Girls on Film

Infobox Single |
Name = Girls on Film


Artist = Duran Duran
from Album = Duran Duran
B-side = "Faster Than Light"
Released = start_date|1981|7|13
Format = 7", 12"
Recorded = Red Bus Studios, London start_date|1980|12
Genre = Rock, New Wave
Length = 3:27
Label = EMI - EMI 5206
Writer = Duran Duran
Producer = Colin Thurston
Chart position =

Last single = "Careless Memories" (1981)
This single = "Girls on Film" (1981)
Next single = "My Own Way" (1981)
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = Duran Duran
Type = studio
prev_track =
prev_no =
this_track = "Girls on Film"
track_no = 1
next_track = "Planet Earth"
next_no = 2Extra tracklisting
Album = Arena
Type = live
prev_track = "Careless Memories"
prev_no = 10
this_track = "Girls on Film"
track_no = 11
next_track = "Rio"
next_no = 12Extra tracklisting
Album = Greatest
Type = compilation
prev_track = "Hungry Like the Wolf
prev_no = 7
this_track = "Girls on Film"
track_no = 8
next_track = "Planet Earth"
next_no = 9"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 #5 on 25 July. 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 U.S. 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. It is regarded one of the band's signature songs.

About the song

Girls on Film was originally written by Andy Wickett, Duran Duran's previous singer 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. 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. [http://andywickett.com/duranduran.htm]

The song begins with a recording of the rapid clicking of a motor drive on a camera. Both manager Paul Berrow and photographer Andy Earl claim to have supplied the camera for the recording.

Over the years, "Girls on Film" has become a staple of the encores for Duran Duran's live performances, and is often the final song of a concert, during which lead singer Simon Le Bon introduces the rest of the band. It was the song Duran Duran was playing at a private party on New Year's Eve, 1999.

The song, along with "Rio" was originally omitted from the 1984 live album "Arena" due to the space limitations of vinyl, in favor of newer and less familiar album material from 1983's "Seven and the Ragged Tiger". Both tracks were included as bonus material in the 2004 CD reissue of "Arena".

Music video

The song fared well on the radio and the charts before the notoriously titillating video was filmed, but the controversy that ensued helped to keep the band in the public eye and the song on the charts for many weeks.

The video (featuring topless women mud wrestling and other depictions of sexual fetishes) was made with directing duo Godley & Creme, and was filmed in August just two weeks after MTV was launched in the United States, 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 MTV and the new SingStar Pop Vol. 2. The band unabashedly enjoyed and capitalised on the controversy.

A Video 45 with videos for "Girls on Film" and "Hungry Like the Wolf" was released in the United States in March, 1983 (The VHS-format tape contains MTV-friendly "day version" of "Girls on Film", while the Beta format contains the uncensored "night version"). The "Video 45" won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video in 1984, the first year the Academy gave that award.

The uncensored video was also included in the "Duran Duran" video album (1983) and the "Greatest" video collection (released on VHS in 1999, and on DVD in 2004).

Simon Le Bon commented in the audio interview on the Greatest DVD collection that the scandal of the music video overshadowed the song's message of fashion model exploitation.

B-sides, bonus tracks and remixes

The b-side of the single was another song unavailable anywhere else, a synthesiser-heavy dance track called "Faster Than Light".

The extended night version of "Girls on Film", similar to "Planet Earth" wasn't a remix, but a completely new arrangement of the song. This was mainly due to technology contraints in 1981.

There are two slightly different mixes of the Night Version, one clocking in at 5:45, the other at 5:27. The video version clocks in at 6:19.

In 1998, EMI released "Girls on Film — The Remixes", featuring a swathe of newly commissioned re-constructions of the song by notable remixers like Tall Paul and Tin Tin Out. A couple of these mixes were included on the 1998 UK release of the single "Electric Barbarella".

Covers, samples, & media references

Cover versions of "Girls on Film" have been recorded by Björn Again, Wesley Willis Fiasco, The Living End, Girls Aloud, Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers, Billy Preston, Madmen in Vienna, New Romantic Orchestra, Kevin Max, La Ley, Midnight Oil and Nathan Stack [http://www.cdbaby.com/duran] (who went on to become Duran Duran's official MySpace page coordinator) [http://www.myspace.com/duranduran] .

The song was used as opening music to original Japanese version of the anime series "Speed Grapher"; due to licensing issues, the song "Shutter Speed" by Shinkichi Mitsumune was used in the U.S. release instead.

A live version of "Girls on Film" was used as the theme music to the TV series "Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Model Search".

The song appears as downloadable content for the music video game "Rock Band".

There is also a female band called Girls on Film from Tallahassee, Florida in the United States.

Chart positions

Track listing

Release information pertains to UK release only (unless otherwise noted)

7": EMI / EMI 5206 (UK)

# "Girls on Film" – 3:27
# "Faster than Light" – 4:26

12": EMI / 12 EMI 5206 (UK)

# "Girls on Film (Night Version)" – 5:27
# "Girls on Film" – 3:27
# "Faster than Light" – 4:26

12": EMI / 062-20 0717 6 (Greece)

# "Girls on Film (Night Version)" – 5:45
# "Girls on Film (Instrumental)" – 5:41
# "Faster than Light" – 4:26

* limited edition Greek release

CD: Part of "Singles Box Set 1981-1985" boxset

# "Girls on Film" – 3:27
# "Faster than Light" – 4:26
# "Girls on Film (Night Version)" – 5:27

Other appearances

Apart from the single, "Girls On Film" has also appeared on:

EPs
* "Nite Romantics" (1981, Japan)
* "Nite Versions" (1982, Australia)
* "Carnival" (1982, worldwide)
* "DMM Mega-Mixes" (1983, Germany)
* "Girls on Film — The Remixes" (1998, worldwide)

Albums:
* "Duran Duran" (1981)
* "" (1989)
* "" (1998)
* "Greatest" (1998)
* "Strange Behaviour" (1999)
* "Arena" (2004 reissue)
* "Singles Box Set 1981-1985" (2005)
* "Live from London (Bonus CD with Deluxe Edition)" (2005

Singles:
* "Ordinary World" (1993)
* "Electric Barbarella" (1998)

Personnel

Duran Duran are:
*Simon Le Bon - vocals
*Nick Rhodes - keyboards
*John Taylor - bass guitar
*Roger Taylor - drums
*Andy Taylor - guitar

Also credited:
*Colin Thurston - producer and engineer

References

* [http://www.duranduran.com/ Official site]
*, page 6