Notorious (Duran Duran song)

"Notorious" marked the debut of the new streamlined trio version of Duran Duran, as Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor had left the band by the time the album was released. In fact, the acrimonious nature of Andy Taylor's departure was reflected in the song to a certain degree. According to songwriter Simon Le Bon, the lyric "Who really gives a damn for a flaky bandit" was a direct dig at the guitarist.

As a trio, the band had enlisted the help of Nile Rodgers to take over production duties. His funk influences can be heard throughout the single - for example, the tempo and the use of The Borneo Horns brass section. Rodgers also played the guitar on the single.

The video for "Notorious" was shot on 23 September 1986 by directors Peter Kagan and Paula Greif, and bore an uncanny resemblance to the video the duo had filmed in June of that year for Steve Winwood's "Higher Love". The video was shot in black and white Super-8 with a hand-held camera, with quick cuts and changes of zoom and focus, a style that Kagan and Greif also used for the video to Scritti Politti's "Perfect Way". It was edited by Laura Isreal and Glenn Lazzaro: the same team that worked on Steve Winwood's "Higher Love." It featured the three-piece band performing the song on a sound stage, with scantily clad dancers in the background choreographed by Paula Abdul.

The young model Christy Turlington appeared in outdoor scenes with the band. A still photo from this location was used as the cover of the album Notorious.

For the first time, the B-side to the 7" single was not an original recording; "Winter Marches On" was an unaltered version of the Notorious album track. Before this, Duran Duran had always provided either completely original songs or previously unheard remixes on the B-side.

As a first for the band, "Notorious" was released as two separate 12" singles. The first had a Nile Rodgers produced "Extended Mix" while the second featured a remix by The Latin Rascals.

There are 3 official mixes of "Notorious":

• Notorious (45 Mix) - 3:58 (Album Version, with a slightly edited middle 8 and outro)
• Notorious (Extended Mix) - 5:14 (Album Version, with a one-minute dub intro added on)
• Notorious (The Latin Rascals Mix) - 6:23 (Basically the Album Version, with a 1:10 dub intro and two brief remixed interludes spliced in)

When the track made its debut on Montreal radio station CHOM during the 20 October 1986 edition of the nightly radio show "Rock And Roll News," DJ Randy Renaud declared that by the next night, the song "Amanda" by Boston (which had been holding on to the number one spot on CHOM's charts for several weeks) could "kiss the number one spot goodbye." By the next night, CHOM had received enough requests for the song that it supplanted "Amanda" from the #1 spot on the stations nightly countdown show, "The Top Six At Six."

• Donnie Darko featured the song during a scene in which Donnie's sister's dance group perform at a talent show[15][16] and Donnie burns down a motivational speaker's house.
• Appears at the end of the trailer for the film Notorious.
• The Notorious B.I.G.'s 1999 posthumous rap hit "Notorious B.I.G." sampled the song.
• Chic perform the song during their concert with Kimberly Davis and Folami on lead vocals.
• The song was used to promote Oxygen's "Notorius Crimes Weekend" (July 3–5) in 2020.
• The song was used in the Multiplayer Reveal Trailer for "Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War"

Duran Duran

• Simon Le Bon - vocals
• John Taylor - bass
• Nick Rhodes - keyboards

Additional musicians

• Steve Ferrone - drums
• Nile Rodgers - guitars
• The Borneo Horns - horns
• Curtis King - background vocals
• Brenda White-King - background vocals
• Tessa Niles - background vocals
• Cindy Mizelle - background vocals

Production

• Nile Rodgers - producer
• Duran Duran - producer
• Daniel Abraham - engineer and mixer
• The Latin Rascals - remixers

• TM's Duran Duran Discography
• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics