Notorious (song)
Encyclopedia
"Notorious" is the 14th single by Duran Duran
. It was released internationally by EMI on 20 October 1986. "Notorious" was the first single issued from the album Notorious, and the first released by Duran Duran as a 3-piece band after the departure of Roger Taylor and Andy Taylor. It was a hit all around the world, reaching #7 in the UK, #2 in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 and the top 5 in several countries. Duran Duran's success was on the wane, however, and the band would reach the Top 10 in the US only once more with "I Don't Want Your Love
" in 1988, before 1993's "Ordinary World
" and "Come Undone".
and Andy Taylor
had left the band by the time the single and album were 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 felt all over the single, from the tempo to the use of The Borneo Horns brass
section. Rodgers also plays guitar on the single.
'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.
You can hear the gasping from a girl who is falling in love with a boy.
As a first for the band, "Notorious" was released as two separate 12" singles. The first had a Nile Rodgers produced "Extended Mix" while the second featured a remix by The Latin Rascals.
There are five official mixes of "Notorious":
As a perenially popular song in their back catalogue, "Notorious" appears in various Duran Duran megamixes
, most notably:
radio station CHOM during the October 20, 1986 edition of the nightly radio show "Rock And Roll News," DJ Randy Renaud declared that by the next night, the song "Amanda" by Boston
(which had been holding on to the number one spot on CHOM's charts for several weeks) could "kiss the number one spot goodbye." Sure enough, by the next night, CHOM had received enough requests for the song that it supplanted "Amanda" from the #1 spot on the stations nightly countdown show, "The Top Six At Six."
Albums:
Singles:
Films:
Sampled:
With:
Production:
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
. It was released internationally by EMI on 20 October 1986. "Notorious" was the first single issued from the album Notorious, and the first released by Duran Duran as a 3-piece band after the departure of Roger Taylor and Andy Taylor. It was a hit all around the world, reaching #7 in the UK, #2 in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 and the top 5 in several countries. Duran Duran's success was on the wane, however, and the band would reach the Top 10 in the US only once more with "I Don't Want Your Love
I Don't Want Your Love
"I Don't Want Your Love" is the seventeenth single from Duran Duran and the first single from the Big Thing album. It was released on September 1988...
" in 1988, before 1993's "Ordinary World
Ordinary World
"Ordinary World" is the first single from Duran Duran's self-titled 1993 album, better known as The Wedding Album. The song peaked at No. 3 in the American charts and No. 6 in the British charts...
" and "Come Undone".
About the song
"Notorious" marked the debut of the new streamlined trio version of Duran Duran, as both RogerRoger Andrew Taylor
Roger Andrew Taylor is an English double grammy award winning musician who is best known as the drummer of British rock band Duran Duran from their inception until 1985, and again from 2001 onwards, the band selling in excess of 80 million records worldwide in the process.-Early life:Taylor began...
and Andy Taylor
Andy Taylor (guitarist)
Andy Taylor is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as a member of Duran Duran and The Power Station....
had left the band by the time the single and album were 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
Nile Rodgers
Nile Gregory Rodgers is an American musician, producer, composer, arranger, and guitarist.-Biography:...
to take over production duties. His funk influences can be felt all over the single, from the tempo to the use of The Borneo Horns brass
Brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
section. Rodgers also plays guitar on the single.
Music video
The video for "Notorious" was shot in 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 WinwoodSteve Winwood
Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...
's "Higher Love
Higher Love
"Higher Love" is a 1986 number-one hit song by Steve Winwood. It was the first single released from his fourth solo LP, Back in the High Life. It was written by Winwood and Will Jennings, and produced by Russ Titelman and Winwood...
". 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
Paula Abdul
Paula Julie Abdul is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, choreographer, actress and television personality.In the 1980s, Abdul rose from cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers to highly sought-after choreographer at the height of the music video era before scoring a string of pop music-R&B hits...
.
The young model Christy Turlington
Christy Turlington
Christy Turlington Burns is an American model best known for representing Calvin Klein from 1987 to 2007. She has worked on dozens of modeling contracts with companies including Maybelline Cosmetics and Versace. Turlington starred in her fashion documentary Catwalk and Isaac Mizrahi's Unzipped...
appeared in outdoor scenes with the band. A still photo from this location was used as the cover of the album Notorious.
You can hear the gasping from a girl who is falling in love with a boy.
B-side and official remixes
For the first time, the B-side to the 7" single was not an original recording; "Winter Marches On" was an unaltered version of the Notorious album track. Before this, Duran Duran had always provided either completely original songs or previously unheard remixes on the B-side.As a first for the band, "Notorious" was released as two separate 12" singles. The first had a Nile Rodgers produced "Extended Mix" while the second featured a remix by The Latin Rascals.
There are five official mixes of "Notorious":
- Album Version 4:18 - original mix
- 7"/45 Mix 3:58 - Album Version, with a slightly edited middle 8 and outro
- Extended Mix 5:18 - Album Version, with a one minute dub intro added on
- Latin Rascals Mix 6:23 – basically the Album Version, with a 1:10 dub intro and two brief remixed interludes spliced in
- Disconet Remix 6:33 – 1:30 dub intro, with the rest of the song more comprehensively remixed and rearranged; in particular, the guitars and percussion are accentuated
As a perenially popular song in their back catalogue, "Notorious" appears in various Duran Duran megamixes
Megamix
A megamix is a medley remix containing multiple songs in rapid succession. There may be only one verse or even just a brief chorus of each song used, sometimes in addition to samples of the same or other songs. There may also be some elements of bastard pop in some, though not as much as a mashup...
, most notably:
- "Notoriousaurus Rex (Master Mix)"
- "Burning the GroundBurning The Ground"Burning The Ground" is the 20th single by Duran Duran, released in December 1989. It was created as a stand-alone single to promote the compilation album Decade: Greatest Hits, but didn't appear on the album itself. However, its music video was included on the band's audiovisual compilation...
" and its B-side, "Decadance" - "DMCDisco Mix ClubDisco Mix Club is a DJ remix service founded by Tony Prince which began as a radio show in 1981 on Radio Luxembourg in the UK. Prince helped popularise a new style of DJ mixes using the turntable as an instrument. DMC started operating as a remix service in 1983. They started producing remix...
Megamix"
Chart positions
When the track made its debut on MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
radio station CHOM during the October 20, 1986 edition of the nightly radio show "Rock And Roll News," DJ Randy Renaud declared that by the next night, the song "Amanda" by Boston
Boston (band)
Boston is an American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts that achieved its most notable successes during the 1970s and 1980s. Centered on guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, and producer Tom Scholz, the band is a staple of classic rock radio playlists...
(which had been holding on to the number one spot on CHOM's charts for several weeks) could "kiss the number one spot goodbye." Sure enough, by the next night, CHOM had received enough requests for the song that it supplanted "Amanda" from the #1 spot on the stations nightly countdown show, "The Top Six At Six."
- #2 Billboard Hot 100
- #7 UK chart
- #1 Italy
- #1 Canada
- #2 Sweden
- #4 Switzerland
- #5 Germany
- #1 European chart
- #14 Austria
- #37 France
- #4 Norway
12": EMI / 12 DDN 45
- "Notorious" (Extended Mix) - 5:14
- "Notorious" (45 Mix) - 3:58
- "Winter Marches On" - 3:25
- also released on MC in New Zealand (EMI / TC-GOOD 149)
12": EMI / 12 DDNX 45
- "Notorious" (The Latin Rascals Mix) - 6:23
- "Notorious" (45 Mix) - 3:58
- "Winter Marches On" - 3:25
- also released on MC (TC DDNX 45)
CD: Part of "Singles Box Set 1986-1995" boxset
- "Notorious" (45 Mix) - 3:58
- "Winter Marches On" - 3:25
- "Notorious" (Extended Mix) - 5:14
- "Notorious" (The Latin Rascals Mix) - 6:23
Covers and other appearances
Apart from the single, "Notorious" has also appeared on:Albums:
- Notorious (1986)
- Duran Goes Dutch (1987)
- Master Mixes (1987)
- DecadeDecade: Greatest HitsDecade – Greatest Hits is a greatest hits album by Duran Duran, released on November 15, 1989 .The remix single "Burning the Ground" was released to radio to promote this album; it was created by producer John Jones mixing snippets of the band's biggest hits from the previous decade into a new...
(1989) - 12" Collection (Japan only, 1991)
- Night Versions: The Essential Duran DuranNight Versions: The Essential Duran DuranNight Versions: The Essential Duran Duran is a compilation album of remixes by Duran Duran. From the very beginning of their career, the band had dubbed the extended dance remixes of their songs "night versions", as they were intended for play in nightclubs.Unlike many of their contemporaries,...
(US only, 1998) - Greatest (1998)
- Strange BehaviourStrange BehaviourStrange Behaviour is a remix album of remixes by Duran Duran. It was released by EMI in March 1999.The title comes from a line in the song "Skin Trade": "would someone please explain, the reason for this strange behaviour". The band had previously used "Strange Behaviour" as the name of their 1987...
(1999)
Singles:
- "Do You Believe In Shame ?" (1989)
- "Too Much InformationToo Much Information"Too Much Information" is the third single released from Duran Duran's 1993 album, Duran Duran, popularly known as The Wedding Album.-About the song:...
" (1993)
Films:
- Donnie DarkoDonnie DarkoDonnie Darko is a 2001 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Richard Kelly and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Noah Wyle, Jena Malone, and Mary McDonnell...
featured the song during a scene in which Donnie's sister's dance group perform at a talent show and Donnie burns down a motivational speaker's house. - Heard very briefly at the end of the trailer for the film NotoriousNotorious (2009 film)Notorious is a 2009 American biographical film about the life of iconic hip hop star The Notorious B.I.G. who is played by Jamal Woolard. The film co-stars Angela Bassett as his mother Voletta Wallace, Derek Luke as Sean Combs, and Anthony Mackie as Tupac Shakur...
Sampled:
- The Notorious B.I.G.The Notorious B.I.G.Christopher George Latore Wallace , best known as The Notorious B.I.G., was an American rapper. He was also known as Biggie Smalls , Big Poppa, and The Black Frank White .Wallace was raised in the Brooklyn borough...
's 1999 posthumous rap hit "Notorious B.I.G.Notorious B.I.G. (song)"Notorious B.I.G." is a song and single by The Notorious B.I.G. from the album Born Again, which features Puff Daddy and Lil' Kim. As a tribute song, Puff Daddy and Lil' Kim's verses have little relevance to Biggie's verse, which is about being in the hospital while being comforted by attractive...
".
Personnel
Duran Duran are:- Simon Le BonSimon Le BonSimon John Charles Le Bon is an English musician, best known as the lead singer, lyricist and musician of the band Duran Duran and its offshoot, Arcadia.-Early life:...
- Vocals - John TaylorNigel John TaylorJohn Taylor is an English musician who is best known as the bass guitarist and co-founder of pop rock band Duran Duran....
- Bass - Nick RhodesNick RhodesNick Rhodes is an English musician, is best known as the keyboardist of the pop rock band Duran Duran...
- Keyboards
With:
- Warren CuccurulloWarren CuccurulloWarren Bruce Cuccurullo in Brooklyn, New York is an American rock musician who worked with Frank Zappa, was a founding member of Missing Persons, and has been a long term member of Duran Duran. He also has some notoriety in the porn industry after making nude appearances in a magazine and...
- Guitars - Andy TaylorAndy Taylor (guitarist)Andy Taylor is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as a member of Duran Duran and The Power Station....
- Guitars - Nile RodgersNile RodgersNile Gregory Rodgers is an American musician, producer, composer, arranger, and guitarist.-Biography:...
- Guitars - The Borneo Horns - Horns
- Curtis KingCurtis KingCurtis Albert King is a former pitcher in Major League Baseball. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals.-External links:...
- Background Vocals - Brenda White-King - Background Vocals
- Tessa NilesTessa NilesTessa Niles is an English singer, best known as a backing singer for a wide variety of artists.-Early life and career:Born in Kent, Niles began her professional singing career, as both a lead and a backing vocalist, in 1979...
- Background Vocals - Cindy Mizelle - Background Vocals
Production:
- Nile RodgersNile RodgersNile Gregory Rodgers is an American musician, producer, composer, arranger, and guitarist.-Biography:...
- Producer - Duran DuranDuran DuranDuran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
- Producer - Daniel AbrahamDaniel Abraham (record producer)Daniel Abraham is a French record producer, sound engineer and record mixer.He has most closely been associated with the band Duran Duran, with whom he worked on the Notorious and Big Thing albums....
- Engineer and Mixer - The Latin Rascals - Remixers