Peak
14
Weeks
13
Score
1,748
Chart Year
1983
Director Russell Mulcahy filmed the music video for "Rio", which featured images of the band in Antony Price suits, singing and playing around on a yacht speeding over the crystal blue Caribbean Sea. The yacht in the music video was the Eilean.[13][14] Short segments show band members trying to live out their assorted daydreams while being teased by a body-painted woman, played by Reema Ruspoli.[citation needed] The music video was shot over the course of three days in May 1982 on the island of Antigua.[15] The yacht scenes were filmed on the bay at English Harbour, the beach scenes at Miller's Beach, and the segment featuring the raft at Shirley Heights. Some close ups were filmed later on the Solent due to a film processing error. Director Mulcahy originally planned a scene where the band members got chased off the island by people wielding guns, but did not have enough film stock left to shoot this. He had to borrow a tourist's camera to shoot the part of John Taylor playing a saxophone on a mountaintop. When the video was featured on VH1's Pop-Up Video, it mentions that after the video was completed, Mulcahy, Le Bon, and Taylor went for a swim and were inches away from sharks when the yacht captain yelled for them to get out of the water. Rhodes was reportedly seasick during the filming, and has often said "I hate boats unless they're tied up and you're having cocktails on them."[16] While in Antigua, the band also filmed a video for the album track "Night Boat", which appeared with "Rio" and nine other videos on the Duran Duran video album released in 1983.
On the VH1 show True Spin, Duran Duran explained that Rio is a metaphor for America, and the song expressed their desire to succeed there, which they did. The wordplay is interesting, as Rio is 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 lyrics clearly state, however, "from mountains in the North down to the Rio Grande," which is the span of America. The Rio Grande river separates the US from Mexico. A few studio tricks were employed to get a distinctive sound for this song. 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. Also, keyboard player Nick Rhodes made the sound at the beginning of the song by placing some metal rods on the strings of a grand piano, playing the instrument, then recording the sound backward. The girl who laughs in the song was the girlfriend of Nick Rhodes. The video did a great deal to frame the image of Duran Duran as international superstars. Shot off the coast of Antigua while the band were vacationing there (they got along so well at the time they even vacationed together), they appeared wearing expensive suits while riding a yacht. The character Rio appears as an exotic-looking woman (sometimes wearing body paint) that is the object of their affections. The colorful video stood out on MTV, which didn't have many videos at the time and played it often. The clip was directed by Russell Mulcahy, who did most of the band's videos around this time. He wrote the script around the yacht scenes because one of Duran Duran's managers decided he wanted to yachting in Antigua, and since the band was already vacationing there, they went to them to shoot the video. >> In an interview with Q magazine (February 2008) the band were asked to respond to the criticism that their videos "sold a lifestyle." Singer Simon Le Bon replied: "No! Rio wasn't a lifestyle, it was total fantasy. You don't wear a silk Anthony Price suit on a boat with some painted chick running around. It was a comedy video. None of us had boats. It was a greedy reaction to the hard times that had gone before." Nick Rhodes recalled the filming of the song's video to Observer Music Monthly November 2008: "We were on holiday in Antigua, staying next to each other, like the Monkees. We were rung up and told, 'Stay there, we're bringing a film crew.' I only like boats when they're tied up, and you can have a cocktail without spilling it. We were initially going to shoot the video for 'Rio' indoors and we'd had Antony Price make these beautiful suits for us. I remember thinking: 'Oh my God, that sea water, it's going to ruin all this silk.' With a sail boat, you're off into the distance and it takes a while to turn round. I was glad to get off. Simon Le Bon loved it, climbing as far as he possibly could along the prow. He always had an action man side. John Taylor threw Andy Taylor off the side - a bit of a premonition, that, because Andy would leave the band in 1985 - and there was a real moment of horror later when the director Russell Mulcahy was filming with Reema, the girl in the video, and a gust of wind shattered a giant mirror next to her. She only had a couple of scratches." The song at one point had the title "Amy A-Go-Go." When Simon Le Bon and John Taylor were on the UK show Songbook, Le Bon explained: "When we went in to make the second album, when we were starting thinking about it, you (Taylor) came up with the title 'Rio' and said, 'I think this sort of says it all in kind of a Roxy Music cool sort of way.' And we were like, 'Yeah!' It absolutely, does. And we'd been to America and it had a lot of references to America in it. And I'd seen this girl working as a waitress in a cocktail bar. And I just started writing on the back of a napkin about how she was, and that's what turned into the verse." Bassist John Taylor told the A.V.Club that for the song's complicated arrangement, which "shifts gears several times," the band were thinking along the lines of Sly & the Family Stone's 1969 tune, "I Wanna Take You Higher." Moving on the floor now babe you're a bird of paradise Cherry ice cream smile I suppose it's very nice The song starts off with a couple of lines set in Birmingham, England, rather than the Brazilian beach. 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." The Rio album cover holds up very well (especially in the context of '80s design), with Rio depicted in an illustration by Patrick Nagel, whose work often appeared in Playboy magazine - that's how Duran Duran's manager discovered him. Nagel had never done an album cover before, but was happy to try.
Moving on the floor now, babe You're a bird of paradise Cherry ice cream smile I suppose it's very nice With a step to your left and a flick to the right You catch that mirror way out west You know you're something special And you look like you're the best Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand Just like that river twisting through a dusty land And when she shines, she really shows you all she can Oh Rio, Rio dance across the Rio Grande I've seen you on the beach And I've seen you on TV Two, of a billion stars It means so much to me Like a birthday or a pretty view But then I'm sure that you know it's just for you Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand Just like that river twisting through a dusty land And when she shines, she really shows you all she can Oh Rio, Rio dance across the Rio Grande Hey now (woo) Look at that did he nearly run you down At the end of the drive the lawmen arrive You make me feel alive, alive, alive I'll take my chance 'cause luck is on my side Or something, I know what you're thinking I'll tell you something, I know what you're thinking Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand Just like that river twists across a dusty land And when she shines, she really shows you all she can Oh Rio, Rio dance across the Rio Grande Her name is Rio, she don't need to understand And I might find her if I'm looking like I can Oh Rio, Rio hear them shout across the land From mountains in the north, down to the Rio Grande Doo doo doo doo doo doo Doo doo doo doo doo doo Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apr 2, 1983 | 58 | 68 |
| 2 | Apr 9, 1983 | 40 | 86 |
| 3 | Apr 16, 1983 | 35 | 91 |
| 4 | Apr 23, 1983 | 31 | 95 |
| 5 | Apr 30, 1983 | 17 | 109 |
| 6 | May 7, 1983 | 16 | 110 |
| 7 | May 14, 1983 | 14 | 112 |
| 8 | May 21, 1983 | 14 | 112 |
| 9 | May 28, 1983 | 21 | 105 |
| 10 | Jun 4, 1983 | 38 | 88 |
| 11 | Jun 11, 1983 | 63 | 63 |
| 12 | Jun 18, 1983 | 72 | 54 |
| 13 | Jun 25, 1983 | 98 | 28 |