Video hit Duran Duran

Duran Duran - Ordinary World

"Ordinary World" is the first single from Duran Duran's self-titled 1993 album, better known as The Wedding Album.

The single reached No. 1 on the U.S. Hot 100 Airplay chart, U.S. Top 40 Mainstream and the Canadian singles chart. It also peaked at No. 3 in the American charts, No. 2 on the U.S. Alternative rock chart and No. 6 in the British charts.

The song won an Ivor Novello Award in May 1994.

Simon LeBon, the vocalist, later sang the song with Luciano Pavarotti, to help children affected by war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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 LeBon's vocal as being "rich in emotion but tastefully restrained".

The music video was filmed by director Nick Egan at Huntington Gardens in San Marino, California and the song later featured in the soundtrack to the film Layer Cake in 2005.

The lyrics to "Ordinary World" were written by Simon 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).

The lyrics:

Came in from a rainy Thursday on the avenue

Thought I heard you talking softly

I turned on the lights, the TV, and the radio

Still I can't escape the ghost of you

What has happened to it all?

Crazy someone say

Where is the life that I recognize?

Gone away

But I won't cry for yesterday

There's an ordinary world

Somehow I have to find

And as I try to make my way

To the ordinary world

I will learn to survive

Passion or coincidence once prompted you to say

"Pride will tear us both apart"

Well now prides gone out the window

Cross the rooftops, run away

Left me in the vacuum of my heart

What is happening to me?

Crazy someone say

Where is my friend when I need you most?

Gone away

But I won't cry for yesterday

There's an ordinary world

Somehow I have to find

And as I try to make my way

To the ordinary world

I will learn to survive

Papers in the roadside tell of suffering and greed

Fear today, forgot tomorrow

Besides the news of holy war and holy need

Ours is just a little sorrowed talk

(Just blown away)

And I don't cry for yesterday

There's an ordinary world

Somehow I have to find

And as I try to make my way

To the ordinary world

I will learn to survive

Every world is my world

(I will learn to survive)

Any world is my world

(I will learn to survive)

Any world is my world

Every world is our world