Duran Duran’s “Girls On Film” didn’t 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. Play that funky bass, John!

You can even do your own 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. A few stories have it recorded at Air Studios with a Nikon camera which Berrow had borrowed for the day from his father.

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.

And it’s one of my fave songs – ever – from that decade.

Here’s Simon LeBon’s isolated vocals, just because. Listen for his voice double-tracked, except for his answer in the chorus.

So, here’s the full NSFW version:

Duran Duran “Girls on Film” Uncensored from Resistol 5000 on Vimeo.

And because a few have asked, here’s the isolated bass track for “Rio.”