Thank You by Duran Duran

Thank You is a covers album by Duran Duran released in April 1995, their follow-up to 1993's Duran Duran (The Wedding Album). It did well on the charts (reaching number 19 on the Billboard 200), but was received very negatively by critics. In May 2006, Q Magazine listed it as the worst album ever. The album reportedly began as a lighthearted tribute to the band's influences in the vein of Bowie's Pin Ups. The band recorded some tracks in borrowed studios (including Prince's Paisley Park) while the band was on the Wedding Album tour, with the intent to have an album ready to release soon after the tour's end. Another studio album was to follow quickly afterwards. However, after a brief break the band set up a portable studio in the south of France to finish the album with producer John Jones, and progress slowed to a crawl. Conflicts within the band and between the band and Capitol/EMI created delay after delay, and mix after mix was ordered and rejected. Duran Duran's former drummer Roger Taylor, who retired from the band in 1986, joined the band in the studio to play drums on "Watching The Detectives" and "Perfect Day" (as well as a cover of "Jeepster" by T. Rex that did not appear on the album). By the time Thank You finally appeared in 1995, the band no longer felt enthusiastic about supporting it. Much of the promotional work was done solely by Simon Le Bon and Warren Cuccurullo. The band made videos for "White Lines" and "Perfect Day" (Roger Taylor, who did not tour or do any promotions with the band, excited old fans by appearing in "Perfect Day"), but the videos saw almost no airplay on the MTV or VH1 channels. Duran Duran were not happy about a label-mandated 1995 summer tour of radio station festivals. Bassist John Taylor was particularly frustrated and left the stage several times over the course of the tour. After a final half-capacity show in Southern California, where the band was booed, Taylor remained in Los Angeles to launch the resolutely anti-corporate side project Neurotic Outsiders with former members of Guns N' Roses and the Sex Pistols. An acoustic version of the title track "Thank You" was included on the 1995 Led Zeppelin tribute album Encomium, and was also included on the soundtrack for the Joe Pesci film With Honors. The cover of this album features a collage of the various artists whose songs were covered on this album, including Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, Public Enemy with Flavor Flav, Jim Morrison of The Doors, Sly And The Family Stone, and Lou Reed The three singles from the album were covers of Grandmaster Melle Mel's "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)", Lou Reed's "Perfect Day", and Public Enemy's "911 Is a Joke". Each of these had a fair performance on the charts, but critics lambasted the band's attempts, especially of "911 Is A Joke", "Ball of Confusion" and "Crystal Ship". J. D. Considine of Rolling Stone said "ome of the ideas at play here are stunningly wrongheaded, like the easy-listening arrangement given Elvis Costello's "Watching the Detectives" or the version of Zeppelin's "Thank You" that sounds like the band is covering Chris DeBurgh. But it takes a certain demented genius to recognize Iggy Pop's "Success" as the Gary Glitter tune it was meant to be or to redo "911 Is a Joke" so it sounds more like Beck than like Public Enemy." Despite such negative reception, some of the original artists praised the versions of their songs that Duran Duran had recorded. Lou Reed said, on the electronic press kit that accompanied the album, that Duran Duran's version of "Perfect Day" was "The best cover ever completed of one of my own songs". In response to a question on duranduran.com's Ask Katy, the band's keyboardist Nick Rhodes said that he was happy with the way the album turned out. ℗ 1995 Parlophone Records Ltd. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is a violation of applicable laws. 1750 North Vine Street, Hollywood, CA 90028.