Rapture (song)

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“Rapture”
“Rapture” cover
Single by Blondie
from the album Autoamerican
Released January 1981
Format 7" single, 12" single
Recorded 1980
Genre Rock, rap
Length 6:33 (US)
4:57 (UK)
Label Chrysalis Records
Writer(s) Deborah Harry
Chris Stein
Producer Mike Chapman
Certification Gold (US), Silver (UK)
Blondie singles chronology
"The Tide Is High"
(1980)		 "Rapture"
(1981)		 "Island of Lost Souls"
(1982)
Audio sample
Info (help·info)
Alternate cover
"Rapture" 1981, US edition
"Rapture" 1981, US edition

"Rapture" is a single by Blondie. It was released in January 1981, during the height of the band's success, and became one of the first substantial hit singles to involve rap music, and the first rap-influenced single to reach number one on the US Billboard Chart. It was the second and final song to be released from the band's 1980 album Autoamerican, the first being "The Tide Is High", which had topped the chart in the US and UK. "Rapture" went on to reach number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and number five in the UK singles chart. The B-side was "Walk Like Me", also from Autoamerican.

Following the release of "Rapture" Blondie took a hiatus from recording and touring. The autumn of 1981 saw the release of Debbie Harry's first solo single, "Backfired" and the album Koo Koo, co-written and produced by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers of Chic - the band whose track "Good Times" inspired Harry and Chris Stein to write "Rapture".

Contents

[edit] History

"Rapture" was a combination of New Wave pop, funk, and rap music, with the rap section forming an extended coda. While it was not the first single involving rap to be successful, it was the first to top the charts. The Sugarhill Gang's 1979 hit "Rapper's Delight", a straightforward rap track also based on Chic's "Good Times", and obviously also an inspiration for "Rapture", reached #36 on the U.S. Hot 100 chart, and went gold. Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks" was released in 1980, and became the second rap single to be certified gold. The lyrics of "Rapture" included references to hip-hop pioneers Fab Five Freddy and Grandmaster Flash. Freddy and fellow graffiti artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Lee Quinones made cameo appearances in the music video, one of the first broadcast on MTV.

The dancer William Barnes was the introductory and central figure, the "Man from Mars", in the white suit and top hat, and also choreographed the piece.[1]

The versions appearing on the U.S. and UK 7" and 12" singles were quite different. The US 7" single, also issued with a different cover picture, used the regular Autoamerican album version, the US 12" single a version with an addional verse partly in French, making it just 40 seconds longer. For the UK and international single releases Mike Chapman remixed the track completely. The Special Disco Mix has a different intro and it was also given a longer instrumental break with new percussion overdubbed, making it ten minutes long. The UK 7" version (4:59) was an edit of this Special Disco Mix, and a slightly different edit (5:33) appeared on the band's first 'greatest hits' compilation The Best of Blondie in 1981. "Live It Up" was also extended and remixed for the B-side of the international 12" single, the 8 minute version was included on the deleted 1994 UK CD edition of Autoamerican but was re-issued as part of EMI's lavish 14 disc Singles Box in 2004.

The picture of Debbie Harry used for the UK/international editions of the original 7" & 12" "Rapture" singles was later used for the cover of 1995 compilation Beautiful - The Remix Album.

The first official remix of "Rapture" can be found on the 1988 compilation Once More into the Bleach. The track was remixed again and re-issued as a single in both the UK and the US in 1994 and included on compilations The Platinum Collection, Beautiful - The Remix Album and Remixed Remade Remodeled - The Remix Project.

In 2005 "Rapture" was fused with The Doors' "Riders on the Storm" into "Rapture Riders" by Go Home Productions. This unofficial mashup remix was later approved to be included on Blondie's Greatest Hits: Sight + Sound/Greatest Hits: Sound & Vision and was a top ten hit on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart.

Grandmaster Flash scratch mixed "Rapture" on his classic single "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel". In 1996 Foxy Brown (featuring Jay-Z) used the song as the base for her hit, "I'll Be". It was also sampled by Won-G for his single "Caught up in the Rapture", and was interpolated by rapper KRS-One on his 1997 single "Step into a World (Rapture's Delight)". In 2000 it was sampled once more by Glamma Kid on his single "Bills 2 Pay". In that same year Destiny's Child sampled it on their single "Independent Women Part I". The song was also sampled by The Jungle Brothers in the song "In Days 2 Come" from the album "Done by the Forces of Nature". Elements of "Rapture" were recreated for the Joe Pesci song "Wise Guy", in which he raps in-character as Vincent LaGuardia Gambini from the film My Cousin Vinny.

English synthpop duo Erasure covered "Rapture" on their 1997 album Cowboy, with Vince Clarke providing the rap. Chilean musician Nicole also did a cover of this song in 2006, included on her album APT.

[edit] Track listing

US 7" (CHS 2485, January 1981)

  1. "Rapture" (Album version) (Deborah Harry, Chris Stein) - 6:33
  2. "Walk Like Me" (Jimmy Destri) - 3:45

US 12" (12 CHS 2485, January 1981)

  1. "Rapture" (US 12" Mix) (Harry, Stein) - 7:13
  2. "Walk Like Me" (Destri) - 3:45

UK 7" (CHS 2485, January 1981)

  1. "Rapture" (UK 7" Mix) (Harry, Stein) - 4:59
  2. "Walk Like Me" (Destri) - 3:45

UK 12" (CHS 12 2485, January 1981)

  1. "Rapture" (Special Disco Mix) (Harry, Stein) - 10:01
  2. "Live It Up" (Stein) (Special Disco Mix) - 8:14

[edit] Chart positions

Chart (1981) Peak
Position
US 12
USA Dance 1
Canada 1?
Ireland 4
New Zealand 4
UK 5
Austria 5
Norway 8
Sweden 13
Netherlands 19
Germany 40

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ IMDB, "Blondie: Video Hits"

[edit] External links

Preceded by
"Keep on Loving You" by REO Speedwagon		 Billboard Hot 100 number one single
March 28, 1981 - April 4, 1981		 Succeeded by
"Kiss on My List" by Daryl Hall and John Oates
Preceded by
"Keep on Loving You" by REO Speedwagon		 ARC Weekly Top 40 number one single
March 28, 1981 - April 4, 1981		 Succeeded by
"Kiss on My List" by Daryl Hall and John Oates
Preceded by
"You're Too Late" by Fantasy		 Billboard Hot Dance Club Play number-one single (with "The Tide Is High")
February 28, 1981 - March 21, 1981		 Succeeded by
"Breaking and Entering" / "Easy Money" by Dee Dee Sharp-Gamble
v • d • e
Blondie
Debbie Harry · Clem Burke · Jimmy Destri · Chris Stein
Leigh Foxx · Paul Carbonara · Kevin Patrick · Gary Valentine · Frank Infante · Nigel Harrison
Studio albums
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