Rio is an album by Duran Duran, originally released worldwide on 10 May 1982, but re-released in November 1982 in the United States. It reached #2 in the UK and #1 in Australia.
The album went gold in the US on 1 March 1983, and platinum on 26 April 1983, eventually reaching double platinum status. It peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 album chart in the US on March 12, 1983, and remained on the chart for 129 weeks.
The first song to be recorded for Rio was "My Own Way", written and rec...
Rio is an album by Duran Duran, originally released worldwide on 10 May 1982, but re-released in November 1982 in the United States. It reached #2 in the UK and #1 in Australia.
The album went gold in the US on 1 March 1983, and platinum on 26 April 1983, eventually reaching double platinum status. It peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 album chart in the US on March 12, 1983, and remained on the chart for 129 weeks.
The first song to be recorded for Rio was "My Own Way", written and recorded in October 1981, and released as a single in November 1981. The rest of the album was recorded in spring of 1982 at Air Studios in London, with producer and engineer Colin Thurston. "My Own Way" was re-recorded as well; the album version is significantly different from the single version.
The second single, "Hungry Like the Wolf" was released in the UK on 4 May 1982. It peaked at #5 in the charts on June 26, 1982.
The Rio album was first released worldwide on 10 May 1982, and quickly shot to #2 in the UK on May 29, 1982. The image on the album's distinctive purple cover was painted by artist Patrick Nagel. The cover itself was designed by Malcolm Garrett.
The lyrics of "Hold Back the Rain" - written by lead singer Simon Le Bon - deal with bassist John Taylor's emerging drug problem and excessive lifestyle.
The North American version was released on Capitol's Harvest Records label, with rather poor sound quality, and didn't do well at first.
The band, however, had their own plans and ambitions for promotion. They reunited with director Russell Mulcahy (who had directed the music video for their first single, "Planet Earth"), and planned the release of a full length video album -- eleven videos for the best songs off of the Duran Duran and Rio albums. The band travelled to Sri Lanka and Antigua between tour dates to film the memorable videos for the singles "Rio", "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Save a Prayer", as well as the lesser-known "Lonely in Your Nightmare" and "Waiting for the Nightboat" -- the latter a creepy zombiefest set on a deserted island.
While filming the tropical videos, guitarist Andy Taylor contracted malaria and was hospitalized on his return to England. This forced the delay of Duran Duran's European tour, and the record company decided to hold the release of the third single until the band was ready to promote it again.
"Save a Prayer" was finally released on 9 August 1982, and peaked at #2 on the UK charts on September 11, 1982.
Meanwhile, the band had worked with producer David Kershenbaum to create some new dance mixes for their twelve-inch club singles. In September, Capitol collected the remixes and released them on an EP called Carnival. It included "Rio", "Hold Back The Rain", "My Own Way", "Hungry Like The Wolf", and "New Religion", and was released in North America, Spain, the Netherlands, Japan and Taiwan. Deejays who heard the new mixes could not get enough, and started to put the dance mixes on the air.
Following the success of the Kershenbaum remixes, Capitol changed its marketing strategy on Duran Duran from New Romantic to dance band. Frustrated with their lack of success in the U.S., the band capitalized on the moment and pressed Capitol to allow them to issue a remixed and remastered version of the Rio album in North America. The company agreed, and brought Kershenbaum back to remix the rest of the album.
On 1 November 1982, the "Rio" single was released worldwide. It peaked at #9 in UK on December 11, 1982.
Capitol re-released the Rio album in the U.S., with Kershenbaum's new remixes in November 1982. All tracks benefited from some minor reworking, but the significant structural differences in the songs on this second pressing (matrix #ST-1-12211-Z13-REI #1) include:
* Kershenbaum "album version" of "Hungry Like the Wolf" (later used on the American 7" single re-release)
* Kershenbaum "nite version" of "Hold Back the Rain"
* Kershenbaum "My Own Way" - drastically different from the original
* Kershenbaum "Lonely In Your Nightmare"
As the album began to take off, Capitol rushed a third pressing of the Rio album into stores, identical to the second, except that the "album version" of "Hungry Like the Wolf" was replaced with longer Kershenbaum "nite version". The third pressing (matrix #ST-1-12211-Z16 #2) is much more common than the second.
These remixed versions of "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Hold Back the Rain" were later released on CD on the Night Versions: The Essential Duran Duran compilation in 1998, and "My Own Way" was released in the 2003 Singles Box Set 1981-1985. However, the Kershenbaum version of "Lonely in Your Nightmare" is only available on the second and third pressings of this vinyl album; it has not yet been officially issued on CD.
On 3 December 1982, the Kershenbaum remix of the "Hungry Like the Wolf" single was released in the US, some six months after its initial UK release. The single included both the album version and the Carnival remix. It peaked at #3 in the US on March 26, 1983.
Part of the continued success of the album was due to the very popular videos, in heavy rotation on MTV. The video album Duran Duran was released (on VHS, Betamax, and laserdisc) to coincide with the North American re-issue of the "Rio" single on 11 March 1983, four months after its original release. This single included the Kershenbaum 7" remix of "Rio" and peaked at #14 in US on May 14, 1983.
The first pressing of 30,000 copies of the Japanese version of the LP (Toshiba/EMI EMS-91037) came with a colour poster. There is a notation on the OBI that mentions this. Later issues of the album have the notation on the OBI removed and contain only a lyric insert with a bio in japanese and some photos.
All official versions of the Rio album released on CD have been made from the original UK master tapes, and do not include any of the Kershenbaum remixes. This includes the release, in 2001, of a 20-year anniversary reissue, completely remastered from the original.
The packaging on a limited edition version of this release (EMI; 529 9240/Capitol; 72435-25919-0-9) included an alternate version of the famous Nagel cover painting, submitted by the artist along with the first when he completed the commission. (This image was first used for the Japanese 7" single of "My Own Way".)
On April 7th, 2009, Duran Duran's official website announced that Rio will be reissued as a 2 CD Special Edition on June 29, 2009 (2009-06-29) in the UK and June 30, 2009 (2009-06-30) in the US. This edition includes the album's original UK vinyl release tracks but adds substantially more to make this a definitive edition (including several tracks that have never been released in CD form as well as previously-released material from Singles Box Set 1981–1985). Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
