Hungry Like the Wolf the door in America for the New Romantic/synth rock crossover." Stewart Mason, also from Allmusic, called "Hungry Like the Wolf" a "spectacular pop single", and "the finest song Duran Duran ever wrote", adding that it was a "much more kinetic and exciting song than earlier flop singles like 'Planet Earth'." In 1982, music video director Russell Mulcahy, who had directed the band's first video "Planet Earth," was brought back to make the music video for "Hungry Like the Wolf" and two other songs for the band's 1983 video album. The band had a vision of jungles and exotic women, and
UK Singles Chart Rage Against the Machine became the first song that was not a new release to reach No. 1 on downloads alone. This was the result of a Facebook campaign urging people to download the song in a bid to prevent "The X Factor" winning song from becoming the Christmas No. 1 single again after four consecutive years. The song originally peaked at No. 25 in 1992. New rules were added to the chart on 16 September 2007 to include one-track CD singles (with a limit of 15 minutes) and to retail at a minimum of 40p per one-track CD single.