THEN & NOW SPECIAL: ‘Duran Duran’ – The 1993 Album

Thirty years ago, Duran Duran made a blistering return to form with the single “Ordinary World”, the first to come from their seventh studio album, confusingly titled “Duran Duran” – the same as their debut album of 1981 – although this would become better known as ‘The Wedding Album’ on account of the pictures of the band’s parents used on the cover artwork.

Having been ‘experimental’ at the end of the 80’s with the “Big Thing” album (1988) and the lukewarm “Liberty” album of 1990, fans as well as Duran Duran themselves yearned for a return to grass roots as the Pop/Rock format of the early years. The album that would become “Duran Duran” was written and recorded during 1991 so was already over a year old before it saw the light of day (the band had already begun recording the next album even before its release!).

Duran Duran opened 1993 in magnificent style with “Ordinary World”, which has become one of their biggest and best loved tunes. The song re-launched them to a commercial audience on both sides of the Atlantic peaking at No.3 in America – their best hit since “A View To A Kill” – and No.6 in the UK, their highest charting since “Notorious” in 1986. Hardly surprising that the band have worked the song into almost all of their world tours since and in 2021 performed “Ordinary World” at the Global Citizen event in London along with new material.

Thanks to the success of “Ordinary World” and the renewed sound, The “Duran Duran” album would also become their biggest and highest charting since “Notorious” some seven years earlier. It would chart at No.7 in America and go on to sell well over a million copies there. Back home, “Duran Duran” also became their first top ten hit album since “Notorious” and gain a Gold sales certification. The album would produce three international singles with a total of five released throughout 1993 and a sixth (“None Of The Above”) in Japan only in early 1994.

The second single, “Come Undone”, was also very well received having already been cited as a standout of the album itself. The song gave the band a second US top ten hit (No.7) in the Spring going as far as No.2 in Canada (“Ordinary World” had topped the chart there), and reached No.13 in the UK. In 2021, the band performed “Come Undone” as part of a set for BBC Radio 2 celebrating 40 years in the music business. The song was performed with British singer Anna Ross, who has tourned with the band for over a decade.

A third single in the shape of the lead track, “Too Much Information”, saw release in the Summer of 1993 and would attain a chart placing in the UK of No.35 and No.45 in America. The band would take the album on tour for over a year playing to sell-out audiences from Australia to Canada and multiple US stadium gigs, this was Duran Duran back on top as they has been in the mid-1980’s.