From '' Transylvanian Tapes ''
Label: Cleopatra – 1870
Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: 2014
Tracklist
01. People Are Strange
02. Sunglasses After Dark
03. She's Not You
04. Runaway
05. Sweet Transvestite
06. Edge Of Reality
07. Necromance For Guitar
08. You're My Baby
09. Werewolves Of London
10. Black Cadillac
11. Girls On Film
12. 69 Guitars
13. Bela Lugosi's Dead
Lead Vocals – Jyrki 69, Wanda Jackson (tracks: 3)
Guitar – Danny B. Harvey
Drums – Clem Burke
Bass – Chopper Franklin
Backing Vocals – Lisa Dahl, Mysti Moon
Producer – Danny B. Harvey
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\"Girls on Film\" is the third single by Duran Duran, released on 13 July 1981.
The single became Duran Duran's Top 10 breakthrough in the UK Singles Chart, peaking at Number 5 in July 1981.
The band personally selected the song for release following the failure of its predecessor, \"Careless Memories\", which had been chosen by their record company, EMI.
Its popularity provided a major boost to sales of the band's eponymous debut album, Duran Duran, which had been released a month earlier.
The song did not chart in the United States on its initial release, but it became popular and widely known after receiving heavy airplay on MTV when the Duran Duran album was re-issued in 1983.
The song was used as the opening theme song for the anime series Speed Grapher.
About the song
\"Girls on Film\" was originally written by Andy Wickett, one of Duran Duran's previous singers before Simon Le Bon.
The original demo of the song has a very peculiar sound that differs somewhat from the final album version recorded in 1981. However, Wickett's version of the chorus remained, with very little change having been made to that part of the song's composition. When Wickett left the band, Duran Duran bought the song from him for £600 and made him sign a waiver removing his rights to the song.
The song begins with a recording of the rapid whirring of a motor drive on a camera.
Both manager Paul Berrow and photographer Andy Earl claim to have supplied the camera for the recording.
Over the years, \"Girls on Film\" has become a staple of the encores for Duran Duran's live performances and is often the final song of a concert, during which lead singer Simon Le Bon introduces the rest of the band.
The song, along with \"Rio\", was originally omitted from the 1984 live album Arena to make room for newer and less familiar album material from 1983's Seven and the Ragged Tiger.
Both tracks were included as bonus material in the 2004 CD reissue of Arena.
Music video
The song fared well on the radio and the charts before the video was filmed, but the controversy that ensued helped to keep the band in the public eye and the song on the charts for many weeks.
The video was made with directing duo Godley & Creme at Shepperton Studios in July 1981.
It was filmed just weeks before MTV was launched in the United States and before anyone knew what an impact the music channel would have on the industry.
The band expected the \"Girls on Film\" video to be played in the newer nightclubs that had video screens, or on pay-TV channels like the Playboy Channel.
The raunchy video created an uproar, and it was consequently banned by the BBC and heavily edited for its original run on MTV; the band unabashedly enjoyed and capitalised on the controversy.
A Video 45 for \"Girls on Film\" and \"Hungry Like the Wolf\" was released in the United States in March 1983.
The VHS-format tape contains the MTV-friendly \"day version\" of \"Girls on Film\", while the Betamax format contains the uncensored \"night version\".
The Video 45 won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video in 1984, the first year the Academy gave that award.
The uncensored video was also included in the Duran Duran video album (1983) and the Greatest video collection (released on VHS in 1999, and on DVD in 2004).
The edited version would later be used in the 2008 karaoke video game SingStar Pop Vol. 2.
Simon Le Bon commented in the audio interview on the Greatest DVD collection that the scandal of the music video overshadowed the song's message of fashion model exploitation.
Covers, samples, & media references
Cover versions of \"Girls on Film\" have been recorded by:
Björn Again,
Wesley Willis Fiasco,
The Living End,
Girls Aloud,
Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers,
Billy Preston,
Kevin Max,
La Ley,
Midnight Oil
and Nathan Stack
