The Reflex - Single Version; 2010 Remaster

One of the more mysterious Duran Duran songs, "The Reflex" seems to have a very deep concept. We know The Reflex is a lonely child and a door to finding treasure in the dark, but why can't you bruise it? And why is Simon Le Bon dancing on the valentine? Le Bon, the lead singer and lyricist for the group, won't reveal the meaning and sometimes gets aggravated when asked. "It's a kind of childish song," he told Absolute Radio. "There have been times when I've felt a little tired of it, but that's also to do with the fact that people always ask me what the song's about, and I never tell people what songs are about." "It's a really interesting lyric," bass player John Taylor added. "You wouldn't hear a lyric like that today. The early '80s was really great for profoundly weird, paranoid pop lyrics."

"The Reflex" is a very early and effective use of sampling, which is how they created the "re-re-re-re-flex" sound. The original version of the song appears as the first track of their third album, Seven And The Ragged Tiger, and doesn't contain the samples. This version runs 5:29 and wasn't deemed suitable for a single. After the album was released in November 1983, the band heard the INXS song "Original Sin" and became smitten with Nile Rodgers' production. The commissioned him to do a remix of "The Reflex," and working with Duran Duran synth guru Nick Rhodes, developed the famous version of the song (cut to 4:26) that was released as a single and used in the video. Sampling was so new, when he sent his remix to the band, they weren't sure what they were hearing. "We weren't sure if he was scratching," Simon Le Bon said. "Then we figured out he was repeating certain tracks but within the mix, not the whole track. It was quite innovative."

The Nile Rodgers remix was released as the third single from the Seven And The Ragged Tiger album, following "Union Of The Snake" and "New Moon on Monday." It went to #1 in America in June 1984, seven months after the album was released. It was the first Duran Duran song to top the US chart, and their second to do so in the UK, where "Is There Something I Should Know?" went to #1 the previous year.