In the mid-80s, the five members of Duran Duran took a break from the band and formed two short-lived side projects. First, John and Andy Taylor plugged into Power Station with Robert Palmer on vocals and Tony Thompson of Chic behind the drum kit. The rock/R&B supergroup scored with singles “Some Like It Hot” and “Bang A Gong (Get It On),” however, Palmer unplugged from Power Station just prior to a U.S. tour (preferring to capitalize on the band’s success by recording his solo album, Riptide, which yielded the monster hit, “Addicted to Love”).

Though second on the scene, Arcadia was definitely the cooler sideshow. Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, and Roger Taylor adopted a “romantic goth” style, dyeing their hair black and dressing in black tuxedos with white ruffled shirts. But while the trio amped up the outward pretension, Arcadia still sounded a whole lot like synth-tastic Duran Duran (not terribly surprising when you’ve got both the lead vocalist and keyboard player on board).

Their hit, “Election Day,” is a perfect, single summation of what Arcadia offered. More of what one loved, but with a twist: a creepy-cool vocal cameo from Grace Jones. Alas, the video features a creepy horse in place of Jones.

Related aside: My sister had a friend in high school who was a huge Duran Duran fan. When this song was popular, we used to sing the line “Pull my shirt off and pray,” as “Oh, Mike, shut up and play.” (Yeah, it doesn’t make much sense now, but it bugged him then, and that was all that mattered.)