“Rapture” by Blondie

"Rapture" is the moment Blondie smuggled hip-hop onto pop radio. Debbie Harry and Chris Stein wrote it for Autoamerican, the band's fifth album, and Chrysalis issued it as the record's second and last single on January 12, 1981, with Mike Chapman producing.

It glides on a cool, slinky disco groove, Clem Burke's drums and Nigel Harrison's bass locked tight while Jimmy Destri's keyboards shimmer and Tom Scott's saxophone slips through the haze. Harry sings the first half like a dream half remembered, and then the song opens out into a long rap coda, new wave, disco and hip-hop all in one breath. Stein and Frank Infante play guitar, and Stein even adds timpani.

It was a smash: it sat atop the Billboard Hot 100 for a fortnight, the band's fourth and final chart-topper, a million copies shipped in the US and a gold record. It was also the first American number-one single to feature rapping, and abroad it climbed into the top five in Canada, Australia and the UK.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.