Rio (song)


"Rio" is the seventh single by Duran Duran. It was first released as a single in Australia, in August 1982, followed by a UK release on 1 November 1982.
The song was the fourth, final, and title single lifted from the band's album of the same name, and was edited for its release. It was issued worldwide in October 1982 and became a Top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart, peaking at #9 on 11 December 1982.
"Rio" was released as the third single from the album in Australia, and debuted on the Kent Music Report top 100 singles chart dated 6 September 1982.
The song did not attract much notice in the United States upon its initial global release, but received very early airplay at highly influential KROQ in Los Angeles as early as 2 August 1982. After the band's breakthrough hit "Hungry Like the Wolf" stormed MTV and scaled the American charts in December 1982, radio programmers paid closer attention to the catchy melody and insistent, intricate bass line of "Rio", and Capitol Records reissued the single in March 1983 to great success as the band's 2nd US top 20 hit.

Background

The keyboard pattern for "Rio", well-known among Duran Duran fans and synthesizer enthusiasts, was produced by an arpeggiator—a tool which can play the individual notes in a chord in a chosen pattern. It was once rumoured that the synthesiser used to achieve this was a Roland Jupiter-8. However, it has been said by Nick Rhodes to actually be a Roland Jupiter-4 using the random mode on the arpeggiator with a Cmaj7 chord.
Rhodes created the unusual sound at the beginning of the song by throwing several small metal rods onto the strings of a grand piano in the studio. The recorded sound was then reversed to create the intro. The laughter on the track was that of Rhodes' girlfriend at the time.
The song's verse was musically inspired by their earlier song "See Me, Repeat Me" and the chorus was taken from "Stevie's Radio Station", a song written by TV Eye which featured singer Andy Wickett who went on to be one of Duran Duran's early singers. The song was a favourite of Nick and John and was incorporated into Duran Duran live sets during Wickett's tenure.
Originating from an idea by John Taylor about Rio de Janeiro – "the truly foreign, the exotic, a cornucopia of earthly delights, a party that would never stop" – Simon Le Bon wrote the lyrics to the song, but chose not to write about the place but about a girl named Rio.
The tenor saxophone solo was performed by Andy Hamilton, who has also worked with Wham! and Elton John amongst others.

Music video

Director Russell Mulcahy filmed the vivid music video for "Rio", which featured iconic images of the band in Antony Price suits, singing and playing around on a yacht speeding over the crystal blue Caribbean Sea. The yacht in the music video was the Eilean. Short segments show band members trying to live out their assorted daydreams, only to be teased, tormented, and made fools of by body-painted vixen Reema Medawar.
The music video was shot over the course of three days in May 1982 on the island of Antigua. The yacht scenes were filmed on the bay at English Harbour, the beach scenes at Miller's Beach, and the segment featuring the raft at Shirley Heights. Some close ups were filmed later on the Solent due to a film processing error.
Director Mulcahy originally planned a scene where the band members got chased off the island by people wielding guns, but didn't have enough film stock left to shoot this. He had to borrow a tourist's camera to shoot the part of John Taylor playing a saxophone on a mountaintop. When the video was featured on VH1's Pop-Up Video, it mentions that after the video was completed, Mulcahy, Simon Le Bon, and John Taylor went for a swim and were inches away from sharks when the yacht captain yelled for them to get out of the water. Nick Rhodes was reportedly seasick during the filming, and has often said "I hate boats unless they're tied up and you're having cocktails on them."
While in Antigua, the band also filmed a video for the album track "Night Boat", which appeared with "Rio" and nine other videos on the Duran Duran video album released in 1983.

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

B-sides, bonus tracks and remixes

There are 13 different official mixes of "Rio", many of which are edits of the album version or Kershenbaum remix with fades in various places.
The B-side of the November 1982 original United Kingdom single was "The Chauffeur ", an acoustic version of the moody album track. The B-side of the April 1983 reissue in the United States was an upbeat remix of "Hold Back The Rain". The B-side of the 12" single included a remix of "My Own Way".
In 1998 Recall 22 released three new promo mixes of "Rio" in France.

Complete list of versions

  1. "Rio" – 5:33
  2. "Rio" – 4:40
  3. "Rio" – 6:46
  4. "Rio" – 5:11
  5. "Rio" – 5:29
  6. "Rio" – 5:02
  7. "Rio" – 5:24
  8. "Rio" – 4:44
  9. "Rio" – 4:34
  10. "Rio" – 3:57
  11. "Rio" – 4:57
  12. "Rio" – 3:36
  13. "Rio" – 5:03

    Additional information "Rio" versions

7": EMI. / EMI 5346 United Kingdom

  1. "Rio" – 4:40
  2. "The Chauffeur " – 3:48
  1. "Rio" – 5:11
  2. "The Chauffeur " – 3:48
Two different versions of this single were available in the UK, both with identical sleeves and labels.

12": EMI. / 12 EMI 5346 United Kingdom

  1. "Rio" – 5:29
  2. "Rio" – 5:11
  3. "My Own Way" – 4:34

    7": Harvest. / B-5175 United States (1982)

  4. "Rio" – 4:34
  5. "Hold Back the Rain" – 3:59

    7": Capitol. / B-5215 United States (Reissue 1983)

  6. "Rio" – 3:57
  7. "Hold Back the Rain" – 6:32

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

  8. "Rio" – 5:11
  9. "The Chauffeur" – 3:48
  10. "Rio" – 5:29
  11. "My Own Way" – 4:34

    Other appearances

Apart from the single, "Rio" has also appeared on:
Albums:
s of "Rio" have been recorded by Goldfinger, Bodyjar, Cranial Screwtop, Nip Drivers and Nicole Scherzinger.
Nirvana performed the song "Rio" during the Hollywood Rock show in Brazil, on 16 January 1993, and Barenaked Ladies played "Rio" live in Calgary on 1 April 2004, among other occasions. The song was also played acoustically on the 2007 Ships and Dips Cruise.
Green Day played it live briefly on their 21st Century Breakdown World Tour.
The music video for the Fountains of Wayne song "Mexican Wine" is partially based on the video for "Rio."
Parts of the song were sung by Santa Claus on "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics" South Park episode, after he bemoaned how there were hundreds of songs about Jesus Christ, but only about 4 about him.
It has been referenced in the lyrics of the 2005 UK #1 hit by Arctic Monkeys, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor": "Your name isn't Rio, but I don't care for sand". The Killers also referenced the song in "On Top".
In 2008, for their video "Never Too Late", Hedley released a shot-for-shot remake of the video.
"Rio" was also used for and against former England and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, as a chant sung 'His name is Rio, Rio, Rio Ferdinand'.
Darren Criss as Blaine Anderson and Matt Bomer as Cooper Anderson covered this song as a mash-up with another Duran Duran song, "Hungry Like the Wolf" in the third season of Glee. Also, during the iTunes trailer for the film Alpha and Omega, both songs can be heard.
California indie rock band Rogue Wave performed a version of the song in July 2013 for The A.V. Club A.V. Undercover: Summer Break series.
CSS collaborated with Simon Le Bon and John Taylor to record a cover of the song in 2016.
The song also appears in several music video games:
In 1997 Goldfinger brought their version of Rio out, which first appeared on a tribute album of Duran Duran, then later on the albums Spokesman and The Best of Goldfinger.

Nicole Scherzinger version

recorded a remixed cover of "Rio" as a promotion for Caress Brazilian body wash from Unilever. The song was released to radio on 28 July 2008 and as a CD single in August 2008. The music video shows Scherzinger performing in a pink dress in front of a crowd, with flowers appearing all around her as she sings on stage.
Of the cover, Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon said "When we were first approached about Nicole doing a version of 'Rio' for this campaign, we thought it was the perfect fit. She's exotic and beautiful and embodies everything that inspired the original version. Because it's one of our signature songs very few people have covered it over the years, so it has been great for us to hear a new interpretation."

Track listing

2-track CD single

  1. "Rio "
  2. "Rio "

    CD single maxi jewelcase

  3. "Rio"
  4. "Rio"
  5. "Rio"
  6. "Rio"
  7. The making of the "Rio" " video

    [Moby] version

The song was recreated by Moby for the compilation album Making Patterns Rhyme.