Song#: 2207
Date: 02/02/1985
Debut: 53
Peak: 16
Weeks: 14
Genre: Pop, New Wave
Pop Bits: Duran Duran's live album Arena would be their best charting effort in the US. It reached #4 thanks to the inclusion of a new studio track, "The Wild Boys," which was issued as a single and peaked at #2. Although no other singles would be issued from the album, to help keep the band on the charts it was decided that a new remix of their 1982 song "Save a Prayer" would be issued as a single in the US. The b-side would contain a shortened edit of the live version of the song that appeared on Arena. The ballad did fine reaching the Pop Top 20, but it broke their string of five consecutive Top 10's.
ReduxReview: This ballad showed a different side of Duran Duran and probably should have been released earlier during the run of Rio. I think if it had been a third single from the album, it might have done better than this delayed remix. By this point, Rio had been done for quite a while and many folks were already quite familiar with the song due to its original video getting a lot of airplay back then even though a single was not going to be issued. That familiarity wasn't going to do this single any favors and indeed even at the height of Duran mania, the song failed to crack the Top 10.
ReduxRating: 7/10
Trivia: This song was originally a track on the band's 1982 album Rio. It was initially released as the album's third single in the UK and other countries, but it was not issued in the US. This was most likely because Duran Duran hit the US over six months after they became stars in the UK. With new product from the band arriving in short order, there was only time for two singles from Rio to be issued in the US. By late '83, the US was caught up and got product from the band in the same time frame as the UK and other countries. The initial UK release of "Save a Prayer" was a big hit reaching #2 on the chart. The US remix version was not released there.
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7/10 for me as well. I'm surprised that this song was delayed from a release early on. Another song you'll be covering later in 1985 is "You Look Marvelous" by Billy Crystal. I even own the 45 to that song, I absolutely love it! (I'm actually a novelty music but in all honesty, so I give "Shaddap You Face" an 8/10 and I'll even give The American Comedy Network's "Breaking Up is Hard on You" a 10/10 as a matter of fact!) LOL!
ReplyDeleteOther than a garden variety album to single edit involving the removal of a verse, there isn't really any difference between this "remix" and the version on Rio. Did they think that saying "remix" instead of "edit" would somehow lure people to buy the single? Because "edit" really is much more accurate.
ReplyDelete