Blondie’s 1981 single Rapture was a ground-breaking song for the New York icons. Taken from their hugely successful 1980 album Autoamerican, it became the first song featuring rap vocals to top the charts in the US. Its accompanying promo clip, meanwhile, is touted as the first ever rap video to be aired on MTV, Debbie Harry and co. helping to shine a light on the ever-burgeoning hip-hop scene. Speaking about the track’s creation to this writer a few years ago, drummer Clem Burke said it summed up Blondie’s outlook in music that anything goes.
“Bowie had always been a template for Blondie and that really enabled us to keep an open mind about approaching a song like Rapture, and not thinking it was too far off the orbit of what Blondie would do,” Burke explained.
