Notorious

Duran Duran scored their first US #1 hit in 1984 with "The Reflex," which opens with a stuttering "re-re-reflex" vocal created by Nile Rodgers with a sampler - it was the first track Rodgers worked on for the band. Rodgers returned to produce the Notorious album, where he did something similar, opening the song with "no-no-notorious. The song, though, is driven by a funky guitar sound Rodgers came up with. Simon LeBon explained to Entertainment Weekly in 2011: "I remember him playing some notes up the neck of his guitar and it was the riff from 'Notorious.' That was the first time that any of us had ever heard it. We just said, 'Man, we've got to have that.'"

"Notorious" is a typically cryptic lyric from Simon Le Bon. It seems to be about a girl with a reputation for manipulation and lies who is also irresistible. Le Bon rarely discusses specific lyrics.

This was the lead single and title track from the Notorious album, which marked a turning point for Duran Duran. After dominating MTV and the pop charts in the early '80s, they fell apart as their success wore them down. Simon LeBon explained in 1988 to Company magazine: "We had been forced by our own desire for success into a stereotype of a teen-idol group. We were spending far more time worrying about clothes, make-up and photo sessions than we were about writing songs." For Notorious, they lost two of their three Taylors: drummer John Taylor became a farmer and guitarist Andy Taylor left for other musical endeavors, including The Power Station. The remaining three members cut back on hedonism and photo sessions, concentrating on the music.