More Great Songs For Halloween!
As we enter the final days of Halloween, time to share some more spooky music – with a new take on a classic hit by Duran Duran!
But first, an update! I posted this about three hours ago, and I am being deluged with comments about how much people HATE it! Oh well, here goes!
This extremely catchy hit was originally a classic hit song for this group:
“ELO” aka the “Electric Light Orchestra” had a number of massive hits in the 70’s and 80’s like “Telephone Line”, “Turn To Stone”, “Livin’ Thing” and “Don’t Bring Me Down.”
Lead Singer / Songwriter Jeff Lynne wrote the song quickly when the band’s album Face the Music was almost complete – and he didn’t think they had a good lead single. Lynne said:
I wrote this in a matter of minutes. The rest of the album was done. I listened to it and thought, ‘There’s not a good single.’ So I sent the band out to a game of football and made up ‘Evil Woman’ on the spot. The first three chords came right to me. It was the quickest thing I’d ever done. We kept it slick and cool, kind of like an R&B song. It was kind of a posh one for me, with all the big piano solos and the string arrangement. It was inspired by a certain woman, but I can’t say who. She’s appeared a few times in my songs.
The terrific website Vulture took a deep dive into the making of the newly recorded Duran Duran version of “Evil Woman”!
Here’s what they wrote:
Duran Duran’s sequined cover of Electric Light Orchestra’s “Evil Woman” arrived just in time for cauldron season. Nick Rhodes, the band’s longtime keyboardist, says the idea arose when Simon Le Bon pitched it for the new deluxe edition of their 2023 Halloween-themed album Danse Macabre. It was an easy sell: All four members are “big fans” of Jeff Lynne’s work, according to Rhodes. But there was something “beautifully structured” about the specific 1975 hit that could easily be transformed into Duran Duran’s signature sound, with the help of a thunder-clap machine, bouncing synthesizers, and a conga-esque drum beat. Think of the cover as less ELOspaceship rock trip and more of a time-traveling bender to Studio 54.
“The beauty of music is to remain flexible and open-minded,” Rhodes says. “That’s at the heart of what has kept Duran Duran fresh.” Not everyone can nail such a classic-rock staple, but, fortunately, Duran Duran’s “Evil Woman” is much more aligned with Van Halen’s “You Really Got Me” than Riverdale’s “Mad World” abomination.
Check out the music video here!
Some of my blogging friends have been sharing great Halloween music, like the them song from this movie:
This image is haunting, just like the theme “Tubular Bells” – Lisa Marie shared it here:
As for the movie, it’s my absolute favorite horror film and if you click here you can see why:
I also shared some Halloween music, including one from Vincent Price!
See his take on “Monster Mash” and more ghoulish hits here:
And because it is “Shocktober”, here are three great horror films that all begin with the letter “C” – enjoy:
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Happy Shocktober!
Categories: 70's Cinema, 70's Music, Art, Classic Rock, Cult Movies, Halloween, Horror films, Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Talent/Celebrities
johnrieber 
I like the video more than the song. Meh…
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The Duran Duran song takes me back a few decades to an interesting time in my life! Thanks for the great trip down memory lane 🙂
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I loved the elo version much better, but Duran Duran was not too bad
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John, I barely managed 50 seconds of that awful cover version before happily stopping the clip. I always found DD to be such a talentless group, but harmless in their own way. Now they have dared to attempt to cover such a great ELO song, I’m afraid they have just gone on my shit list! 👿🎃
Best wishes, Pete.
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I am getting a bit of that from a number of places Pete…I told a friend on FB that ELO has always been criminally under-respected by critics here in the US – they just played in LA as part of their farewell tour and people said it was incredibly good – it appears I’m being taken out to the woodshed for this one!
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Great video for Duran Duran. Shame about their version of the song though!
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HA! I’m not a big fan of them, and of course no one can top ELO, but I thought it was an admirable effort.
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I was never a fan – for me they were a group aimed at making pop-rock for teenagers to spend their pocket money on. It was a good video, but they really shouldn’t have taken on such an iconic song.
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I rarely get as much negative comments as I did on this across all social media – not mean, just really not liking their effort…as I told Beetley Pete, I’ve been “taken to the woodshed!”
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So I saw, and I agree with him! The biggest thing about Duran Duran is their collective ego. They were on my shit list even before this 🤣
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