"The Wild Boys" is the twelfth single by the English new wave band Duran Duran, released on 26 October 1984 in the United Kingdom and on 3 November 1984 in the United States.
The song was the only studio track on the band's live alb…
"The Wild Boys" is the twelfth single by the English new wave band Duran Duran, released on 26 October 1984 in the United Kingdom and on 3 November 1984 in the United States.
The song was the only studio track on the band's live album Arena (1984), and was produced by Nile Rodgers, who had previously remixed the band's previous single "The Reflex". It was recorded at the end of July 1984 at Maison Rouge Studios in London.
"The Wild Boys" became one of the band's biggest hits, reaching number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks, behind "Out of Touch" by Hall & Oates and "Like a Virgin" by Madonna, and also hitting number one on the US Cash Box. It peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, and also reached the top position in Germany, Italy, South Africa and Canada. It also became the band's biggest charting single in Australia, reaching number three.
The video for "The Wild Boys" was directed by Russell Mulcahy. The cost totalled over one million pounds, a staggering sum for music videos at the time, as his design filled one entire end of the "007 Stage" at Pinewood Studios with a metal pyramid and a windmill over a deep enclosed pool, and called for a lifelike robotic face, dozens of elaborate costumes, prosthetics, and makeup effects, and then-cutting-edge computer graphics. The choreography of dance routines was undertaken by Arlene Phillips, including intricate stunts and fire effects added to the cost. Mulcahy meant the video to be a teaser for his full-length Burroughs film, demonstrating his vision to the movie studios he was wooing, but that project was never made.
The video featured all of the band members imprisoned and in peril, wearing uncharacteristically rough and ragged outfits similar to the pieced-together clothing of the film Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. John Taylor was strapped to the roof of a car suffering a psycho-torture with pictures of his childhood and early past; Nick Rhodes was caged with a pile of computer equipment; Roger Taylor was put in a hot-air balloon that was dangling from the ceiling, leaving him high off the ground; Andy Taylor was bound (guitar and all) to a ship's figurehead; and Simon Le Bon was strapped to a blade of the windmill, his head covered in water as the blade passed through the pool.
"The Wild Boys" was named British Video of the Year at the 1985 Brit Awards.
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