"Electric Barbarella" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Duran Duran | ||||
from the album Medazzaland | ||||
Released | 16 September 1997 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length |
| |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | TV Mania | |||
Duran Duran singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Music video | ||||
"Electric Barbarella" on YouTube |
"Electric Barbarella" is the 29th single by English rock band Duran Duran, and the first official single from the album Medazzaland . In 1997, the single and album were released only in the United States; "Electric Barbarella" was not issued as a single in the UK until January 1999 on the back of the late 1998 release of the compilation album Greatest .
The band's previous single, "Out of My Mind", was another track from Medazzaland, but was released as a single from The Saint soundtrack album instead.
"Electric Barbarella" is a direct tribute to the 1968 Roger Vadim film Barbarella , from which a character named Durand Durand inspired the band's name. [1] It is considered as the first ever single by a major label artist available for digital purchase/download on the internet. [2]
The video, directed by photographer Ellen von Unwerth, involved a robot sex doll played by American model Myka Dunkle. Simon Le Bon stated during an interview with Carson Daly on Total Request Live that von Unwerth specifically requested to use Dunkle, despite the fact that the band had other models and friends (including Devon Aoki and Sophie Dahl, both of whom appear in the video's party scene) in mind, due to her background as a dancer, and her ability to "do the mime that would actually make her appear to be a robot." [3] The video had to be mildly censored before receiving airplay on MTV or VH1; by the time the modified video was delivered, the song had already fallen off the charts.
The B-sides for individual "Electric Barbarella" releases included remixes of previously released singles, such as "Girls on Film" or "Out of My Mind". Numerous remixes of the track were also issued on various promo releases and on the internet as well. [4]
The cosmetics company Hard Candy was preparing to launch a colour of nail polish named "Electric Barbarella" at the same time the single was released, but had to halt it because the proper permissions had not been received from the owners of the Barbarella name.
The song was released on 16 September in the United States, and peaked at No. 52 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 1 November and one year later reached No. 23 in UK singles charts. Due to the debacle over its download release, temporary censoring of the music video and late release to other markets the single is generally considered to have under-performed.
Region | Date |
---|---|
United States | 16 September 1997 |
United Kingdom | 23 January 1999 |
Duran Duran
Additional musicians
Duran Duran are an English band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor. With the addition of bassist Simon Colley and drummer Roger Taylor the following year, the band went through numerous personnel changes before May 1980, when they settled on their most famous line-up by adding guitarist Andy Taylor and lead vocalist Simon Le Bon.
Nick Rhodes is an English keyboardist and producer, best known as a founding member and the keyboardist of the band Duran Duran. He is also informally monikered as "the Controller", after being introduced as such on stage by bandmate Simon Le Bon during the Astronaut album world tours of 2004–2005.
Greatest is a greatest hits album by English rock band Duran Duran, released in 1998.
Tiga James Sontag, known simply as Tiga, is a Canadian musician, DJ and record producer of electronic dance music. He has released three albums, Sexor, Ciao!, and No Fantasy Required. Sexor won the 2007 Juno Award for Dance Recording of the Year. Tiga released a selection of compilations in the early 2000s, featuring mixes such as American Gigolo, DJ-Kicks: Tiga and, Mixed Emotions, which put him on the map as one of "the world's best mixers". His compilation mix, Tiga Non-Stop, was released in November 2012, and premiered Tiga's latest single "Plush". The mix also features tracks from artists such as Kindness, Duke Dumont and Blawan.
Strange Behaviour is a remix album by English rock band Duran Duran. It was released by EMI in March 1999.
"The Reflex" is the eleventh single by English new wave band Duran Duran, released in 1984. The song was heavily remixed for single release and was the third and last to be taken from their third studio album Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983). The single became the band's first to reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and their second to top the UK Singles Chart.
Medazzaland is the ninth studio album by English rock band Duran Duran. It was released on 14 October 1997 by Capitol Records solely in North America, Latin America and Japan. It reached number 58 on the Billboard 200 and number 66 on RPM's albums chart.
"Silence" is a song by Canadian electronic music group Delerium featuring Canadian singer and co-writer Sarah McLachlan, first released in May 1999. Over the years, its remixes have been hailed as one of the greatest trance songs of all time, over two decades after its initial release. The Tiësto remix of the song was voted by Mixmag readers as the 12th-greatest dance record of all time.
"You Don't Fool Me" is a song by Queen, from the 1995 album Made in Heaven. It was released as a single in 1996, containing various remixes of the song. The song is one of the few which were actually written and recorded after the Innuendo sessions, and was written and composed by the band, under David Richards' supervision. It proved to be the band's final European hit.
"All Day Long I Dream About Sex" is a song by American recording artist JC Chasez. It was released as the second and final single from his debut studio album, Schizophrenic. The uptempo track was a homage to 80's synth-rock pop music. The single was released in Europe and Australia in August 2004, and in the United States in October 2004.
"Out of My Mind" is the 28th single by English rock band Duran Duran. The song is part of their ninth album, Medazzaland (1997), but was released as a single from the soundtrack to the 1997 Val Kilmer film The Saint.
"Change" is a single from American Idol finalist, Kimberley Locke, the first from her Based on a True Story album, after plans on promoting Supawoman as the lead single were canceled. Kimberley, with the assistance of Ty Lacy & Dennis Matkosky, wrote the song about the crossroads she reached when deciding whether or not to call off her engagement in 2005.
"Read My Mind" is a song by American rock band the Killers. It was released on February 13, 2007, as the third single from their second studio album, Sam's Town (2006). It peaked at number 62 on the US Billboard Hot 100, topped three other Billboard rankings, and charted at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart.
"UFO" is the fifth single by Australian dance group Sneaky Sound System, taken from their self-titled debut album Sneaky Sound System (2006). It peaked at #11 on the ARIA Singles Chart. The song was certified Platinum in Australia, with sales of 70,000.
"Oye" is a song by Cuban American singer and songwriter Gloria Estefan. It was released by Epic on July 13, 1998 as the second single from her eighth studio album, gloria! (1998). The song was written by Estefan, her husband Emilio Estefan, Jr., Randall Barlow and Angie Chirino and produced by Estefan, Jr., Barlow and Tony Moran. It was planned for commercial release in the US on July 14, 1998 in various formats, but at the last minute the release was cancelled. However, the single still reached number one on the US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart and in Spain. It earned the Billboard Latin Music Award in the category for "Best Latin Club-Dance Track of the Year".
"Boy" is the 1985 debut single by the American synth-pop band Book of Love. The song was included on the band's eponymous debut album Book of Love in 1986.
Sensuality is the second album by German eurodance/trance project S.E.X. Appeal. It is the first album with Lyane Leigh as the project's only member. The album, which spawned five singles, was released in 2007. The songs "Fragile Love" and "Kids in America", a cover version of Kim Wilde's song of the same name, are song remixes from their debut album Peeping Tom.
"Can't Fight this Feeling" is a song written by Junior Caldera, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Roselyn Della Sabina, and produced by Junior Caldera for his first album, Début, released in 2009. It was released as the album's fourth single in February 2010. It was also the second single from Ellis-Bextor's fourth studio album, Make A Scene. The single was released in France prior to the release of Ellis-Bextor following single, "Bittersweet". The video for the song was shot in Paris on 10 March 2010. It was believed that Roselyn Della Sabina stopped writing for Madonna to complete this song. The single was released in Australia on 26 March 2011.
"Forever" is a hip house song by American rapper will.i.am and DJ/Producer Wolfgang Gartner, released as a single on October 9, 2011. The track was released on Ministry of Sound and is included in Gartner's debut album Weekend in America. The track peaked at number 43 on the UK Singles Chart and number 9 on the UK Dance Chart, on the week ending October 15, 2011. Alternative artwork was released in the UK credited as 'Wolfgang Gartner featuring Will.i.am'.
"All the Wrong Places" is a song by British recording artist Example. It was released as the first single from his fifth studio album, Live Life Living, on 8 September 2013 in the United Kingdom by Epic Records. The song is written by Example, Alf Bamford, and Steve Hill, and it was produced by Example and Bamford under his new stage name Critikal. It entered the UK Singles Chart on 15 September 2013 at No. 13.