The synthesizer was hooked up to an arpeggiator, which is a tool that creates an arpeggio effect by automatically stepping through a sequence of notes. She was the girlfriend of Nick Rhodes.Ī few studio tricks were also employed to get the distinctive synthesizer pattern featured in the song. The sound of the girl laughing in the bridge after the second chorus was also added by happy accident. It wasn’t quite what I was looking for, but there was something interesting about it and I said to Colin Thurston: ‘Can we reverse that tape?’ Because at that time we were just discovering things like tape loops and reversing and slowing things down or speeding things up… And he said, ‘Sure!’ And we reversed the sound, and what we got was the very intro of Rio.” And they bounced around and made this strange noise. What I actually did was that I got some metal rods, and I threw them onto the strings of the piano. “I actually opened up the top of it and I was fiddling with the strings inside. “I’d been fiddling around with the grand piano at AIR studios,” said Nick Rhodes in the Classic Albums documentary. The song begins with a peculiar sound, which was the result of just trying things out and experimenting. And I just started writing on the back of a napkin about how she was, and that’s what turned into the verse.” And I’d seen this girl working as a waitress in a cocktail bar. “And we’d been to America and it had a lot of references to America in it.
“We were like, ‘Yeah!’ It absolutely, does,” said Simon in reference to Roger’s suggestion on the UK TV show Songbook.
“I came up with the title Rio,” said Roger Taylor, “which I thought sort of said it all in kind of a Roxy Music cool sort of way.” The resulting song at one point had the title Amy A-Go-Go. “Stevie’s Radio Station” by TV Eye, which provided musical inspiration for the chorus of Rio. Just like that river twisting through a dusty landĪnd when she shines she really shows you all she can Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand
Two of a billion stars it means so much to meīut then I’m sure that you know it’s just for you I’ve seen you on the beach and I’ve seen you on TV Which they did, after Hungry Like the Wolf peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in March 1983. On the VH1 show True Spin, the band explained this reference: Rio is a metaphor for America, and the song expressed their desire to succeed there. The Rio Grande River separates the US from Mexico. The lyrics clearly state, however, “from mountains in the North down to the Rio Grande,” which is the span of America. Rio is continually sung as if it’s a girl’s name, and the word conjures images of the popular and glamorous Brazilian city, which goes with the exotic image the band was cultivating. The song contains some interesting wordplay in the lyrics. The song was the fourth and final single lifted from the band’s album of the same name, and becoming a Top 10 hit in both the UK, Ireland, Canada, and – eventually – the US. It was first released as a single in Australia in August 1982, followed by a UK release on 1 November 1982. Rio was the band’s seventh single overall, and the fourth from the Rio album. Simon Le Bon explained on social media, “I was in a restaurant in the middle of town and I saw this waitress literally swanning across the floor, and that was how the lyric was born.” These lines were however inspired by a moment in Birmingham, England rather than somewhere like the Brazilian beaches of Rio de Janeiro. Moving on the floor now babe you’re a bird of paradiseĬherry ice cream smile I suppose it’s very nice The song’s opening lines waste no time in bringing those very elements to the forefront of our minds with its references to suave ladies and exotic locations. The sleeve also has mistitled errors on " Hungry Like the Wolf" and " The Seventh Stranger".Rio is the quintessential Duran Duran song, launching the 1980s as a glamorous decade filled with high fashion, models, and luxurious surroundings. The album's artwork features Duran Duran photography from the period around 1992. Marvin Gaye was fatally shot by his father on 1st April, the eve of Marvin's 45th birthday. The title of the album relates to " Save A Prayer", performed during the shows which Simon Le Bon dedicated to singer Marvin Gaye, who died a few days earlier. Footage from these shows were used in Arena (An Absurd Notion) and the TV special As The Lights Go Down. This was The Sing Blue Silver Tour and the band performed at the venue on 12, 13 and 15 of April.