Ordinary World (song)

By the early 1990s, Duran Duran's popularity had faded. Their album Liberty had proved a commercial failure, its two singles failing to make a significant showing on the British or American charts. It was not until Capitol Records leaked "Ordinary World" to a radio station in Jacksonville, Florida during the second half of 1992 that it seemed like Duran Duran would find a resurgence in popularity. To their surprise, the single proved so popular that Capitol had to push the US release date up, ultimately releasing it in December. In the United Kingdom, the song was released on 18 January 1993.[6]

The keyboards in the song were arranged and performed by Nick Rhodes and John Jones. The drums were played by Steve Ferrone at Maison Rouge. The guitar solo that characterises this song was arranged and performed by Warren Cuccurullo, former player with Frank Zappa. His instrumental rock trio version became a staple of his solo shows and was included on one of his solo albums "Roadrage". Le Bon noted the song lyrics are about "trying to get over the death of a best friend. And putting it into words freed me, absolutely. It really worked for me emotionally and mentally. Everyone who heard it could apply it to something in their life, but for a different reason."[7]

Le Bon later performed the song with Luciano Pavarotti at a WarChild benefit.[8] The performance featured new lyrics in Italian, written especially for the show by producer Michele Centonze, most of which were a very free adaptation (rather than a translation) of Le Bon's original lyrics; the title "Ordinary World" was rendered as "mondo umile", i.e. humble world. The duet, along with the whole show, was released on home video as Pavarotti & Friends: Together for the Children of Bosnia. Later on, in an interview featured on the DVD release of the show, Le Bon stated that he loved singing in Italian because of the very open vowel sounds in the language.

The lyrics to "Ordinary World" were written by Le Bon as the second of a trilogy of songs for his late friend David Miles; the others being "Do You Believe in Shame?" (1988) and "Out of My Mind" (1997).

On stage, during the 2023 tour, Le Bon introduced the song stating enigmatically that it had 'saved the life of the band'.[9]

In a retrospective review of "Ordinary World", AllMusic journalist Donald A. Guarisco praised the song for having what he described as "a warm ballad feel, matching elegant verses full of entrancing repeating-note hooks with a rousing chorus built on soaring runs of ascending notes." Guarisco described Simon Le Bon's vocal as being "rich in emotion but tastefully restrained".[10] Upon the release, J.D. Considine from The Baltimore Sun said the success of "Ordinary World" "is nothing short of miraculous — who'd have thought these pretty boys would still be producing memorable singles at this stage of the game?"[11] The Independent praised it as "a classic of transcendent beauty".[12] Cathi Unsworth from Melody Maker declared it as "as sober, melancholy and absurdly touching as you might expect". She added, "Duran Duran lurk in the shadow between the bright lights of now and then. Some of you might find the idea of the pampered, rich, porky Simon Le Bon detailing the world's injustices a mite unpalatable, but somehow the fat boy sounds neither pompous nor patronising, just down on his luck and depressed."[13]

Tony Fletcher for Newsday stated that the "excellently crafted" ballad shows the group "to be capable of delivering the goods. And as an added irony for a band that was introduced by MTV when radio wouldn't touch it, this particular song exploded across radio's many formats before a video was even made."[14] Ann Powers from New York Times declared it as "a smooth yet pathos-ridden ballad".[15] Sam Wood from Philadelphia Inquirer called it a "sober ballad".[16] Andrea Odintz from Rolling Stone felt the "dreamy" song "achieves the almost spiritual effects" of Duran Duran's 1982 hit "Save a Prayer".[17] Peter Howell from Toronto Star remarked that the "ethereal" debut single "has all the earmarks of an unstoppable radio hit".[18] Mark Jenkins from The Washington Post found that such ballads as "Ordinary World" "achieve melodic sufficiency."[19]

The accompanying music video for "Ordinary World" was directed by Nick Egan at Huntington Gardens in San Marino, California, and the song later featured in the soundtrack to the film Layer Cake in 2004.

"Ordinary World" is one of two Cuccurullo-era songs ("Come Undone" being the other) during Duran Duran's reunion tour with Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor. Cuccurullo was brought in to teach Andy Taylor how to play it.

"My Antarctica", a song from the band's previous album Liberty, featured as the main B-side of the "Ordinary World" single.

Many other older singles were also used as B-sides. To capitalise on the success of "Ordinary World" and the new Duran Duran fans it was finding, EMI used the single's release to lure these new fans to the band's back catalogue. This mini-Decade was spread over the two CD singles released during the campaign.

• Simon Le Bon – lead vocals
• John Taylor – bass guitars
• Nick Rhodes – keyboards
• Warren Cuccurullo – acoustic and electric guitars
• John Jones – keyboards
• Steve Ferrone – drums

"Ordinary World"
Single by Aurora featuring Naimee Coleman
from the album Dreaming
B-side	"Hear You Calling" (remix)
Released	11 September 2000 (2000-09-11)[66]
Genre	Trance[67]
Length	4:26
Label	Positiva
Songwriter(s)	Nick Rhodes Simon Le Bon Warren Cuccurullo John Taylor
Producer(s)	Sacha Collisson Simon Greenaway
Aurora singles chronology
"Hear You Calling" (1999) "Ordinary World" (2000) "The Day It Rained Forever" (2000)

British electronic music group Aurora released a trance version of "Ordinary World" featuring Irish singer-songwriter Naimee Coleman in 2000. This version, released on 11 September that year, charted at No. 5 in the United Kingdom, No. 6 in Ireland, and No. 47 in Germany. In the United States, it appeared on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, peaking at No. 37 in June 2001.