It was 1982 when DURAN DURAN released their second album, called RIO. As far as I remember, I got my first copy of this lp in 1986. When I discovered the world-wide-web for me in 1999, I found a page where TOM McCLINTOCK let us know the different versions of the album releases and the different mixes of the tracks. Until 1998 (the release of GREATEST) I believed that the album version of RIO is the same as the single version, because I did not have a copy of the single and on the compilation DECADE, back in 1989, RIO featured as the album version. The other tracks appeared all in their single version. So now I thought the us edit, which is on GREATEST could be the single mix. I got this question to Tom, but he did not really know the answer. He told me that I should buy a copy of the single - ok, I bought one from vinyl tap in the uk and while listening to side a, I couldn't believe it, the version was not what it should be, it was part 1 - the same mix, which is on the b-side of the uk 12", which I got at the same time from vinyl tap.

So I got my question back to Tom, PETER BRINKHOF, KATIE KRASSNER and to Ezboard.com - The Holy City Zoo. The result were many speculations, but also a lot of help to go through this jungle of all the different versions of RIO. The next uk 7" I got through ebay.com from France and yes, I got the right version in my hands, but the sound-quality of it was really poor. Hmmm, than I thought that I could ask GUILLERMO UGARTE for a .mp3 of part 2 from the japanese release of CARNIVAL, because Tom thinks that it is the standard single version, including about 23 additional seconds of the mix and so I wanted to let this version fade out early to create the 7" mix. But after getting it from Guille I know that Tom is not completely right, because the changed keyboard parts are on both ears - the single version got them on the left ear, only. And the sax on the end of the track is also different to the 7" version. So I tried it again, now at ebay.de and I got the german release of the single and tada there it was, the standard single version in good sound-quality, what should I want more?

So, it took me 3½ years to get myself satisfied and in those years I found 13 different versions of RIO which I put together on this cd. The differences in the several versions are mainly in the way they were edited or extended, but also remixed and slightly changed in the intro, the drums, the keyboard parts and background vocals.

I would like to thank the following people for their help and information:
Tom McClintock (www.ionpool.net/duran), Guillermo Ugarte (www.durancollection.com), Peter Brinkhof (poptrash.virtualave.net), all at ezboard.com, ebay.com and duranduran.com.

ANSGAR THOMANN, Germany in October 2002.