Autoamerican

Autoamerican
Studio album by Blondie
Released	November 1980
Recorded	1980, United Western Studios, Hollywood
Genre	New wave, hip hop
Length	46:39 50:49 (cassette)
Label	Chrysalis Records
Producer	Mike Chapman
Blondie chronology
Eat to the Beat (1979) Autoamerican (1980) The Hunter (1982)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Robert Christgau	B−[2]
Rolling Stone	[3]

Autoamerican is the fifth studio album by the US new wave band Blondie. It was released in November 1980 and reached #3^[4] in the UK charts, #8 in Australia and #7 in the US.

The album proved to be a radical departure for the band, with opening track "Europa" setting the pace. The track was a dramatic instrumental overture featuring orchestral arrangements and ending with vocalist Debbie Harry reciting a poem about the importance of the car in American society. Besides rock and pop tracks, the band explored a wide range of other musical genres: "Here's Looking At You" and "Faces" show jazz and blues influences, the reggae hit "The Tide Is High" was a cover of The Paragons' 1965 Jamaican ska hit, whereas "Rapture" combined funk, rock, jazz, and even saw them embracing the then budding genre of rap. The closing track, "Follow Me", was a cover of a torch song from Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's 1960 Broadway musical Camelot, based on the King Arthur legend.

The band released two singles from this album, "The Tide Is High" and "Rapture". "The Tide Is High" hit #1 in several countries, including the U.S. and the UK. "Rapture" became the first rap song not only to be released from the band but also the first ever to reach #1 on the singles chart in the U.S. (it also reached #5 in the UK). The first edition of the US pressing of the album had a sticker on the cover stating Including "The Tide Is High", "Rapture" and "T-Birds", suggesting that the track was planned as the third single release.

Autoamerican was digitally remastered and reissued with two bonus tracks by Chrysalis Records in the UK in 1994 which included extended "special disco mix" versions of "Rapture" and "Live It Up". The album was again remastered and re-released by EMI-Capitol in 2001, again featuring the extended version of "Rapture" along with the extended version of their #1 hit "Call Me" (from the film soundtrack to American Gigolo), and also "Suzy & Jeffrey" which was originally the B-side to "The Tide Is High" single.

Producer Mike Chapman insisted the band record in Los Angeles, of which Chris Stein lamented: "Every day we get up, stagger into the blinding sun, [and] drive past a huge Moon-mobile from some ancient sci-fi movie." But Blondie insisted on a cover from their hometown, posing on a roof at Broadway and Eighth. The photo was treated to look like a painting.

Track listing

Side A:

1. "Europa" (Chris Stein) – 3:31
2. "Live It Up" (Stein) – 4:09
3. "Here's Looking at You" (Debbie Harry, Stein) – 2:58
4. "The Tide Is High" (Howard Barrett, Tyrone Evans, John Holt) – 4:39
5. "Angels on the Balcony" (Laura Davis, Jimmy Destri) – 3:47
6. "Go Through It" (Harry, Stein) – 2:40
7. "Suzy & Jeffrey" a.k.a. "Susie & Jeffrey" (Harrison, Harry) – 4:10 (cassette only)

Side B:

8. "Do the Dark" (Destri) – 3:51
9. "Rapture" (Harry, Stein) – 6:30
10. "Faces" (Harry) – 3:51
11. "T-Birds" (Nigel Harrison, Harry) – 3:56
12. "Walk Like Me" (Jimmy Destri) – 3:44
13. "Follow Me" (Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe) – 3:01

Bonus Tracks (1994 UK CD reissue)

14. "Rapture" (Special Disco Mix) (Harry, Stein) – 9:59
15. "Live It Up" (Special Disco Mix) (Stein) – 8:13

Bonus Tracks (2001 CD reissue)

14. "Call Me" (Original Long Version) (Harry, Giorgio Moroder) – 8:06
15. "Suzy & Jeffrey" (Harrison, Harry) – 4:10
16. "Rapture" (Special Disco Mix) (Harry, Stein) – 9:59

Personnel

• Deborah Harry - vocals
• Chris Stein - guitar, vibraphone
• Jimmy Destri - piano, organ, synthesizer, background vocals
• Frank Infante - guitar, background vocals
• Nigel Harrison - bass, background vocals
• Clem Burke - drums, background vocals

Additional personnel

• Howard Kaylan - vocals on "T-Birds"
• Mark Volman - vocals on "T-Birds"
• Jimmie Haskill - string & horns arrangement
• Wa Wa Watson - guitar on "Live It Up"
• Tom Scott - saxophone on "Rapture" & "Faces"
• Steve Goldstein - piano, synthesizer
• Ray Brown - bass on "Faces"
• Scott Lesser - percussion on "Live It Up"
• Ollie Brown - percussion on "The Tide is High"
• Emil Richards - percussion on "The Tide is High"
• Alex Acuña - percussion on "The Tide is High"
• B-Girls - background vocals on "Live It Up"

Production

• Mike Chapman - record producer
• Recorded at United Western Studio, Hollywood, California in 1980. Originally released on Chrysalis (1290).
• Kevin Flaherty - 2001 reissue producer

Chart peaks

References

v t e Blondie Clem Burke Jimmy Destri Debbie Harry Chris Stein Leigh Foxx Nigel Harrison Frank Infante Paul Carbonara Kevin Patrick Matt Katz-Bohen Tommy Kessler Gary Valentine Studio albums Blondie Plastic Letters Parallel Lines Eat to the Beat Autoamerican The Hunter No Exit The Curse of Blondie Panic of Girls Compilations The Best of Blondie The Complete Picture: The Very Best of Deborah Harry and Blondie Blonde and Beyond The Platinum Collection Denis Picture This - The Essential Blondie Collection Atomic - The Very Best of Blondie Greatest Hits Greatest Hits: Sight + Sound Greatest Hits: Sound & Vision Live albums Picture This Live Livid Live By Request Blondie at the BBC Singles "X Offender" "In the Flesh" "Rip Her to Shreds" "Denis" "(I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear" "Picture This" "I'm Gonna Love You Too" "Hanging on the Telephone" "Heart of Glass" "Sunday Girl" "One Way or Another" "Dreaming" "Union City Blue" "The Hardest Part" "Atomic" "Call Me" "The Tide Is High" "Rapture" "Island of Lost Souls" "War Child" "Maria" "Nothing Is Real but the Girl" "No Exit" "Good Boys" "Mother" "What I Heard" Remixes Once More into the Bleach Beautiful - The Remix Album Remixed Remade Remodeled - The Remix Project Related articles Discography Book:Blondie