Today, October 27th, is Simon LeBon’s birthday! It’s also almost Halloween so to celebrate it all, I’m spinning the only vaguely Halloweenie single by Duran Duran, “Union of the Snake” b/w “Secret Oktober” – along with “Rio” because I just received my special edition Rio/Nagel lip palette by Urban Decay today. It’s like Simon sending me a present!

Those are my lips, wearing the sparkly lip color, called Big Bang, second from the right in the palette.

“Union of the Snake” was the first release from Duran Duran’s third LP Seven and the Ragged Tiger, hitting #3 in the UK and US. “Secret Oktober” does not appear on any original Duran Duran albums (though it is on the 2010 reissue CD of Seven and the Ragged Tiger). The band needed a song for the flipside of “Union of the Snake” and quickly wrote “Secret Oktober,” whipping it out, including recording and mixing, in less than 24 hours. It is beautiful and atmospheric, not at all creepy, singing of birthday parties that are full of surprising fireworks, all night parties and cocktail bars.