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Eat to the Beat

 
Album Review: Eat to the Beat
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Eat to the Beat

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  • Artist: Blondie
  • Rating: StarStarStarStarHalf Star
  • Release Date: 1979 10
  • Total Time: 43:01
  • Type: Compilation (best of)
  • Genre: Rock

Review

Just as Blondie's second album, Plastic Letters, was a pale imitation of their self-titled debut, Eat to the Beat, their fourth album, was a secondhand version of their breakthrough third album, Parallel Lines: one step forward, half a step back. There was an attempt, on such songs as "The Hardest Part" and "Atomic," to recreate the rock/disco fusion of the group's one major U.S. hit, "Heart of Glass," without similar success, and, elsewhere, the band just tried to cover too many stylistic bases. "Die Young Stay Pretty," for example, dipped into an island sound complete with modified reggae beat (a foreshadowing of the upcoming hit "The Tide Is High"), and "Sound-a-Sleep" was a lullaby that dragged too much to be a good change of pace. The British, who had long since been converted, made Eat to the Beat another chart-topper, with three major hits, including a number one ranking for "Atomic" and almost the same success for "Dreaming," but in the U.S., which still saw Blondie as a slightly comic one-hit wonder, the album was greeted for what it was -- slick corporate rock without the tangy flavor that had made Parallel Lines such ear candy. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Dreaming (Lyrics) Chris Stein, Debbie Harry Blondie (3:08)
The Hardest Part Chris Stein, Debbie Harry Blondie (3:42)
Union City Blue (Lyrics) Debbie Harry, Nigel Harrison Blondie (3:22)
Shayla (Lyrics) Chris Stein Blondie (3:57)
Eat to the Beat Nigel Harrison, Debbie Harry Blondie (2:40)
Accidents Never Happen (Lyrics) Jimmy Destri Blondie (4:14)
Die Young Stay Pretty (Lyrics) Chris Stein, Debbie Harry Blondie (3:33)
Slow Motion (Lyrics) Laura Davis, Jimmy Destri Blondie (3:27)
Atomic (Lyrics) Debbie Harry, Jimmy Destri Blondie (4:39)
Sound-A-Sleep (Lyrics) Chris Stein, Debbie Harry Blondie (4:17)
Victor Frank Infante, Debbie Harry Blondie (3:18)
Living in the Real World (Lyrics) Jimmy Destri Blondie (2:43)

Credits

Mike Chapman (Producer), David Tickle (Engineer), Lorna Luft (Vocals), Nigel Harrison (Bass), Debbie Harry (Vocals), Chris Stein (Guitar), Clem Burke (Drums), Randy Singer Hennes (Harmonica), Donna Destri (Vocals), Mike Chapman (Vocals), Ellie Greenwich (Vocals), Frank Infante (Bass), Jimmy Destri (Keyboards), Frank Infante (Guitar)
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Wikipedia: Eat to the Beat
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Eat to the Beat
Studio album by Blondie
Released October 1979
Recorded May - June 1979
Genre New Wave
Length 43:01
Label Chrysalis
Producer Mike Chapman
Professional reviews
Blondie chronology
Parallel Lines
(1978)		 Eat to the Beat
(1979)		 Autoamerican
(1980)

Eat to the Beat is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Blondie. It reached no.1 on the UK album charts in October 1979, and no.17 in the US.

Contents

History

Blondie released three singles in the UK from this album ("Dreaming", "Union City Blue" and "Atomic"). "The Hardest Part" was released as a single in the US. The album includes a diverse range of styles as punk, reggae, and funk as well as a lullaby. A "video album" was released on home video cassette in parallel with the record, featuring a promotional video for each song.

According to the liner notes of 1994 compilation The Platinum Collection the song "Slow Motion" was originally planned to be the fourth single release from the album, and Mike Chapman even made a remix of the track, but following the unexpected success of "Call Me", the theme song to movie American Gigolo, these plans were shelved and the single mix of Slow Motion remains unreleased. An alternate mix of the track entitled The Stripped Down Motown Mix did however turn up on one of the many remix singles issued by Chrysalis/EMI in the mid 1990s.

Eat to the Beat was digitally remastered and reissued by EMI in the 1994, and EMI-Capitol in 2001, with four bonus tracks. The 2001 remaster was again reissued in 2007 (June 26 - U.S.; July 2 - U.K.) without the four bonus tracks. Included instead was a DVD of the long-since deleted video album. This was the first time the Eat To The Beat video album had been available on the DVD format.

Track listing

Side A
  1. "Dreaming" (Debbie Harry, Chris Stein) – 3:08
  2. "The Hardest Part" (Harry, Stein) – 3:42
  3. "Union City Blue" (Nigel Harrison, Harry) – 3:21
  4. "Shayla" (Stein) – 3:57
  5. "Eat to the Beat" (Harrison, Harry) – 2:40
  6. "Accidents Never Happen" (Jimmy Destri) – 4:15
Side B
  1. "Die Young, Stay Pretty" (Harry, Stein) – 3:34
  2. "Slow Motion" (Laura Davis, Destri) – 3:28
  3. "Atomic" (Destri, Harry) – 4:40
  4. "Sound-A-Sleep" (Harry, Stein) – 4:18
  5. "Victor" (Harry, Frank Infante) – 3:19
  6. "Living in the Real World" (Destri) – 2:53
Bonus tracks (2001 CD reissue)
  1. "Die Young Stay Pretty" (Recorded live New Year's Eve '79 at The Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland) (Harry, Stein) – 3:27
  2. "Seven Rooms of Gloom" (Recorded live New Year's Eve '79 at The Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland) (Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Edward Holland, Jr.) – 2:48
  3. "Heroes" (Recorded live 1/12/80 at The Hammersmith Odeon, London, England (David Bowie, Brian Eno) – 6:19
  4. "Ring of Fire" (Live, from the soundtrack to the 1980 film Roadie) (June Carter Cash, Merle Kilgore) – 3:30
DVD-Video tracks (2007 CD/DVD reissue)
  1. "Eat to the Beat" (Harrison, Harry)
  2. "The Hardest Part" (Harry, Stein)
  3. "Union City Blue" (Nigel Harrison, Harry)
  4. "Slow Motion" (Laura Davis, Destri)
  5. "Shayla" (Stein)
  6. "Die Young, Stay Pretty" (Harry, Stein)
  7. "Accidents Never Happen" (Jimmy Destri)
  8. "Atomic" (Destri, Harry)
  9. "Living in the Real World" (Destri)
  10. "Sound-A-Sleep" (Harry, Stein)
  11. "Victor" (Harry, Frank Infante)
  12. "Dreaming" (Debbie Harry, Chris Stein)

Personnel

Blondie

Additional musicians

  • Mike Chapman - background vocals on "Die Young, Stay Pretty" and "Victor"
  • Donna Destri - background vocals on "Living in the Real World"
  • Robert Fripp - guitar on "Heroes"
  • Ellie Greenwich - background vocals on "Dreaming" and "Atomic"
  • Lorna Luft - background vocals on "Accidents Never Happen" and "Slow Motion"
  • Randy Singer (Hennes) - harmonica on "Eat to the Beat"

Production

Chart positions

Year Country Position
1979 United Kingdom #1
Sweden #2
Norway #6
Australia #9
United States #17
Austria #19
Germany #23

Sample
"Atomic"
The first single released from the album, and a number one hit in the United Kingdom.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.
Preceded by
The Pleasure Principle by Gary Numan		 UK Albums Chart number one album
13 October 1979		 Succeeded by
Regatta de Blanc by The Police

Sources

v • d • e
Blondie
Clem Burke · Jimmy Destri · Debbie Harry · Chris Stein
Paul Carbonara · Leigh Foxx · Nigel Harrison · Frank Infante · Matt Katz-Bohen · Gary Valentine
Studio albums
Compilations
Live albums
Singles
Remixes
Related articles

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Album Review. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Eat to the Beat".  Read more

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