Blondie – Rapture

“Rapture” – Single by Blondie from the album Autoamerican
B-side: “Walk Like Me”
Released: January 12, 1981
Recorded: 1980
Studio: United Western, Hollywood, California
Label: Chrysalis
Songwriters: Debbie Harry and Chris Stein
Producer: Mike Chapman
Charted No.1 in US and No.5 in UK.

Hip-pop promoter and future host of Yo! MTV Raps Fab 5 Freddy is in the video and is mentioned in the song. He was part of the early rap scene and is credited with helping bring it into the mainstream. Blondie originally met Fab 5 Freddy and his crew at a club. They all became friends, and one day Freddy jokingly suggested that Debbie Harry should write a song about them. She did, and the result was the rap that is the second half of the song. She sent it to Freddy, he and his crew loved it and she ended up recording it.

The versions appearing on the US and UK 7″ and 12″ singles were quite different. The US 7″ single, also issued with a different cover picture, used the original album version and the US 12″ single used a version with an additional verse, making it 40 seconds longer. For the UK and other market single releases, producer Mike Chapman remixed the track completely. The “Special Disco Mix” has a different introduction, a longer instrumental break with new percussion overdubbed and includes the extra verse, making it 10 minutes long. The UK 7″ version (4:59) was an edit of the “Special Disco Mix” without the extra verse. A slightly different edit with the extra verse (5:36) appeared on the band’s first greatest hits compilation The Best of Blondie (1981). The album track “Live It Up” was also extended and remixed for the B-side of the non-US 12″ single. This 8-minute version was included on the 1994 UK CD edition of Autoamerican and was reissued as part of EMI’s 15-disc Blondie Singles Box in 2004. The song is widely regarded as one of Blondie’s best; in 2017, Billboard ranked the song number two on their list of the 10 greatest Blondie songs, and in 2021, The Guardian ranked the song number seven on their list of the 20 greatest Blondie songs.