“Notorious” by Duran Duran

"Notorious" was Duran Duran's reintroduction in 1986: the title track and first single from their fourth studio album, and the first record they released as a trio. Drummer Roger Taylor and guitarist Andy Taylor were gone, so Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and John Taylor wrote it between them and brought in Nile Rodgers of Chic to co-produce.

Rodgers changed the whole shape of the band. He plays guitar on it himself, with Steve Ferrone on drums and the Borneo Horns punching in, and the band turns toward lean, bass-heavy funk rock with plenty of brass. Daniel Abraham engineered and mixed it. The gamble paid off: it went to number seven in the UK, number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and all the way to number one in Greece and Italy.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.