Once Upon a Time in the Top Spot: Duran Duran, Seven and the Ragged Tiger

31 years ago today, Duran Duran earned their first – and, as of this writing, their only – #1 album in the UK with Seven and the Ragged Tiger, which would prove to be the last full-length studio outing for the so-called “Fab Five” lineup of the band for 21 years.

The process of putting together the follow-up to Rio initially kicked off in France, where Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Roger Taylor, and Andy Taylor began writing songs and knocking out a few demos with producer Ian Little, but the proper recording process began when the band headed to Montserrat. Ensconced in George Martin’s Air Studios, Duran Duran and Little joined up with Alex Sadkin, working together for more than a month before heading back to the UK for a charity performance attended by Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Post-concert, the band worked a bit more on the album in London, returned to Montserrat for another session, then headed to Sydney, Australia to finish things up. (That’s also where they filmed the video for the album’s first single, “Union of the Snake.”)

Critics may not have loved Seven and the Ragged Tiger, and the process of putting the album together was obviously a lengthy and increasingly trying one for the members of Duran Duran, but the fans certainly seemed to dig it: in addition to hitting #1 in the UK, it also topped the charts in New Zealand and the Netherlands while making it into the top 10 in the US, Canada, Australia, and Finland. In retrospect, there’s possibly a reason why most people remember the record for its singles – “The Reflex,” “New Moon on Monday,” and the aforementioned “Union of the Snake” – than its album tracks (although we’ve always been partial to the closer, “The Seventh Stranger”), but if you give a listen to the deluxe edition of the album, you’ll find that the band was doing a lot of interesting work on their B-sides at the time as well.