Peak
3
Weeks
23
Score
4,086
Chart Year
1983
In 1982, music video director Russell Mulcahy, who had directed the band's first video "Planet Earth," was brought back to make the music video for "Hungry Like the Wolf" and two other songs for the band's 1983 video album.[16] The band had a vision of jungles and exotic women, and Mulcahy suggested Sri Lanka, a country he had just visited.[4] EMI spent $200,000 to send the group to Sri Lanka;[17] the band made a stopover there in April, en route to a scheduled Australian tour.[4] Keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist Andy Taylor remained behind to finish the mixing of the Rio album while the rest of the band began filming the video; they flew straight to Sri Lanka after handing over the final masters to EMI.[18][19] As it was described in the pop culture book, The 1980s, the video was lush and cinematic, with shots of jungles, rivers, elephants, cafes and marketplaces evoking the atmosphere of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).[20] Andy Taylor, who contracted a stomach virus serious enough to require hospitalization from accidentally drinking water in the lagoon during the shoot, describes the storyline as "Indiana Jones is horny and wants to get laid."[21] In the video, lead vocalist Simon Le Bon's head rises in slow motion out of the river as rain pours down, evoking a scene in Apocalypse Now (1979). He then chases a beautiful tiger-like woman played by Bermudian model Sheila Ming,[22] from open markets in the city through obstacles in the jungle. During the chase, Le Bon has his face mopped by a young boy and overturns a bar room table, culminating in a final chase and struggle in a jungle clearing, which is sexually suggestive. In the meantime, the other band members hunt for Le Bon.[17] Less than 2 months after the shoot of the video, the American cable television network MTV put "Hungry Like the Wolf" into heavy rotation, playing it four times a day.[17] The exposure eventually helped propel the single into the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100, and the Rio album into the top 10 of the albums chart.[17] Les Garland, senior executive vice president of MTV, said: "I remember our director of talent and artist relations came running in and said, 'You have got to see this video that’s come in.' Duran Duran were getting zero radio airplay at the time, and MTV wanted to try to break new music. 'Hungry Like the Wolf' was the greatest video I'd ever seen."[18] MTV named "Hungry Like the Wolf" the 15th most-played video of the network,[23] and was 11th on the century-end MTV "100 Greatest Videos Ever Made".[24] "Hungry Like the Wolf" won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video at the 26th Grammy Awards in February 1984, making it the first video to ever win that award.[25] In 2001, VH1 rated it 31st on the "VH1: 100 Greatest Videos".
This was the band's breakthrough hit in the US. It's success originated from MTV, which had only just come on air, showing their video of the band in the Sri Lanka jungle (they also shot the clips for "Lonely in Your Nightmare" and "Save a Prayer" on this trip). It was an early sensation particularly in the Deep South where the channel was being trialled. In a pre-MTV world where Duran Duran could be heard but not seen, it is unlikely that they would have broken through in America. Duran Duran were asked in an interview with Q magazine (February 2008) for their memories of the video. Drummer Roger Taylor recalled: "We'd go to Alabama or Texas and the girls would be screaming and the guys in cowboy hats would be looking at us with clenched fists. I don't suppose they'd seen so many guys in make-up pouting before." Singer Simon Le Bon added: "It worked for us though. Video made it possible to create a cult of personality across the globe. You arrive on a tour bus and they'd already seen us on a yacht in a video." In 1982, new synthesizers and sequencers were coming on the market that changed the landscape of Pop music, as groups like The Eurythmics and The Human League coaxed new sounds out of them. Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor was able to take advantage of the technology on this song, creating the distinctive track by linking a Roland 808 drum machine with a sequencer and a Roland Jupiter 8 keyboard. In an interview with Blender magazine, guitarist Taylor explained that the track "came from fiddling with the new technology that was starting to come in." According to the band's Blender interview, lead singer Simon Le Bon's lyrics were inspired by the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, which features the Big Bad Wolf. The first Grammy Award for Best Short Form Video was given at the 1984 ceremony, and it was given to Duran Duran as a joint award for "Hungry Like The Wolf" together with "Girls On Film." The video was loosely based on the movie Apocalypse Now, with the rest of the band searching for Simon Le Bon in an exotic locale. It was shot in the Sri Lanka city of Galle, with scenes of Simon running through a market. The night before the shoot, Le Bon went to a stylist to get blond highlights in his hair, but she botched the job and his hair turned orange. That's why he's wearing a hat in the video. Russell Mulcahy, who was Duran Duran's go-to director, did the video. If you were watching MTV in the early '80s, there's a good chance you would see his work - he even did the very first video the network aired: "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles. The lyric started with the title, which Simon Le Bon had written down in his notebook, inspired by Jim Morrison's "Lizard King" persona. The band's girlfriends contributed makeup that helped shape their look, and keyboard player Nick Rhodes' girlfriend appeared on this song, providing the laugh at the beginning and the moaning at the end, possibly the sounds of the wolf sating his hunger. Speaking with the A.V.Club in a 2012 interview, John Taylor said the song was "written very quickly." He recalled: "It was a Saturday afternoon, we were in EMI's demo studio, a studio they had up in Manchester Square HQ, and I think Nick [Rhodes] and Andy [Taylor] were kind of messing around. Andy had the riff, Nick developed this sequence, Simon had a thing, Roger [Taylor] came in and played 'cause he'd just bought some Simmons drums, so that was where he got those big fills from. I came in, and they'd been working for maybe two hours, and I just knew exactly what to play. The song was probably written by cocktail hour. [Laughs.]" The outfit bassist John Taylor wore in the video was used as the basis for styling the character Sonny Crockett, played by Don Johnson on 1980s TV show Miami Vice. Also in 1982, the punk band X released a song called "The Hungry Wolf." That one was produced by Ray Manzarek of The Doors, who also directed a video for the song.
(Haha) Dark in the city, night is a wire Steam in the subway, earth is afire (Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do) Woman, you want me, give me a sign And catch my breathing even closer behind (Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do) In touch with the ground I'm on the hunt, I'm after you Smell like I sound, I'm lost in a crowd And I'm hungry like the wolf Straddle the line in discord and rhyme I'm on the hunt, I'm after you Mouth is alive, juices like wine And I'm hungry like the wolf Stalked through the forest, too close to hide I'll be upon you by the moonlight's eye (Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do) High blood drumming on your skin, it's so tight You feel my heat, I'm just a moment behind (Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do) In touch with the ground I'm on the hunt, I'm after you Scent and a sound I'm lost and I'm found And I'm hungry like the wolf Strut on a line, it's discord and rhyme I howl and I whine, I'm after you Mouth is alive, all running inside And I'm hungry like the wolf Hungry like the wolf Hungry like the wolf Hungry like the wolf Burning the ground, I break from the crowd I'm on the hunt, I'm after you I smell like I sound I'm lost and I'm found And I'm hungry like the wolf Strut on a line, it's discord and rhyme I'm on the hunt, I'm after you Mouth is alive, juices like wine And I'm hungry like the wolf Burning the ground, I break from the crowd I'm on the hunt, I'm after you Scent and a sound I'm lost and I'm found And I'm hungry like the wolf Strut on a line, it's discord and rhyme I howl and I whine, I'm after you Mouth is alive all running inside
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dec 25, 1982 | 77 | 49 |
| 2 | Jan 1, 1983 | 77 | 49 |
| 3 | Jan 8, 1983 | 65 | 61 |
| 4 | Jan 15, 1983 | 53 | 73 |
| 5 | Jan 22, 1983 | 34 | 92 |
| 6 | Jan 29, 1983 | 27 | 99 |
| 7 | Feb 5, 1983 | 22 | 104 |
| 8 | Feb 12, 1983 | 19 | 107 |
| 9 | Feb 19, 1983 | 9 | 117 |
| 10 | Feb 26, 1983 | 6 | 120 |
| 11 | Mar 5, 1983 | 5 | 121 |
| 12 | Mar 12, 1983 | 5 | 121 |
| 13 | Mar 19, 1983 | 4 | 122 |
| 14 | Mar 26, 1983 | 3 | 123 |
| 15 | Apr 2, 1983 | 3 | 123 |
| 16 | Apr 9, 1983 | 3 | 123 |
| 17 | Apr 16, 1983 | 6 | 120 |
| 18 | Apr 23, 1983 | 11 | 115 |
| 19 | Apr 30, 1983 | 16 | 110 |
| 20 | May 7, 1983 | 33 | 93 |