Her name is Rio and...

Duran Duran’s second album, Rio, was released 40 years ago this week. Also released this week in 1982: Thomas Dolby’s The Golden Age of Wireless.

I was not aware of either album in the weeks following their release, but I would be soon enough. Duran Duran was already a known quantity with their first album, but I’m not certain I was fully aware of it yet. Dolby had made some inroads in the pop music world as well, though at that point, the most popular thing that Dolby had contributed to was the synthesizer work on Foreigner’s mega-hit ballad, “Waiting for a Girl Like You.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be long before Duran Duran’s “Rio” and “Hungry Like The Wolf” were getting serious airplay, first on the Y92, the fledging new wave radio station in Philadelphia. Soon enough though, the Duran Duran guys were conquering the pop music world.

Meanwhile, Dolby’s album garnered some positive reviews, but didn’t fully blow up until it was reissued with the hit single “She Blinded Me With Science” now included. This is the song that brought me and many other fans to Dolby, but eventually I discovered, and subsequently fell in love with, the pre-“Science” version of Golden Age. You can read my 40th anniversary  celebration of the album at PopMatters.

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