Eat to the Beat

Eat to the Beat
Studio album by Blondie
Released	October 1979
Recorded	May - June 1979 at The Power Station, Electric Lady Studio and Media Sound, New York, NY
Genre	New wave, pop rock
Length	43:01
Label	Chrysalis
Producer	Mike Chapman
Blondie chronology
Parallel Lines (1978) Eat to the Beat (1979) Autoamerican (1980)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Rolling Stone	[2]
Robert Christgau	(A-)[3]

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,^[4] no.9 in Australia and no.17 in the US.

History

Blondie released three singles in the UK from this album ("Dreaming", "Union City Blue" and "Atomic"). "The Hardest Part" was released as the third single from the album in the US instead of "Union City Blue". The album includes a diverse range of styles as pop, punk, reggae, and funk as well as a lullaby. A "video album" was released on home video cassette in conjunction 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 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 Eat To The Beat video album, marking the first time it had been made 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)

13. "Die Young Stay Pretty" (Recorded live New Year's Eve '79 at The Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland) (Harry, Stein) – 3:27
14. "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
15. "Heroes" (Recorded live 1/12/80 at The Hammersmith Odeon, London, England) (David Bowie, Brian Eno) – 6:19
16. "Ring of Fire" (Live, from the soundtrack to the 1980 film Roadie) (June Carter Cash, Merle Kilgore) – 3:30

Video album

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

• Clem Burke - drums
• Jimmy Destri - keyboards; background vocals on "Die Young, Stay Pretty" and "Victor"
• Nigel Harrison - bass guitar
• Deborah Harry - vocals
• Frank Infante - guitar; background vocals on "Die Young, Stay Pretty" and "Victor"
• Chris Stein - guitar

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

• Mike Chapman - record producer
• Recorded at the Power Station, Electric Lady Studios and Media Sound, New York in 1979. Originally released on Chrysalis Records (1225).
• Kevin Flaherty - 2001 reissue producer.
• Norman Seeff - Cover photography and art direction.

Chart positions

Year	Country	Position
1979	United Kingdom	#1[5]
	Sweden	#2
	Norway	#6
	Australia	#9
	United States	#17
	Austria	#19
	Germany	#23

References

1. ^ Allmusic review
2. ^ Rolling Stone review
3. ^ Robert Christgau review
4. ^ Chartstats Blondie Eat To The Beat
5. ^ "Number 1 Albums – 1970s". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 9 February 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080209095720/http://www.theofficialcharts.com/all_the_no1_albums.php?show=3. Retrieved 24 June 2011. 

Preceded by The Pleasure Principle by Gary Numan

UK Albums Chart number one album 13 October 1979

Succeeded by Reggatta de Blanc by The Police