Top 4 Underrated Duran Duran Songs

I remember listening to Come Undone as a child and I loved the song, I begged my mom to play it over and over in the car. My mom only bought the CD just for that one song and didn't really care for the other selection of songs so it went into the obscurity of our media cabinet.

I never knew how versatile they were until I was older. When I went to revisit the band after hearing A View To A Kill on the radio, I was re-introduced to the rest of the discography of Duran Duran. I found top ten lists of their songs to see what songs I missed. Duran Duran is just one of those bands that is a requirement to listen to, how they have done songs with different contexts to stand out with unique tunes to vibe to.

If your thinking of purchasing the greatest hits of Duran Duran, these four would be best to start out with.

1. Union of The Snake

When I went to expand my library to include more of Duran Duran, this was the first song I chose. I couldn't stop listening to it in the car, I was immediately immersed into a sketchy, James Bond-like situation. Hearing the song and reading the lyrics, it even feels like it.

Even watching the music video, the presentation of using this song in a dystopian world that the band members trudge through does help the eerie ambiance of the song.

It has multiple interpretations, maybe our singer is posing himself a soldier and he's being targeted by the enemy. My personal interpretation, it's a scorned lover that's closing in on him. The comparison to what could be the snake is universal to what you think the metaphorical snake is.

A threat is on the rise and closing in. Comparing this oncoming threat to the way of the silent kill from a snake. Listening to this song, it feels that we are being placed in a trap and no matter where we turn, that snake is coming up.

It's catchy, it's sketchy, it belongs on your music library.

2. A View To A Kill

Speaking of James Bond, it's almost criminal that this song has fallen into obscurity. In the history of James Bond movies, a perfect song has to be crafted to match it while making a modern mark. There was doubt if Duran Duran had what it took to make a song for a Bond movie, to everyone's surprise as well as the test of time, this song made a long lasting history.

To this day, this is the only Bond song that had a #1 placement on the Billboard Hot 100 and a Golden Globe nomination for best song. Out of all the others: Adele, Sheena Easton, Sam Smith, Madonna, and others; Duran Duran would be the one that had the legacy of that mark on a song made for a Bond movie (not just any movie, a Bond Movie), to top the charts. That's why I chose the opening sequence for the video header to see how the artistic style worked well with the song.

Both of the presentations for this song is amazing, the version in the movie of the same name, A View To A Kill is stylized and sophisticated to represent James Bond. The music video made for the song with the band members with inserted clips from the movie is also very accomplished.

This song was later covered by Northern King's making it a song that can be universal for different bands to make another modern take.

It's a great song from the last Roger Moore movie, making the mark and made the kill.

3. Notorious

Notorious and Union of The Snake go hand in hand like the duo combination of We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions by Queen. Union of the Snake had a eerie ambiance of the threat that is closing in, Notorious has a setting that power is on the rise and will be gained at any cost.

Listening to Notorious, there is almost a mafia-like story in this song.

With lyrics like -

You own the money, you control the witness

I hear you're lonely, don't monkey with my business

You pay the profits to justify your reasons

I heard your promise but I don't believe it

That's why I'll do it again

and this other lyric sounds like something you would hear in The Godfather. Which is why I say this song has a mafia vibe to it-

Don't ask me to bleed about it, I need this blood to survive

The character of the singer, enjoys the chaos of what follows in this job. No matter what happens the job will be done, and when another comes up, he'll be waiting in anticipation in the turmoil. This is a person who knows what they are doing and takes the pride in accomplishments of anarchy.

4. Girls On Film

This song is like the risque version of Hungry Like The Wolf and a mellowed down version of ACDC's, You Shook Me All Night Long.

When the music video for Girls on Film came out, there was a controversy over the provocative music video. The music video lived up to it's name having women in sultry positions and doing sensual poses with each other and on each other was a big red flag for most TV stations.

To hear a song about the porn industry sang in a sensual yet sophisticated style. The lyric composition has a admiration for the women in this in describing what they are doing and how the singer is reacting to them in his desires. But there is no degradation or misogynistic tone.

It's a song of admiring and desiring the females on the screen without the uncomfortable misogyny.

Duran Duran has made long-lasting impact on the music industry. Personally, I think they are the best band to have an identity but not to feel that identity is the repetitive and you end up hearing the same songs with tune and lyrics. From the ones I've listed, they've made songs that had a sketchy vibe, a spy vibe, a sultry vibe, they've done different ideas to pick what you want to listen to. With Duran Duran, it's a wonder wheel of what you'll discover from them.