Maps of Music

Eat to the Beat (1979)

Where the lyrics of Eat to the Beat take you, and where it was really made.

The album reached No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart in October 1979, but it peaked only at No. 17 on the US Billboard 200.

Key places

Electric Lady Studios, New York City (1979)

Recording site Electric Lady Studios — The album's recording credits list Electric Lady Studios in New York City as a recording location. The source gives no session date for this studio. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Mediasound Studios, New York City (1979)

Recording site Mediasound Studios — The album's recording credits list Mediasound as a recording location in New York City. The source gives no session date for this studio. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Power Station, New York City (1979)

Recording site Power Station Studio — The album's recording credits list Power Station as a recording location. The source gives no session date for this studio. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

The Record Plant (1979)

Recording site The Record Plant — The album's recording history lists The Record Plant as a recording location. The source gives no session date for this studio. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Eat to the Beat: fourth studio album by the American rock band Blondie
• Released 28 September 1979 by Chrysalis Records
• Primarily a new wave and pop album with a wide range of styles: rock, disco, new wave, punk, reggae, funk and a lullaby
• Atomic and The Hardest Part fuse disco with rock
• Continues the pop direction of Parallel Lines

Background

• Blondie's first two albums were new wave productions
• Parallel Lines dropped the new wave material and replaced it with rock-infused pop
• Eat to the Beat continued that pop direction
• Three singles came out in the UK: Dreaming, Union City Blue and Atomic
• The Hardest Part was released as the second US single instead of Union City Blue

Recording

• Produced by Mike Chapman, who also produced Parallel Lines
• Engineers: David Tickle and Peter Coleman
• Mastered by Steve Hall at MCA Whitney Studios in Glendale, California
• Recording credits list Power Station, Electric Lady Studios and Mediasound

Cover

• Photography and design by Norman Seeff
• Typography and design by John Van Hamersveld
• Art direction by Billy Bass

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in New York City in 1974 by singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein.
• Originally billed as Angel and the Snake, then Blondie and the Banzai Babies, shortened to Blondie by October 1974.
• The name came from truck drivers who catcalled "Hey, Blondie" to Harry.
• Became regular performers at Max's Kansas City and CBGB, part of the mid-1970s new wave scene.
• Debut album Blondie (1976) was not a commercial success; the band signed with Chrysalis Records in 1977.

Members

• Core members: Debbie Harry (vocals), Chris Stein (guitar), Clem Burke (drums), Jimmy Destri (keyboards).
• Other former members included Gary Valentine, Frank Infante, Nigel Harrison, and Fred Smith.
• Clem Burke died of cancer on April 6, 2025.

Career

• Breakthrough came in Australia and the UK with Plastic Letters (1978) and the hit single "Denis".
• Parallel Lines (1978) became their most successful album, selling about 20 million copies worldwide; "Heart of Glass" topped the UK and US charts.
• Further hits included "Call Me", "The Tide Is High", and "Rapture", the first rap-featuring song to reach US number one.
• The band disbanded in 1982 after The Hunter, reformed in 1997, and had their sixth UK number one with "Maria" in 1999.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006; has sold over 40 million records worldwide.
• Pollinator (2017) peaked at number four in the UK; a new album, High Noon, is scheduled for February 26, 2027.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Village Voice critic Robert Christgau felt the record was not a tour de force like Parallel Lines and had reservations about the overarching fatalism of its lyrics
• Christgau still liked how the lyrics speak directly to the mass audience
• Rolling Stone critic Debra Rae Cohen found the album ambitious in its range of styles and vibrantly compelling without giving up the group's urbane, modish humor
• People observed that the band sounded less raw but still fresh
• Smash Hits writer David Hepworth praised it as a brasher, more rocking follow-up, as hard and shiny as glass
• Eat to the Beat was voted the 17th best album of 1979 in The Village Voice's year-end Pazz & Jop critics' poll

Reappraisal

• AllMusic critic William Ruhlmann viewed the album as a secondhand version of Parallel Lines
• Ruhlmann judged its rock/disco fusion attempts less effective and said the band tried to cover too many stylistic bases
• BBC Music writer Chris Jones said Blondie had successfully expanded on the sound of Parallel Lines
• Jones said the album still sounds fresh today and praised Mike Chapman's production and the album's musical diversity

Records

• US Billboard 200: peaked at No. 17 and spent a year on the chart
• Listed among Billboard's top 10 albums of 1980
• UK Albums Chart: No. 1 in October 1979, the band's second top album there that year
• Certified Platinum by the BPI (UK) and the RIAA (US)
• Certified Platinum in France and Gold in other territories in the cited sources is not listed here; only the Platinum certifications above are stated in the sources

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Eat to the Beat was released as a video album, one of the earliest to be issued
• Most of its videos were filmed in and around New York
• The Union City Blue video was filmed at Union Dry Dock in Weehawken, New Jersey, as an exception
• Stein said Dreaming was inspired by ABBA's Dancing Queen
• Dreaming became one of the band's best-known songs and has appeared in nearly all of its concerts since

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

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