There Something I Should Know single)All of these Duran Duran songs are layered with synths and drum beats but I like picking out the funky bass licks underneath. I guess that's probably why I almost prefer Power Station over Duran Duran- they pushed John Taylor's bass and Andy Taylor's guitar to the front and rocked out their cover of "Bang A Gong". But this is Duran Duran's list, not one for side projects.


9. "My Own Way" (Rio)
A few years ago on Christmas Eve while at my aunt's house, I looked through several boxes of vinyl that she had in storage. I borrowed Rio since I'd never heard it in full. This is another stand-out track for it's bass riff. 

8. "The Reflex" (Seven And The Ragged Tiger)
This almost seems to hint at the splintering of Duran Duran into separate groups in the mid 80's, as the two Taylors would form Power Station leaving Simon LeBon and Nick Rhodes to form Arcadia. Power Station was more rock-oriented and "The Reflex" might be the biggest rock song of these early Duran Duran songs.

7. "New Religion" (Rio)
 A friend had created a mixtape of Jimmy Eat World songs for me as a re-introduction a few years ago and included their cover of this song and said it was a "bat shit crazy" version. I didn't really find it crazy, more like unrecognizable. I like the original version more; unlike the Deftones' cover of Duran Duran's "The Chauffeur", which will not be included here.


6. "Union Of The Snake" (Seven And The Ragged Tiger)
Wikipedia tells me that the drum beat was based around David Bowie's "Let's Dance" but I can also hear that the bass line seems to be borrowed from another Duran Duran song, too. It's as if they slowed down the bass line from "The Reflex."

5. "Out Of My Mind" (Medazzaland)
I stumbled across this song on Youtube about a decade ago when I was looking at videos for a 1990's vampire show called Forever Knight. Someone pieced together clips of the show set to "Out Of My Mind" but I was more interested in finding out which Duran Duran song this was than I was into the video.

4. "Hungry Like The Wolf" (Rio)
The first Duran Duran song I heard, or at least remember hearing and finding out what the song was. The band was known for their flashy clothes as well as their elaborate music videos, and this particular one seemed based of the popular Indiana Jones movies.

3. "Come Undone" (Duran Duran)I've heard several rock bands cover this song but none match up with the original. I'm willing to bet that this was the "baby making song" of 1993.

2. "A View To A Kill" (A View To A Kill single)It's not the best James Bond film, but it's arguably one of the best James Bond movie themes. "DANCE! INTO THE FIRE"...and plenty of slappin da bass too.

 
1. "Ordinary World" (Duran Duran)After a whole decade full of pop/dance tunes, Duran Duran rebounded in the 1990's with more mature songwriting, specifically songs like this and "Come Undone." Sounds like it's either a break-up song or maybe loss of a loved one, but I guess that's open to interpretation. I dig the acoustic intro and the guitars throughout. It's a good change from their mostly synth driven songs.