Last week, I compared Duran Duran’s singles success in the UK and in the US. In general, Duran has done much better in the UK than in the US. I could speculate the reasons why but they would just be guesses on my part based on what I know about the US vs. the UK. One fact that might have made a big difference, at least, initially, was that Duran is from the UK and got a lot more attention and press there when they first started whereas it took years for the majority of people to really pay attention here in the US. All of that said, I wonder how their chart success compares to how their FANS would rank their singles. A couple of months I asked Duranies to rank the singles in order of preference. I then compared those rankings to Duran’s success in the US, which you can read here. Now, it is time to compare the fans vs. the UK.
Single UK Chart Peak How Fans Ranked
All She Wants Is 9 28th
All You Need Is Now Unknown 3rd
A View to a Kill 2 14th
Burning the Ground 31 30th
Careless Memories 37 8th
Come Undone 13 13th
Do You Believe in Shame 30 15th
Electric Barbarella 23 32nd
Falling Down 52 27th
Girls on Film 5 6th
Girl Panic Unknown 16th
Hungry Like the Wolf 5 17th
I Don’t Want Your Love 14 22nd
Is There Something… 1 11th
Meet el Presidente 24 35th
My Own Way 14 25th
New Moon on Monday 9 12th
Notorious 7 18th
Ordinary World 6 5th
Out of my Mind 21 29th
Perfect Day 28 24th
Planet Earth 12 1st
The Reflex 1 7th
Rio 9 4th
Save a Prayer 2 2nd
Serious 48 25th
Skin Trade 22 30th
Someone Else Not Me 54 34th
Sunrise 5 9th
Too Much Information 35 20th
Union of the Snake 3 19th
Violence of Summer 20 33rd
What Happens Tomorrow 11 23rd
White Lines 17 21st
Wild Boys 2 9th
What songs reached the top spot in the UK? The Reflex and Is There Something I Should Know? Were those high on the fans’ list? They weren’t terrible but they weren’t great. The Reflex did better at the 7th favorite versus ITSISK that ranked 11th.
What are other songs that hit the top 5? Number twos were: Wild Boys (Ranked 9th), Save a Prayer (Ranked 2nd), and A View to a Kill (Ranked 14th). The number three was: Union of the Snake (Ranked 19th). Number fives were: Sunrise (Ranked 9th), Hungry Like the Wolf (17th), and Girls on Film (Ranked 6th). Obviously, the fans were close to the chart positions on a couple of songs: Save a Prayer and Girls on Film. Others showed a big difference from chart success to being loved by fans, especially Union of the Snake and Hungry Like the Wolf.
What about the opposite? How did the fans’ favorites do on the charts? Planet Earth (peaked at 12), Save a Prayer (peaked at 2), All You Need Is Now (Unknown–it sounds like this song wasn’t released as a single there), Rio (peaked at 9), and Ordinary World (peaked at 6). In general, though, fan favorites did pretty well on the charts.
What does this show? I think it shows that fan favorites match more to the UK charts than the US charts. Why is this? I don’t know. One thing could be that fans take the entire catalog into consideration and the US charts didn’t. They really only focused on a few albums. The UK charts, on the other hand, show that Duran had success there throughout the band’s career as opposed to just a few years. What do you think? Why do the fans match the UK charts better?
-A
That’s odd about AYNIN – I think I have a single with remixes but it might have been tacked on to the album release. I’ve also unclear on the new download rules for the chart. It might be that they released it to get airplay as promo for the album but it didn’t qualify for the charts or something…
Is the single with remixes from the UK? Could you take a picture of it and send it to us? Thanks! -A
Fans ranking was the same as of Ordinary World; Girls on Film and Save a Prayer both went close to the fans’ ranking.
To answer to your final question I think it’s just a coincidence.
You know, I was reading this week one of the many interviews Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet, the “rival” band to the guys in the 80s, released on the occasion of the screening in Europe of the film – documentary on his band. In this movie, Gary mentions how jealous they were of Duran, ‘coz they broke in America, whereas Spandau never did.
With hindsight, I’m glad the DD guys were really so often honored there, but it was a blood and tears trail.
I understand what you are saying but I can’t regret their success in the States. If they didn’t, I and countless others wouldn’t be fans!! -A
In the States it was a struggle for them humanly, but they got the best rewards there: Grammies, the “Fab Five”, the MTV relationship and Award, they found Warren, Chic, Lou Reed, and other of their heroes there, Thank you USA for making DD a big band.