Night Versions: The Essential Duran Duran

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Night Versions: The Essential Duran Duran
Remix album by Duran Duran
Released	31 March 1998
Genre	New Wave
Length	70:30
Label	EMI
Producer	Duran Duran and various
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Pitchfork Media (4.6/10) link
Duran Duran chronology
Medazzaland (1997) Night Versions (1998) Greatest (1998)

Night Versions: The Essential Duran Duran is a compilation album of remixes by Duran Duran. From the very beginning of their career, the band had dubbed the extended dance remixes of their songs "night versions", as they were intended for play in nightclubs.

Unlike many of their contemporaries, Duran Duran didn't just extend the intro or loop the bridge section of a song to pad out a dance track for a 12-inch single. As All Music Guide explained, "According to Nick Rhodes' liner notes, they recorded extended versions of their singles to be used in night clubs. Rather than have the master tapes cut and taped into remixes, Duran Duran went back into the studio and recorded longer versions of the songs with more instrumental breaks."

The collection had been in the works for some time, but it was released by Capitol/EMI in April 1998, about the same time that Duran Duran was dismissed from the record label after an eighteen year history. EMI was quick to start mining the band's back catalogue; Night Versions was followed seven months later by the greatest hits collection Greatest, and by another remix collection Strange Behaviour four months after that.

Similar to other releases in Capitol's "Essential" range, this disc was only commercially available for 6 months from the time of release. This may account for the inflated value of the disc, considering all the material and more was released on the latter Strange Behaviour collection.

[edit] The Music

The collection includes all of the singles released between 1981 and 1984, and two album tracks. The majority of the songs are on the main audio disc.

Also included is a separate enhanced CD containing a bonus mix of "New Moon on Monday". To unlock the disc and enjoy the enhanced content, users were required to visit the DuranDuran.com official website. The process was difficult and error-prone, and did not function at all with many Apple Macintosh computers, and the reward was minimal: the audio quality of "New Moon On Monday" wasn't exceptional, and the promised video content turned out to be a slow-moving collage of album and single covers.

[edit] Track listing

CD One:

1. "Planet Earth" (Night version) - 6:16
2. "Girls on Film" (Night version) - 5:27
3. "My Own Way" (Night version) - 6:34
4. "Hungry Like the Wolf" (Night version) - 5:14
5. "Rio" (Night Version) - 6:42
6. "New Religion" (Carnival Remix) - 5:14
7. "Hold Back the Rain" (Carnival Remix) - 7:00
8. "Is There Something I Should Know?" (Monster Mix) - 6:40
9. "Union of the Snake" (Monkey Mix) - 6:23
10. "The Reflex" (Dance Mix) - 6:34
11. "The Wild Boys" ((Wilder Than Wild Boys) Extended Mix) - 8:00

CD Two:

1. "New Moon on Monday" (Extended Mix) - 6:00