Song · Duran Duran
“The Wild Boys” by Duran Duran
Released 1984
“The Wild Boys” by Duran Duran appears on 7 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 1984 and 1999. It was first released in 1984. Its best result is #3 on the 91X Top 91 Songs of 1984. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #4 alternative song of 1984, #3,143 alternative song of all time and #141 of the '80s.
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"The Wild Boys" was Duran Duran's twelfth single, a brand-new studio cut tacked onto their 1984 live album Arena, and it arrives with its fists up. Nile Rodgers, who had remixed "The Reflex", produced it with the band at Maison Rouge Studios in London at the end of July 1984, with Jason Corsaro engineering and mixing.
The spark came from Russell Mulcahy, the director behind so many of their videos, who dreamed of filming William S. Burroughs's surreal, sexual 1971 novel The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead and pitched the band as his soundtrack. Simon Le Bon wrote lyrics from Mulcahy's quick rundown of the book, and the five of them built a harsh backdrop around it, borrowing the groove of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax".
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | 21 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1984 | 106 |
| 1984 | 3 | 91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana | 91X Top 91 Songs of 1984 | 91 |
| 1984 | 4 | WOXY 97X Cincinnati, OH | WOXY Top 10 Songs of 1984 | 10 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 252 | Q101 | Q101 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (1996) | 500 |
| 1999 | 392 | Q101 | Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1017 |
| 1999 | 310 | 107.7 The End | The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1077 |
| 1999 | 822 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (November 1999) | 1002 |
Also listed as: Wild Boys.
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