Duran Duran: Hit Collection

The early 80's is now a quarter of a century ago! Whilst there have been many 80's compilations we feel now is a good time to release an `edgier', cooler tracklisting highlighting some of the artists and tracks that may not be as familiar, but still defined the times.

Duran Duran personified new wave for much of the mainstream audience. And for good reason. Duran Duran's reputation was built through music videos, which accentuated their fashion-model looks and glamorous sense of style. Without music videos, it's likely that their pop-funk – described by the group as the Sex Pistols-meet-Chic – would never have made them international pop stars…

The EVA labels were a group of sisterlabels made for compilations and Best-Of albums released as joint ventures between the national divisions of EMI, Virgin and Ariola. The label became active in 1984 but is now defunct in all countries. Early EVA albums were released with the logos of the three individual labels. Sometimes the label name EVA was not mentioned on those releases.

A British dance-pop group which found fame thanks to the antics of androgynous frontman Pete Burns, Dead or Alive formed in Liverpool in 1980. Burns first surfaced three years prior in the Mystery Girls, later heading the proto-goth rockers Nightmares in Wax; he founded Dead or Alive with keyboardist Marty Healey, guitarist Mitch, bassist Sue James, and drummer Joe Musker, debuting in 1980 with the Ian Broudie-produced Doors soundalike "I'm Falling." "Number Eleven" followed, but just as the group was gaining momentum, they were swept aside by the emergence of the New Romantic movement, with Burns subsequently charging that fellow androgyne Boy George of Culture Club had merely stolen his outrageous image.