In the US, the song reached #1 and still remains the only James Bond theme tune to reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The track was written by Duran Duran and John Barry and was recorded with the help of a 60-piece orchestra. In a 2012 interview, band member John Taylor stated "We really did nail it", and I think he is most definitely correct.
"A View To A Kill" was the band's thirteenth single release and was produced by Duran Duran, Jason Corsaro and Bernard Edwards. The B-side on all of the UK releases is "A View To A Kill (That Fatal Kiss)", which is an orchestral instrumental from the film by John Barry.
The 12" Remix by Steve Thompson and Mike Barbiero was created in a Paris studio with all of the band members present, except John Taylor. For whatever reason, it was never released back in the 80s, and you listen to this in our video above.
In the official video, the band were definitely enjoying themselves in their roles and probably relished doing something a little different from their normal pop videos. It's great fun, for sure.
The video was directed by the legendary duo Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, and filmed around the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It mixes scenes from the movie with Duran Duran pretending to be special agents which involves a flying VHS video camera - this was long before drones were invented!
John Taylor is dressed in black and uses a gun which is disguised as a telescope. Simon Le Bon is dressed as a traditional french man with a black beret and vertically striped T-shirt. He is also wearing a white trenchcoat, black leather gloves and headphones which are attached to a bomb detonator disguised as a Sony Walkman. He uses it to denotate a bomb in a helicopter and an airship. Nick Rhodes is pretending to be a photographer with a female model. Andy Taylor plays a blind accordian player and uses one of the buttons to destroy Nick's camera. Roger Taylor is hidden in a van as the co-ordinator.
Simplyeighties.com
