‘Notorious’: The Story Behind Duran Duran’s Classic Funk-Fuelled Album

To compound the sense of change, Duran Duran had even ditched their management, deciding to have a go at doing things by themselves. “They didn’t have a drummer, or a guitarist, no management, and the record company had just fired [its] president. That’s the album in a nutshell,” summarised Rodgers many years later. 1985’s Live Aid had also reshaped the musical landscape around them: the British synth-pop invasion of the US was in full retreat, and a trio of stateside superstars – Madonna, Prince and Bruce Springsteen – were now dominating international charts.

The recording sessions proved challenging

With Andy Taylor contributing to only four of Notorious’ ten songs, the band had to rely more heavily on session musicians – although the use of Missing Persons guitarist Warren Cuccurullo would lead to him becoming a full-time member of Duran Duran at the end of the decade.

Some of the Notorious album was recorded in Paris, but the band have admitted there were plenty of distractions. “I can’t remember all those songs – I was so high in this period,” Nile Rodgers told The Guardian 13 years later. “[Notorious] was produced from the floor of studio.”

John Taylor revealed that the band’s drive to make the album work ultimately saved the day. “We were determined the show would go on,” he said. “There was self-doubt, of course. Sometimes it seemed like the whole world was against us.” Slowly, things started to come right, with later sessions taking place at London’s AIR Studios. As Rodgers continued mixing the album in New York City, there was a palpable sense it might just work in a changing marketplace. “The music we were making with Nile felt like the right music for our time,” John Taylor wrote in his autobiography, In The Pleasure Groove.

The song Notorious was a huge hit

When Notorious’ title track was issued as a single in October 1986, it sailed into the Top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic, but its success was to prove deceptive. Notorious peaked at No.2 in the US, but it follow-up single, Skin Trade, stalled at No.39. In the band’s homeland, Notorious made it to No.7 while Skin Trade, with its far funkier groove, nestled just outside the Top 20. The Latin-flavoured Meet El Presidente was picked as the project’s third and final single, and the album sold more than a million copies worldwide.

Touring ‘Notorious’ became the album’s defining moment

Staged in support of Notorious, the Strange Behaviour Tour started with dates in Japan in March 1987 and would run until early in the following year, with two gigs in Brazil (although August 1987 would see the close of the tour’s main run). Warren Cuccurullo would join the band for the dates, and the setlist would lean heavily into the new record, although there was space for earlier cuts such as The Chauffeur, from the Rio album.

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Highlights from the Strange Behaviour Tour were collected for a VHS release called Working For The Skin Trade in 1988 (and reissued on DVD in 2019, as part of a Notorious box set). A photo book by Virginia Liberatore, World, also documented the tour and is now one of the rarest pieces of Duran Duran memorabilia, fiercely prized by fans.

Notorious would have a surprising afterlife

Notorious remains a fan favourite, but its stock rose in the eyes of the wider public in 1999, when The Notorious B.I.G. sampled the album’s title track for his posthumous hit Notorious B.I.G., which charted across the globe – in no small part thanks to contributions from Puff Daddy and Lil’ Kim. Cemented in the group’s legacy as one of the best Duran Duran songs, Notorious would also resurface a little over a decade later, in the cult movie Donnie Darko.

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