Duran's Top 50 UK Singles Part 2: 25-1
Here we go - the Cherry Lipstick Top 25 Duran UK singles....
25: Out Of My Mind (March 1997)
Ruth (no.12): A superb, overlooked song: dramatic, melodic and paired with one of the stronger later videos. The perfect song-quality score is deliberate. Its modest impact and chart performance drag my total down, but those numbers say more about the campaign than the record. I like the remixes a lot. This deserved a much larger life than it got.
Adam: This song stretches for greatness and nearly makes it. Should be elevated to the Hallowe’en set list, but I fear it is too on-the-nose for the jokey atmosphere generally aimed for in this Danse Macabre era.
Ben: The excellent Perfecto Remix should have been released as the single version. Maybe if The Saint movie was a huge hit then this would have stood more of a chance? But the video should have tied it in with the film more, like with View To A Kill. Weird mixed marketing messages.
CKS: A beautiful, haunting song and great choice for a single, but one wonders if it would have fared better on the coattails of The Wedding Album c.1994.
24: All Of You (October 2022)
CKS: I very much enjoyed The Killer’s “The Man” and when Erol Alkan was announced as DD’s producer, this is exactly the sound I was hoping for. Similar to Invisible, every instrument gets to shine. Coxon is, as usual, turned down a bit too much in the mix, but blame JT and NR for that, not the producer. Overall, this and Invisible form as solid a 1-2 punch as you’ll find on any DD album, which makes both songs great choices for singles. I can hear the criticism that I need to evaluate these “as singles” and not simply as “songs.” Fair enough: All of You is one of the top 3 songs on Future Past and it’s catchy. Ergo, it’s a great choice for a single.
Ben: A gem of a song that was all over BBC Radio 2, but the radio edit not being commercially available or streamable really frustrates me. Why was More Joy given a video and not this? The story of a lot of DD’s singles not doing better is down to the marketing rather than the product.
23: Union of the Snake (October 1983)
Adam: Sounds like what it was – a band out of ideas and time.
CKS: It’s better on Arena.
Ben: Pleasant enough but nothing special.
Ruth: Jumpy, high-pitched, a bit whiny. The video has ambition.
22: What Happens Tomorrow (January 2005)
CKS: A beautiful song about hope amid a crazy world (that in retrospect seems less crazy than today). A great choice for a single that deserved a better fate.
Ben: This would have given the reunited DD another Top 10 hit had the release not been so messed up, with it being pushed back a couple of months once promotion had started. I wish this had been released as the comeback single in its original, longer form complete with the ‘silent icy river’ section. While a bit clunky, it does get going and threatens for more than a moment to reach the greatness of Ordinary World. But it doesn’t.
Adam: What Are Chances Of Something Interesting Happening In This Song Tomorrow, My Friend?
Ruth: Competent, earnest and built for uplift, but short of the personality that would make it unmistakably theirs. The impact score reflects the goodwill around the reunion more than the song's staying power. Nothing here is dreadful; equally, almost nothing demands another listen.
21: Falling Down (September 2007)
A song with one of the biggest variance between two votes (Ruth 13, Ben 37).
Ben: It almost gets going. When I first heard it, I thought it was going to be absolutely huge and top charts across the world. Some of the melodies are beautiful. But pacing wise it’s too stop/start and the flow is clunky. Justin Timberlake is probably more happy to talk about his DUI arrest than his involvement in this.
CKS: I freely admit to loving this song then and now. A beautiful ballad that makes the A-side of RCM pretty darn good. Dom’s guitar solo, someone (Nick’s?) piano playing…all the right ingredients for a great DD song. Personally, it was also a very happy time for me as I had just gotten married and gotten a new job. The impact should have been greater—if you’re going to collaborate with Justin Timberlake, maybe… actually have him audible on the song?
Ruth: A strong late-career ballad with real emotional weight and a video that supports rather than smothers it. One of the reunion era's most convincing singles. The opportunity for a hit was there but it was badly handled.
Adam: Regardless of the song’s quality (and I like it), the video completes the Misogyny Trio of videos after Girls On Film and Electric Barbarella.
Ruth: I prefer to see the video and album sleeve as tongue-in-cheek. They have exploited female bodies throughout their career and show no signs of slowing down! The video’s humour saves it as being over-creepy.
Ben: This song came off the back of the successful Astronaut album, and had Timberland and Timberlake all over the promo for the album. And then it didn’t even make the top 40. It had every chance to be a big hit, and tanked the reunion era. They didn’t even get a record deal for their next album. Which is why I scored it at no.37.
20: All She Wants Is (January 1989)
Winner of best ‘All’ song.
Adam (no 14): Everything goes right with All She Wants Is. Harnessing club culture, powerful video imagery, hypnotic beats, and robotic vocals – doing everything Electric Barbarella did not.
Ben: Top 10 in the UK but forgotten about hit in certain territories. Also has an award winning video. Its darker nature would have alienated some of what remained of the band’s younger fanbase, but it's stood the test of time. I did used to skip this on Greatest when I first started to become a proper fan though. Shameful.
CKS: This one has definitely grown on me over time. Definitely representative of the Big Thing era (well, at least half of it). The live melody with Planet Earth actually works for me as well from that tour.
Ruth (no 35): I can admire the electronic pulse and the stop-motion cleverness of the era without pretending this is a favourite. It has more character than its total suggests, but it never becomes a fully compelling song, and the low impact, chart and sleeve marks are difficult to argue with. Interesting production exercise; minor single.
19: White Lines (Don’t Do It) (July 1995)
A question of compromise. The only song to place higher than anyone voted for (the four placings being 21, 22, 23 and 26) making it the most ‘horse designed by a camel-making committee’ on this chart.
Ben: I saw a clip of the music video on Top Of The Pops as a kid and instantly loved this track. I had no idea it was a cover. This would have been HUGE if it was featured prominently in the film Bad Boys as planned, but it wasn’t to be and the whole media stink around the Thank You album hindered its commercial success. An absolute beast of a track though - great live too.
CKS: Getting Grandmaster Flash and Mele Mel to participate makes this track. For the fans who complain about this being a constant in the live set, all I can say is that it rocks and gets more of a reaction that much of DD’s material.
Ruth: Do we really believe for a minute that everyone involved was clean? Still, it is a great fun track, performed with enough swagger to justify the exercise.
Adam: WFL. You can’t deny it’s had impact. Every night on tour.
18: Pressure Off (June 2015)
Ben: This shouldn’t be judged on its success as a single in a streaming era where Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran songs take up the entire Top 20. It did a tremendous job by getting the Paper Gods album some impressive chart placings around the world - including Top 5 in the UK and Top 10 in the US.
Ruth: With Nile Rodgers and Janelle Monáe involved, I expected rather more than an amiable groove and a lot of expensive good intentions. It is polished, certainly, but oddly anonymous.
Adam: It was the right lead single. It needs to be on a new greatest hits album, sequenced between Notorious and Is There Something I Should Know.
CKS: A great single, a great collab, off a great album.
17: I Don’t Want Your Love (September 1988)
Ben: I think what this song did for the band is really underrated - it got them back up the singles charts after the Notorious campaign derailed. Its reputation isn’t helped by not regularly featuring in setlists since the reunion tour.
CKS: Inexplicably not remembered as much today, despite the song and video being all over US radio in the fall of 1988. One of my favourite and most underappreciated DD songs.
Adam: The shine gets taken off this track by the formulaic guitar solo plonked in the middle – Andy’s subtle underplaying was clearly long gone. But you gotta love the intro and chorus. Deserved better at the time and since.
Ruth (no.32): A decent late-eighties groove with enough bite to remain enjoyable, but hardly an essential campaign. The song itself is better than the total suggests; the weak impact, slight lyrics and truly miserable sleeve score do most of the damage.
16: New Moon On Monday (January 1984)
The first song to be voted in anyone’s top 10 (Ruth, no.5).
Chris: Inexplicably left off Decade, but thankfully included on Greatest and Danse Macabre.
Ruth: I love this track: huge anthemic chorus, a proper sense of adventure and my favourite of their videos. This is also a shamelessly nostalgic score—I owned Dancing on the Valentine and still have a Denis O'Regan reel strip from the shoot. Sometimes the personal history is part of the review, and this one still makes me ridiculously happy.
Adam: A bad re-hash of Hungry Like The Wolf. For a band supposedly at the top of the world, it struggled to make the top 10. Just like in 1981, drastic action would be needed for the third single…
15: Danse Macabre (August 2023)
CKS (no.7): Uh-oh…recency bias alert! This is arguably my favourite DD song post-Pop Trash. I am a huge fan of Mr. Hudson and the Paper Gods LP, and this fits right in with that sound. I love everything about this song, especially that we finally get Warren back in the fold, albeit only as a guest and (as usual these days) turned down in the mix. Love the haunting beat, distorted guitars, backing vocals—perfect for the fall/Halloween!
Ben: Really inventive lyrics and a cool groove. This never made much of an impact because it wasn’t serviced to radio, which it should have been in a punchier, edited form. But it did establish an interesting and unexpected new era for the band in quite a distinctive and ballsy way.
Adam: Who saw this coming? Having shunned Christmas for over 40 years, Duran made a land grab on Hallowe’en. And did it with fun, groove, nostalgia and, despite the cliché of Duran-time, quickly. See you at the show on 31st October 2027 – but where?
Ruth: A muscular, playful song that suits the band's theatrical instincts far better than some of their more reverent cover versions. The Halloween framing gives it a reason to exist, while Warren's involvement adds genuine impact—and gives fans of his era something substantial to feast on. The visuals are merely adequate, but the record understands that camp and menace can happily share a dance floor.
14: (Reach Up For The) Sunrise (September 2004)
Ben: Why didn’t they release the rockier Jason Nevins mix for the single rather than the sterile version that felt too lightweight and tinny to really propel DD back into the global consciousness? Crap video. So crap they made five alternative versions of it.
CKS: An important song and single for the band as they tried to find their way as a reunited five piece. While this was never a hit (spare me the “#1 on the billboard dance chart!” factoid), the band played it so often live that it became a bit of a crowd favourite—in fact maybe one of the few “new” DD songs post-2000 that can claim that. I also very much enjoy the video, especially family man Andy playing on the beach with his kids and ending the day at a strip club.
Adam: The Shameless Five stepped up and got it right.
Ruth: The emotional impact of seeing the original five together again does a lot of the work here—and that is perfectly legitimate. As a reunion statement it is enormous; as a piece of writing, rather less so. The chorus delivers the required lift, while the lyrics and artwork are fairly ordinary. A moment bigger than the song, but what a moment.
13: Notorious (October 1986)
There is a jump of 8 average positions from no.14 to no.13. From here on, the Big Beasts roam.
Adam: A funny one. Notorious the single only charted at no 14 in its first week, before leaving the top 40 after only 5 weeks. [The album did even worse, crashing to no.53 its second week.] So I experienced Notorious the song as a failure, a rejection. The comeback was over before it began. And, fact fans, on chart performance it was. But Notorious just hung around the set list. The band never gave up on it, and by sheer force of will, turned it into one of their Big Hits. By achieving its status amongst the Golden Era, perhaps this is the song with the biggest impact of all.
Ben: Five became three and it looked bleak. Then this was unleashed and gave DD a monster hit and a new lease of life. I’ve been overexposed to it since becoming a fan - but while it doesn’t enthuse me much now, I can’t forget how much I loved hearing this when becoming a proper fan and long beyond.
CKS (no.5): This will annoy people who believe the singles off the first three albums are sacrosanct…but if Notorious failed, there would be no Big Thing, certainly no Ordinary World. I know there are fans out there who would say “fine” and who dismiss such a significant portion of the catalogue as “not real Duran Duran.” All I can say is… get your head out of your 1984. Impact aside, I simply love Notorious musically. I love the funk, I love the video, I love the stripped-down approach that the newly minted DD trio took. As a 14-year-old, I had zero desire for Duran to replicate Seven and the Ragged Tiger, and they did not disappoint.
Ruth: A sleek, funky reinvention. I am not sure how cutting-edge it really was, but it gave the reduced line-up a convincing new identity.
12: Is There Something I Should Know? (March 1983)
Adam (no.6): Have I mentioned yet that I love stand-alone singles? None are bigger than this one. The UK was in fever-pitch for new Duran music (not helped by a lack of originality at Christmas 1982 – about which more below). You just didn’t have straight-in-at-number-one singles back then. But Duran did. It comes out punching - Beatles-esque, immediately catchy, and built for the live arena. Duran were setting their sights higher than Hammersmith, and this song paved the way to Wembley and beyond.
CKS: Musically, I would put this higher, but for the impact that several of the higher ranked songs had. Duran at their peak. A personal favourite that I never tire of.
Ruth: I love Malcolm Garrett's branding on the sleeve. This marks the transition from stardom to superstardom—but, for me, it also marks the point where they began to look over-made-up, tired and slightly bloated. The song is bright and catchy, but it lacks the mystery of almost everything on Rio and feels altogether more commercial.
11: Planet Earth (February 1981)
Ben: Still rocks live - a strong debut single.
CKS: Another one that has stood the test of time and very much set the tone for Duran Duran’s blueprint of powerful, guitar-driven dance music.
Ruth: A remarkably confident debut: clipped funk, punky energy and synths already pointing towards the band they would become. Malcolm Garrett's cohesive album-and-single packaging helps enormously, with Planet Earth and Late Bar sharing the same funky punk-disco universe. The cheap video is held fondly in fans' hearts, but objectively it hardly signposts their later mastery of the form.
Adam: I mean – it’s Planet Fucking Earth. Talk about a statement title for a debut single. These guys meant business. You don’t see many Spandau Ballet records about these days, do you?
10: Invisible (May 2021)
CKS (no.6): Can a non-world domination era song be ranked this high? You bet. It’s not only great musically—punchy guitars courtesy of guest Graham Coxon, and all five members get to shine. Invisible itself is classic Duran from the 21st century. And it’s no slouch in the impact department, as it stands as the only DD song an entire generation recognizes courtesy of some viral video game videos. My high school age sons have confirmed this—their friends know who Duran is solely due to “Invisible.” The less said about the AI video, the better.
Ben (no.2): I connected with this song on a deep level the moment I heard its first play on BBC Radio 2. Of course Duran weren’t going to have a deserved chart hit with it - but over time it went viral amongst Gen X thanks to a video game tie-in and has been one of their most streamed Spotify songs for the last year or two. Judging by YouTube comments - it’s introduced a whole new audience to DD which is an incredible feat for new material created by a band that’s been around for 40 years. It’s even being played beyond the parent-album’s tour, which is incredible.
Adam: I loved this song so much, Cherry Lipstick wrote, published and sent out around the world a 32-page print fanzine all about it 7 days after it was released.
Ruth: Sleek, modern and far more substantial than a late-career release had any right to be. The song has momentum and its unexpected afterlife gave it a genuine impact beyond the initial campaign.
9: Come Undone (April 1993)
Ben (no.4): An awesome song and video. This is their most watched YouTube video - which shows how it’s connected with younger audiences who weren’t born around the Ordinary World inspired comeback.
CKS: It’s not Ordinary World—musically or impact-wise—but it gave the band the much needed 2nd hit single that it had lacked since Seven and the Ragged Tiger. In the US it made #2 for three weeks… a great song written by Simon, Nick, and Warren, completely without John’s knowledge, which makes it that much sweeter.
Adam: There is a case for saying that it was this beautiful song, more than Ordinary World, that sealed the success of 1993 and thereby the rest of Duran’s history. The Wedding Album had had one week in the top ten before drifting down the charts – but then went back into the top 10 for 3 weeks on the release of Come Undone. The song itself was a minor hit (no.13) but it did the job elsewhere.
Ruth: For many people this is probably Duran’s most beautiful track, and I am already wondering whether I scored it too low (no.10). The recording is sensuous, atmospheric and wonderfully controlled, while the video understands that the song is really about imprisonment in its many forms. An elderly couple sit helplessly as the water rises around them; a cross-dresser hides in shame; a woman struggles in chains beneath the surface; sharks circle, never allowing the threat to disappear. It captures entrapment across generations—by age, secrecy, desire and fear—without labouring the point.
8: Rio (November 1982)
Voted 1st by Ruth. And 42nd by Adam. Ooh what an Edge Lord. Many complaints followed. Moderated up from 11th to 8th overall.
Ruth: Despite being bored to death by it through overexposure, I could not honestly mark Rio down once I applied the criteria. It is superbly balanced, full of vivid imagery and technical mastery, with a glossy video that remembers to include a little tongue-in-cheek humour.
CKS: Musically, my favourite, and the song that got me hooked on DD. The powerful follow-up to HLTW that established them in the USA. It shouldn’t work as a single given how long it is, the saxophone solo, etc.—and yet the charts don’t lie.
Ben: I remember seeing the band at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2021 - and while I wasn’t that enthused about hearing this song as the predictable closing number yet again, it was clear that younger swathes were - and towards the end of the night there were many calls for it from that demographic.
Adam: I may have been a tad harsh. It was the 4th single and released in the UK at Christmas! As much as it is the Big Finish at concerts, its 80s sound doesn’t hold up to your average listener. The chorus can plod. It’s got a good video.
7: Save A Prayer (August 1982)
Ruth: Recognition that the fans needed something to swoon to—and here it is. The melody is elegant, the mood immaculate and the colour-drenched far-flung video offered a welcome escape from the dreary hardships of the UK’s recession.
Ben: It showed a different, more contemplative side of the band after much faster tempo numbers.
Adam: It’s easy to forget that this was their first slow number. They nailed it. Another Number One that got away.
CKS: Hauntingly beautiful and I could have ranked it first on this list. Will never tire of the song or the video.
6: Girls On Film (July 1981)
Adam: The first Single That Mattered. The video, alongside the obvious, reinvented them from the New Romantic look that they were still tied to on the album cover. This song had been reinvented over the course of a year from an angry punk snarl at exploitation, to a sniggering nudge-nudge wink-wink revelling in it. It is pop brilliance, and left the Careless Memories chart-debacle in the dust of their shooting star
Ben: Timelessly cool and catchy.
CKS: Fun song, controversial video, crowd favourite and on a short list of songs that the band could either open or close with at a show.
Ruth: From Careless Memories to careless mammaries. The song barely pauses for breath, yet every member gets a chance to shine. Perhaps they really were a democracy for those few early years.
5: The Wild Boys (October 1984)
Of the top 5, all were chosen in everyone’s top 10, apart from one vote for The Reflex
Ben: I was too young to get into Duran during their 80s peak, but growing up I was aware of the Wild Boys video as it was so damn cool and seemed to be played everywhere.
CKS: The second Nile collab that didn’t disappoint. The band rediscovered its first album edge (think Careless Memories) with this single.
Ruth: A distant cousin of Union of the Snake, only with more flames, choreography and corporate vanity-project energy. I appreciate the extended video's sheer effort and it was good to see the band take a different thematic direction, but I do not enjoy this live; no amount of spectacle can disguise how hard they now have to work to perform it. Time to retire it.
Adam: When the band were as big as their hair. I adored the 12” 8 minute version, and was utterly transfixed by the majesty and glamour of it all. This song was another astonishing stand-alone single, and has stood the test of time.
4: The Reflex (April 1984)
CKS: As popular as DD was in their heyday, and for as many top 20 singles they had… they strangely did NOT have as many #1s as contemporaries like The Police or Huey Lewis and the News. The Reflex – both the song and the video—is up there with Hungry Like The Wolf and Rio as songs that are so identifiable with DD.
Ben (no.11): This isn’t the musical side of the band I really like - give me a Wing or My Antarctica instead - but we can’t have one without the other. It’s a silly but hook-filled pop song, but it’s a joy to wail along to on the dancefloor after a few drinks.
Adam: I thought this was the best song ever for about 4 months in 1984. The vision to see the global hit lurking in the half-baked album version is humbling.
Ruth (no.2): Scored highly for much the same reasons as Rio: impact, finish and an instantly recognisable visual identity. This is the rare case where the single was a vast improvement on the album version and absolutely worth the trip to Woolworths or HMV. A slightly awkward song was turned into a thrilling global number one.
3: A View To A Kill (May 1985)
Ben: To nail a Bond theme like this and still be the only US chart topper for the 007 franchise is exceptional.
CKS: Duran’s second – and final - number 1 in the USA, and a song that was all over the airwaves in the summer of 1985, marking the apogee of DD’s world domination phase. A great, powerful song.
Ruth: I love the song, love the video and love how neatly it combines cinematic drama with unmistakable Duran hooks. The sleeve and cultural impact are excellent too. Live, however, it is another one for the chopping block: the original recording is glorious, but the modern performance often sounds like hard labour.
Adam: This was Duran’s shot at the title. With the eyes of the world on them, they knocked it out the park.
2: Hungry Like The Wolf (March 1982)
Voted 1st by CKS
CKS: The single that broke through in the USA and is the most identifiable song and video the band ever made. It’s not my favourite musically, but no way it can be any lower than #1 on any ranking of DD’s singles.
Adam: The great leap forward – from the New Romantic-Futurist-club era, to the guitar driven, globe-trotting, white suit-big smiles world. 3 minutes 26 seconds that changed their world.
Ben: The song and video that made them stars on the global stage. The fact Sabrina Carpenter performed the song in Hyde Park with Le Bon and JT last year is testament to its impact.
Ruth: A sin that this was not a number one single. This is the song that ensured we would still be discussing the band forty-odd years later: crisp, propulsive and essentially perfect, with a video that sold the whole exotic Duran Duran fantasy.
1: Ordinary World (January 1993)
Voted 1st by Adam and Ben
Ben: A battered band on the ropes about to be counted out for eternity. A knockout blow that gave them immortality. It’s impact is on You Tube and Spotify as the biggest streamed track. It saved their career.
CKS: The single that gave them credibility and introduced them to a new generation in the midst of early 90’s grunge and hip hop. A beautiful, timeless song and the reason they got into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Ruth: Who does not love My Antarctica as a B-side? Still, hardly anyone owned Liberty, but surely there was something new in the cupboard. The song itself is naturally magnificent: emotionally direct without collapsing into mush, and important enough to rescue the band's public reputation and career.
Adam: Just when you thought they were out… From Girls On Film to The Reflex to Notorious to Ordinary World - and beyond to Sunrise and Invisible - this band just find a way. This song is everything they ever wanted, and, given most of their history has NOT been with the Fab Five, it is it is fitting that this is our Number One. This soaring, touching, epic, delicate, mournful, hopeful song is the preeminent moment of the last 45 years.
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