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In an interview on the band's Greatest Hits DVD collection, Simon Le Bon says that the controversy over the song's notoriously raunchy music video eclipsed the song's message of fashion model exploitation.

The band manager Paul Berrow's Nikon camera can be heard clicking at the start of this song. (thanks, Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England, for above 2)

MTV did not exist when Duran Duran made the video, which was very racy. They made it for video jukeboxes that were going in bars and were not subject to broadcast regulation. It showed the band with lots of girls posing for the camera, some of them in the nude. The BBC banned it, but MTV aired an edited version with the nudes removed. The band had a following in England, but were unknown in the US until MTV went on the air in August, 1981 and started playing this. MTV had very few videos, and most were concert clips. Duran Duran supplied them with high-budget videos that went into heavy rotation and made them stars in the US. As it became clear that videos were a big part of marketing a band, groups like ZZ Top, Van Halen and The Rolling Stones embraced the concept, while acts like REO Speedwagon faded away.

The video was directed by Lol Creme and Kevin Godley, who were the leaders of the group 10cc and also recorded as Godley And Creme.

Billy Preston covered this for the 2002 album When Pigs Fly: Songs You Never Thought You'd Hear. Cevin Soling put the album together by having artists record songs they were unlikely to be associated with this. He explains why he chose this for Preston: "First, I think it's a great song. But Duran Duran, you think of them as being quintessentially white, and Preston having that real Funk background. So I thought it would be an interesting match-up to hear how it was done." (Thanks to Cevin for speaking with us. His full interview is available in the Songfacts Interviews. His website is cevinsoling.com.)

Comments:

does anyone know the girls in the video. i have a feling they were all page 3 girls.
- paul, geelong, Australia

The "Big Hair" guy was Nick Rhodes, the keyboardist. He had flaming red hair, and in the early 80's it was big!
- Aaron, Columbus, OH

One of life's little mysteries that will remain unsolved until the end of time: what on Planet earth was the music appeal of Duran Duran?
- ANDREW, LONDON, England

I bet you when people first saw the video for "Girls On Film", they probably gasped in shock as they stared at those naked girls. Aside from that, lots of girls probably had the hots for Simon LeBon! By the way, which one of Duran Duran's band members is "The One With The Big Hair"? The reason I ask this is because when I asked my Dad which band member of Duran Duran was his favorite Band Member, his answer was, "The one with the Big Hair".
- Annabelle, Eugene, OR

ohhhh, i loved that video. Duran Duran is the bomb diggity
- James, Albuquerque, NM

The version of the song played on the unedited video is the Night Version. At the time, sampling didn't exist so the band actually went back into the studio and wrote and performed a whole new arrangement for the song. They did this on all their early remixes.
- Katie, Memphis, TN

this song was used as the opening theme to a japanese animation series "Speed Grapher"
- Karsh, London, England

the video was the best Jerry, the best
- pete, nowra, Australia