Duran Duran (1993 album)

Duran Duran (commonly known as The Wedding Album) is the seventh studio album and the second self-titled album by English new wave band Duran Duran. It was released on 11 February 1993 by Parlophone.

Duran Duran
Upper left: the Le Bons, centre: the Bateses (Rhodes), upper right: the Taylors, lower right: the Cuccurullos.
Studio album by
Duran Duran
Released11 February 1993 (1993-02-11)
Studio
  • Privacy
  • Maison Rouge
  • Matrix
Genre
Length63:34
LabelParlophone
Producer
  • Duran Duran
  • John Jones
Duran Duran chronology
Liberty
(1990)		 Duran Duran
(1993)		 Thank You
(1995)
Singles from Duran Duran
  1. "Ordinary World"
    Released: December 1992 (US) / January 1993 (UK)
  2. "Come Undone"
    Released: 29 March 1993
  3. "Drowning Man"
    Released: August 1993 (US only)
  4. "None of the Above"
    Released: August 1993 (US) / 11 May 1994 (Japan)
  5. "Too Much Information"
    Released: 23 August 1993 (UK)
  6. "Femme Fatale"
    Released: 1993 (France only)
  7. "Breath After Breath"
    Released: 1994 (Brazil only)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[2]
Entertainment WeeklyD[3]
Rolling Stone[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[5]
Select[6]

After dwindling commercial success in the early 1990s, Duran Duran returned to the UK top five and US top 10 with this album, which has been certified Gold in the UK and Platinum in the US. The singles "Ordinary World" and "Come Undone" reached the US top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. This made Duran Duran one of only a small handful of bands primarily associated with 1980s pop culture to have true mainstream success in the 1990s, a remarkable achievement considering how the grunge movement pushed nearly all music of their style out of the public consciousness around that time.

The cover art by Nick Egan features wedding photos from the parents of the four band members.[7]

Whilst officially titled Duran Duran worldwide - the general belief that the alt name was first adopted by fans post-release, due to the use of the members' parents wedding photos on the cover, to differentiate it from the 1981 album, is incorrect. Instead, the name was originally used on two different UK promo cassettes prior to release - one calling it The Wedding & the other The Wedding Album.

Whilst this name was officially dropped before release - with, for example, the UK & US TV adverts calling it simply "Duran Duran" - uniquely, the commercially released UK cassette version still titled it Duran Duran (The Wedding Album) on the tape itself; though this was almost certainly in error.

Background

Recording of the album was completed in early 1992 with an impending release by Capitol Records in the United States. Duran Duran's new management company, Left Bank, was distressed at the apparent lack of enthusiasm for the album and had it pulled from the release schedule. Manager Tommy Manzi later told HitQuarters it was the industry that were unenthusiastic about the return of the band rather than the music consumer.[8] Manzi said that industry insiders "laughed at" Left Bank while they worked on reviving the careers of not only Duran Duran but also Meat Loaf because they would rather focus on "the next hip band" than perceived "old" acts.[8] As it happened, the album reached No. 4 in the UK Albums Chart, their highest charting album since 1983's Seven and the Ragged Tiger.

In the UK, three singles from the album reached the Top 40 including "Ordinary World" (#6), "Come Undone" (#13) and "Too Much Information" (#35). Four singles taken from the album charted in the US: "Ordinary World" (#3), "Come Undone" (#7), "Too Much Information" and "Drowning Man". "Breath After Breath", a collaboration with Milton Nascimento, was released only in Brazil, "None of the Above" in Japan and "Femme Fatale" (cover of The Velvet Underground song) in France. The song "Sin of the City" is about the Happy Land arson fire that killed 87 people trapped in an unlicensed social club in New York City on 25 March 1990. The short track "Shotgun" is a kind of a cover of the 1965 single of the same name by Jr. Walker and the All Stars.

During the hiatus while waiting for the album to be released, the band began working on what would become the Thank You album, with John Jones, and a Warren Cuccurullo-derived riff of "First Impression" led to the rapid inclusion of the song "Come Undone".

Track listing

All tracks are written by Duran Duran, except where noted.

No.TitleLength
1."Too Much Information"4:56
2."Ordinary World"5:39
3."Love Voodoo"4:58
4."Drowning Man"5:15
5."Shotgun"0:54
6."Come Undone"4:38
7."Breath After Breath" (Duran Duran, Milton Nascimento)4:58
8."UMF"5:33
9."Femme Fatale" (Lou Reed)4:21
10."None of the Above"5:19
11."Shelter"4:25
12."To Whom It May Concern" (lyrics by Nick Rhodes)4:24
13."Sin of the City"7:14
Japan bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
1."Time for Temptation" (alternate version)3:46
2."Stop Dead" (edit)3:52
Bonus disc (UK tour edition)
No.TitleLength
1."Falling Angel"4:35
2."Stop Dead"4:31
3."Time for Temptation"4:09
4."Come Undone" (12" mix - Comin' Together)7:21
5."Ordinary World" (acoustic version)5:07
6."Too Much Information" (David Richards 12" mix)4:14

Personnel

Adapted from the album's liner notes.[9]

Duran Duran
Additional personnel
Production
  • Duran Duran – production (all tracks), mixing (track 5)
  • John Jones – production (tracks 1-5, 7, 8, and 10-13), engineering (except track 9), mixing (track 5)
  • Tony Taverner – engineering (tracks 1, 2, 7, and 9)
  • Stuart Every – assistant engineer (tracks 1, 2, and 7)
  • David Richards – mixing (tracks 1-3, 6-8, and 10-13)
  • David Leonard – mixing (tracks 4 and 9)
  • Kevin Metcalfe – mastering

Charts

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[30] Gold 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[31] Platinum 1,000,000^

^shipments figures based on certification alone

References
  1. AllMusic review
  2. Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-85712-595-8.
  3. Entertainment Weekly review
  4. Rolling Stone review
  5. Sheffield, Rob (2004). "Duran Duran". The Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  6. Collis, Clark (April 1993). "Duran Duran: Duran Duran". Select: 74. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
  7. "REFLECTIONS ON DURAN DURAN'S "THE WEDDING ALBUM"". www.DuranDuran.com. 20 February 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  8. "Interview With Tommy Manzi". HitQuarters. 7 May 2001. Archived from the original on 9 June 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  9. Duran Duran (booklet). Duran Duran. Parlophone. 1993. 0777 7 98876 2 0.CS1 maint: others (link)
  10. "Australiancharts.com – Duran Duran – Duran Duran (The Wedding Album)". Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  11. "Austriancharts.at – Duran Duran – Duran Duran (The Wedding Album)" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  12. "Top RPM Albums: Issue 0992". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  13. "Dutchcharts.nl – Duran Duran – Duran Duran (The Wedding Album)" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  14. "European Top 100 Albums" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 10 no. 10. 6 March 1993. p. 18. OCLC 29800226. Retrieved 13 January 2019 – via American Radio History.
  15. Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
  16. "Le Détail des Albums de chaque Artiste" (in French). InfoDisc. Retrieved 13 January 2019. Select "DURAN DURAN" from the drop-down menu and click "OK".
  17. "Offiziellecharts.de – Duran Duran – Duran Duran (The Wedding Album)" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  18. "Top 10 Sales in Europe" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 10 no. 11. 13 March 1993. p. 24. OCLC 29800226. Retrieved 13 January 2019 – via American Radio History.
  19. "Album Top 40 slágerlista – 1993. 20. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
  20. デュラン・デュランのアルバム売り上げランキング [Duran Duran's album sales ranking] (in Japanese). Oricon. Archived from the original on 1 August 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  21. "Swedishcharts.com – Duran Duran – Duran Duran (The Wedding Album)". Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  22. "Swisscharts.com – Duran Duran – Duran Duran (The Wedding Album)". Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  23. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  24. "Duran Duran Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  25. "The RPM Top 100 Albums of 1993". RPM. Vol. 58 no. 23. 18 December 1993. ISSN 0315-5994. Retrieved 13 January 2019 – via Library and Archives Canada.
  26. "1993 Year-End Sales Charts – Eurochart Hot 100 Albums" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 10 no. 51/52. 18 December 1993. p. 15. OCLC 29800226. Retrieved 13 January 2019 – via American Radio History.
  27. "Top 100 Album-Jahrescharts – 1993" (in German). Offizielle Deutsche Charts. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  28. "Top 100 Albums 1993". Music Week. 15 January 1994. p. 25. ISSN 0265-1548.
  29. "Top Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 1993". Billboard. Archived from the original on 13 January 2019. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  30. "British album certifications – Duran Duran – Duran Duran (Wedding) Album". British Phonographic Industry. 1 April 1983. Retrieved 13 January 2019. Select albums in the Format field. Select Gold in the Certification field. Type Duran Duran (Wedding) Album in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
  31. "American album certifications – Duran Duran – Duran Duran 2". Recording Industry Association of America. 18 June 1993. Retrieved 13 January 2019. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH. 
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