Songoftheday 12/8/12 - Movin' on the floor now babe you're a bird of paradise, cherry ice cream smile I supposed it's very nice...

Duran Duran - "Rio"
from the album Rio (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #14 (two weeks)
Weeks in the top-40: 9

Today's Song of the Day is the title track from New Romantic kings Duran Duran's breakthrough album Rio. After scoring a top-3 pop smash in the States with "Hungry Like The Wolf", the band re-released "Rio", originally the fourth single from the album in Britain (and third top-10), with a new version mixed by David Kershenbaum and complete with a video again transporting themselves to a tropical land, this time the Caribbean Sea...

"Rio" became Duran Duran's second top-20 hit, and also did really well at rock radio, peaking at #5 there.

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In 1997, ska-punkers Goldfinger took on the song for a DD tribute album...

...while Canadian legends Barenaked Ladies also covered the track live...

Fellow Canadians Hedley didn't remake the song, but recreated the iconic video shot for shot for their single "Never Too Late" in 2008...

Glee scored a Hot 100 hit with Darren Criss and Matt Bomer's (autotuned) voices mashing this with "Hungry Like The Wolf"...

Here's the Prefab Five themselves in 1984 touring behind the album...

...and again from 2008 proving they haven't lost a thing...

Up tomorrow: Metalheads take a picture.