Come Undone (Duran Duran song)

"Come Undone" is a song by English rock band Duran Duran, released in March 1993 by Parlophone and Capitol as the second single from their seventh studio album, Duran Duran (1993). With their commercial and critical success reestablished by the previous single "Ordinary World", "Come Undone" continued to showcase more of the band's entry into the adult contemporary radio format.

The single became the group's second consecutive US top-10 hit from the Wedding Album, peaking at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming their last top-40 hit on that chart. It was also popular in the United Kingdom and other international markets, reaching number two in Canada, number eight in Italy, number nine in Ireland, and number 13 in the UK. As of October 2021, "Come Undone" is the eighth-most streamed Duran Duran song in the UK. The accompanying music video was directed by Julien Temple.

Background
The group's guitarist at the time, Warren Cuccurullo, is credited with developing the instrumentation for "Come Undone", most importantly its guitar hook, which he developed while trying to do a re-interpretation of "First Impression" from their 1990 album Liberty. In 2005, Cuccurullo revealed to author Steve Malins that he and Nick Rhodes had originally planned on using the song for a project outside of Duran Duran with Gavin Rossdale, but had changed plans when singer Simon Le Bon took a liking to the music and began to come up with lyrics on the spot.

Rhodes expanded on the song's creation during the album's 20th anniversary in 2013. "It was something that Warren and I started writing alongside some other stuff that we'd been playing around with, and Simon came in and heard what we were doing. He said, 'Wow, I love that!' And so it became a Duran Duran song. [Simon] came up with a really great melody – we already had the 'can't ever keep from falling apart' section – and he very quickly made it his, or himself part of it'."

Music video
The music video for "Come Undone" was directed by British film, documentary and music video director Julien Temple. It features multiple, unrelated clips of people in different areas. These include a little girl seeing her parents together; an older couple who have survived a flood; a little girl hiding under the bed while placing her head on top of her white teddy bear; an alcoholic; and a man who is revealed to be a cross-dresser. Also seen in the video is a woman struggling underwater to break free of the chains that bind her. A portion of the music video can be seen in the "No Laughing" episode of the MTV show Beavis and Butt-Head, which was aired in July 1993.

B-sides, bonus tracks and remixes
The single was released in the United Kingdom on 29 March 1993, with an acoustic version of "Ordinary World" as the B-side. This was the single's official B-side in the UK, along with two official remixes of "Come Undone". In the US however, three new, original compositions written during the album's production were featured as B-sides – "Time for Temptation", "Stop Dead" and "Falling Angel". For collectors, the US releases also contained an alternate mix of "To the Shore" and the first appearance on CD of "The Chauffeur (Blue Silver)".

Track listings

 * UK 7-inch and cassette single
 * A. "Come Undone" (edit) – 4:15
 * B. "Ordinary World" (acoustic version)


 * UK CD1
 * 1) "Come Undone" (edit) – 4:15
 * 2) "Ordinary World" (acoustic version)
 * 3) "Come Undone" (FGI Phumpin' 12-inch) – 8:14
 * 4) "Come Undone" (La Fin De Siecle) – 5:25


 * UK CD2
 * 1) "Come Undone" (album version)
 * 2) "Rio"
 * 3) "Is There Something I Should Know?"
 * 4) "A View to a Kill"


 * US CD single
 * 1) "Come Undone" (LP version)
 * 2) "Come Undone" (Mix 1 Master)
 * 3) "Skin Trade" (Parisian mix)
 * 4) "Stop Dead"


 * US and Canadian cassette single
 * 1) "Come Undone" (album version)
 * 2) "Come Undone" (Mix 2 Master)
 * 3) "Time for Temptation"


 * Australian CD single
 * 1) "Come Undone" (edit)
 * 2) "Come Undone" (FGI Phumpin' 12-inch)
 * 3) "Come Undone" (La Fin De Siecle)


 * The Singles 1986–1995 box set
 * 1) "Come Undone" (edit) – 4:15
 * 2) "Ordinary World" (acoustic version) – 5:05
 * 3) "Come Undone" (FGI Phumpin' 12-inch) – 8:14
 * 4) "Come Undone" (La Fin De Siecle) – 5:25
 * 5) "Come Undone" (album version) – 4:31
 * 6) "Rio" – 5:33
 * 7) "Is There Something I Should Know?" – 4:05
 * 8) "A View to a Kill" – 3:33

Personnel

 * Simon Le Bon – vocals
 * Nick Rhodes – keyboards, synth bass
 * Warren Cuccurullo – guitar, vocals
 * John Jones – drums, bass, keyboards, vocals
 * Tessa Niles – backing vocals

John Taylor did not play bass guitar during recording of this song, despite being a member of the band at that time.

Cover versions
American rock band, Bad Omens, released a version of Come Undone on the deluxe version of their second album, Finding God Before God Finds Me.