Duran Duran - Girls On Film
"Girls on Film" is the third single by Duran Duran, released on 13 July 1981.
The single became Duran Duran's Top 10 breakthrough in the UK Singles Chart, peaking at Number 5 in July 1981. Its success was particularly gratifying for the band, who had personally selected it for release following the failure of its predecessor, "Careless Memories", which had been chosen by their record company, EMI. Its popularity provided a major boost to sales of the band's eponymous debut album, Duran Duran, which had been released a month earlier.
The song did not chart in the United States on its initial release, but it became popular and widely known after receiving heavy airplay on MTV when the Duran Duran album was re-issued in 1983.
"Girls on Film" was originally written by Andy Wickett, one of Duran Duran's previous singers before Simon Le Bon. The original demo of the song has a very peculiar sound that differs somewhat from the final album version recorded in 1981. However, Wickett's version of the chorus remained, with very little change having been made to that part of the song's composition. When Wickett left the band, Duran Duran bought the song from him for £600 and made him sign a waiver removing his rights to the song.
The video was made with directing duo Godley & Creme at Shepperton Studios in July 1981. It was filmed just weeks before MTV was launched in the United States and before anyone knew what an impact the music channel would have on the industry. The band expected the "Girls on Film" video to be played in the newer nightclubs that had video screens, or on pay-TV channels like the Playboy Channel. The raunchy video created an uproar, and it was consequently banned by the BBC and heavily edited for its original run on MTV; the band unabashedly enjoyed and capitalised on the controversy.
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