"Rapture" was another commercial success for the band, shipping one million copies in the United States, where it was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and spent two weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, their fourth and last single to reach the top. It was the first number-one single in the United States to feature rap vocals. The single also peaked at number three in Canada, and number five in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Background
Singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein were friends with Brooklyn- and Bronx-based hip-hop artists such as Fab 5 Freddy (Fred Brathwaite) in the late 1970s. Brathwaite took Harry and Stein to a rap event in the Bronx one night in 1978, and they were both impressed by the skill and excitement as MCs rhymed lyrics over the beats of spinning records and people lined up for a chance to take the microphone and freestyle rap.[6] Harry and Stein went to a few more such events, before deciding to write a rap song of their own in late 1979. They decided to combine what they had seen and heard in the Bronx with Chic-inspired disco music. Keyboardist Jimmy Destri found some tubular bells in the back of the studio, which added a haunting touch to the song. The title "Rapture" was a pun on "rap", according to Stein.[7]
In an early recording the music was slower and simpler. Stein said that "[t]he slower tape was just bass, drums and guitar doubling the bass, I don’t think much else."[8] This version was put aside and later reworked as "Rapture".[9] For "Rapture", Stein said that "[w]e decided to make it faster."[8] Stein later retrieved the original recording, and Harry and Brathwaite added vocals. The result was released in the UK as "Yuletide Throwdown", as a flexi disc given away with the magazine Flexipop.[9]
Stein loved B-movies and science fiction imagery, so he wrote some surreal verses about a man from Mars. For the chorus, Harry tried to capture the feeling of a crowded hip-hop dance floor in the Bronx: "Toe to toe / Dancing very close / Barely breathing / Almost comatose / Wall to wall / People hypnotized / And they're stepping lightly / Hang each night in Rapture." The rap section references Fab 5 Freddy ("Fab 5 Freddy told me everybody's fly"), as well as Grandmaster Flash ("Flash is fast, Flash is cool").
Record World said that "Debbie's sweet, enticing vocal transforms itself into a streetwise jam," calling the song "infectious" and calling the rhythm "hypnotic."[10]
Music video
The accompanying music video for "Rapture" made its US television debut on Solid Gold on January 31, 1981,[11] and not only became the first rap video ever broadcast on MTV, but was part of its first 90-video rotation.[12] Set in the East Village section of Manhattan, the "Man from Mars" or "voodoo god" (dancer William Barnes in the white suit and top hat) is the introductory and central figure. Barnes also choreographed the piece.[13] Much of the video is a one-take scene of lead singer Debbie Harry dancing down the street, passing by graffiti artists, Uncle Sam, an Indigenous American, child ballet dancer and a goat. Fab 5 Freddy and graffiti artists Lee Quiñones and Jean-Michel Basquiat make cameo appearances. Basquiat was hired when Grandmaster Flash did not show for the shoot.[14][15]
The UK 7" version of the song is used in the video.
Versions
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,[16] and in 2021, The Guardian ranked the song number seven on their list of the 20 greatest Blondie songs.[17]
Blondie re-recorded the song for their 2014 compilation album Greatest Hits Deluxe Redux. The compilation was part of a 2-disc set called Blondie 4(0) Ever which included their tenth studio album Ghosts of Download and marked the 40th anniversary of the forming of the band.
The picture of Debbie Harry used for the UK editions of the original 7" and 12" "Rapture" singles was later used for the cover of the compilation album Beautiful: The Remix Album (1995).
In 2005, "Rapture" was mashed with The Doors' 1971 song "Riders on the Storm" into "Rapture Riders" by Go Home Productions. This unofficial mashup remix was later approved by both bands and released as a single credited to Blondie vs. The Doors. It was also included on Blondie's compilation album Greatest Hits: Sight + Sound (2005).[19] "Rapture Riders" made the top-ten on the US Dance Club Songs and was a Top 40 hit in Australia and Europe.
To promote the character's appearances in the third season of The Boys, Jensen Ackles appeared in several videos depicting Soldier Boy's in-universe promotional campaigns in the 1980s, in particular, serenading the dancers of Solid Gold with a spoken-word rendition of "Rapture".[20][21] Ackles' cover received additional praise from the band itself, with Debbie Harry describing the rendition as "epic".[22][23][24]
.jpg)
