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"Is There Something I Should Know?" is the eighth single by the English pop rock band Duran Duran, released on 14 March 1983.
The song was released as a stand-alone single and became the band's first UK number one record. It debuted in the number one position on the UK Singles Chart on 26 March 1983.[2] The single also had great success in America, where it was released in late May. The song reached number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 on 6 August 1983 and sold more than a million copies. As of October 2021, "Is There Something I Should Know?" is the eleventh most streamed Duran Duran song in the UK.[3]
"Is There Something I Should Know?" was recorded at Tony Visconti's Good Earth Studios in Soho, London with producer Ian Little, who was recommended to Duran Duran by Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera.[4] Eventually, the song would undergo several rounds of mixing due to a lack of compression on the drums as Little asserted: one mix was done at Good Earth, one at Eel Pie Studios, one at the Gallery and one at the Power Station in New York with Bob Clearmountain.[5] Keyboardist Nick Rhodes remembered being present most of the night during the mix with Clearmountain and leaving the next day thinking the band had something special on their hands. But upon reflection some days later, it was decided that despite being what they considered a "beautiful mix", it was a little too soft for the sound they were trying to achieve for the record.[6] So the final mix would be done with producer Alex Sadkin (who'd be brought in to produce the band's next album alongside Little, Seven and the Ragged Tiger) and Phil Thornalley at RAK Studios, London, who replaced the drums with samples triggered via AMS delay units.[5] According to Rhodes, the pulsing keyboard sound is from a Roland Jupiter-8 synth, while the Prophet-5 was used for a small melodic part.[7]
In its contemporary review of the song, Cash Box praised "the upbeat arrangement, clear production and lustrous vocals."[8]David Hepworth of Smash Hits just noticed that producer change lead to "more pronounced rock group sound" and expressed displeasure with impossibility to do something "with an overly-strained chorus."[9] In a retrospective review of the song, AllMusic journalist Donald A. Guarisco wrote that the lyrics "deal with a difficult romantic relationship in rather obtuse terms." Guarisco highlighted what he described as "odd turns of phrase" in the lyrics, such as: "and fiery demons all dance when you walk through that door/Don't say you're easy on me 'cause you're about as easy as a nuclear war."
Although Guarisco questioned the lyrics, he praised the melody in the song. He wrote: "The melody of 'Is There Something I Should Know?' is one of Duran Duran's catchiest, matching twisty verse melodies full of ear-catching hooks with a harmonized chorus."[10]
The video for "Is There Something I Should Know?" featured colour clips of the band members, in blue shirts with tucked-in white ties, interspersed with surreal images in black-and-white. The video made a point of marking the transition between the first three albums, featuring clips from several earlier Duran Duran videos. This included "My Own Way"—presented on the Duran Duran video album but never released to MTV.
The video was directed by Russell Mulcahy, and was one of the most popular videos of 1983 on MTV.[11] The video is longer as there are verses that were edited out of the original 45 release, that subsequently made it to album, tape and CD. The DVD Greatest Hits has the long version video.
When asked if there was anything about their videos they would like to change, drummer Roger Taylor commented, "The only part of a video I would change is the end of 'Is There Something I Should Know?' where I am singing to the camera. I look very uncomfortable doing this and cringe every time I see it to this day."[12]
The B-side to "Is There Something I Should Know?" in the UK is the instrumental "Faith in This Colour". An "alternate slow mix" of "Faith in This Colour" was used on the 7" single, some pressings of which included brief unauthorized sound samples from the movie Star Wars—these were promptly withdrawn when copyright concerns were raised, although on the "alternate slow mix" from the singles box set, the scene, in which Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) leaves to disable the Death Star tractor beam, can clearly be heard in the last minute.
The mainly instrumental "Monster mix" of "Is There Something I Should Know?" was completed by producers Ian Little and Alex Sadkin and Phil Thornalley at RAK studio One.
In the US, the song "Careless Memories" was used as the B-side.
Duran Duran
Technical
In 2001, English pop group Allstars released their version as a double A-side single with their own track "Things That Go Bump in the Night". Both songs are from their 2002 sole self-titled album. The single reached No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart in September 2001.[38]
CD single
Cassette
12" vinyl
Promo CD
Other cover versions of the song have been recorded by the Mr. T Experience for The Duran Duran Tribute Album (1997), and by Harvey Danger.
The band Sugar Ray took elements from the video and featured them in a segment of the music video for their single "When It's Over".
The 2016 second episode of the sixth season of the cartoon series The Venture Bros., entitled "Maybe No Go", follows Billy Quizboy (voiced by Doc Hammer) and Pete White (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) retrieving the rubber ball prop used in the music video from their archenemy Augustus St. Cloud (also voiced by McCulloch), a collector of pop culture memorabillia.
The line "you're about as easy as a nuclear war" was the inspiration for the Duran Duran song "Yo Bad Azizi", included as a B-side to the "Serious" single released seven years later in 1990 and included as a bonus track on their album Liberty.
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