Eat to the Beat is the fourth studio album by American rock band Blondie, released on September 28, 1979 by Chrysalis Records. The album spent a year on the US Billboard 200, peaking at and was one of Billboards top 10 albums of 1980. It has been certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Musical style

The primarily pop album Eat to the Beat continued in this pop direction. Most of the videos were filmed in and around New York. One of the exceptions was the "Union City Blue" music video, which was filmed at Union Dry Dock, Weehawken, New Jersey. Each video was directed by David Mallet and produced by Paul Flattery. The video was initially available as a promotional VHS in 1979 and subsequently released on videocassette and videodisc in October 1980.

Unlike the rest of Blondie's original albums, Eat to the Beat was not remastered in 1994. It was later digitally remastered and reissued by EMI-Capitol in 2001 with four bonus tracks and candid sleeve notes by Mike Chapman:

The 2001 remaster was again reissued in 2007 (June 26 in the USA; 2 July in the UK) 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.

Critical reception

Reviewing Eat to the Beat in 1979, Village Voice critic Robert Christgau felt that the record was not "a tour de force" like Blondie's previous album Parallel Lines and expressed reservations about "the overarching fatalism" of its lyrics, but noted that he liked "the way the lyrics depart from pop bohemia to speak directly to the mass audience they're reaching. And Debbie just keeps getting better." A review in People observed that the band sounded "less raw but still fresh." David Hepworth, writing in Smash Hits, praised it as a "brasher, more rocking follow-up... as hard and shiny as glass and I love it." Eat to the Beat was voted the 17th best album of 1979 in The Village Voices year-end Pazz & Jop critics' poll.

In a retrospective review, William Ruhlmann of AllMusic viewed Eat to the Beat as a "secondhand" version of Parallel Lines, finding that its similar attempts at "rock/disco fusion" were less effective, while "elsewhere, the band just tried to cover too many stylistic bases."

Track listing

Video album (12-inch LaserDisc format)

  1. "Eat to the Beat"
  2. "The Hardest Part"
  3. "Union City Blue"
  4. "Slow Motion"
  5. "Shayla"
  6. "Die Young Stay Pretty"
  7. "Accidents Never Happen"
  8. "Atomic"
  9. "Living in the Real World"
  10. "Sound-A-Sleep"
  11. "Victor"
  12. "Dreaming"

Bonus videos on side two of videodisc release

  1. "Heart of Glass"
  2. "Picture This"
  3. "(I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear"
  4. "Hanging on the Telephone"

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Eat to the Beat.

Blondie

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

Additional musicians

  • Ellie Greenwich – backing vocals on "Dreaming" and "Atomic"
  • Lorna Luft – backing vocals on "Accidents Never Happen" and "Slow Motion"
  • Donna Destri – backing vocals on "Living in the Real World"
  • Mike Chapman – backing vocals on "Die Young Stay Pretty" and "Victor", count-in vocal on "Living in the Real World"
  • Randy Hennes – harmonica on "Eat to the Beat"

Technical

  • Mike Chapman – production
  • Dave Tickle – engineering
  • Peter Coleman – engineering
  • Steve Hall – mastering at MCA Whitney Studios (Glendale, California)
  • Kevin Flaherty – production (2001 reissue)

Artwork

  • Norman Seeff – photography, design
  • John Van Hamersveld – typography, design
  • Billy Bass – art direction

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+ Weekly chart performance for Eat to the Beat

! scope="col"| Chart (1979)

! scope="col"| Peak<br />position

|-

! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)

| 9

|-

|-

|-

! scope="row"|Danish Albums

| 4

|-

|-

! scope="row"|Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)

| 3

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|}

Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+ 1979 year-end chart performance for Eat to the Beat

! scope="col"| Chart (1979)

! scope="col"| Position

|-

! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)

| 63

|-

! scope="row"| Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)

| 58

|-

! scope="row"| UK Albums (BMRB)

| 21

|}

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+ 1980 year-end chart performance for Eat to the Beat

! scope="col"| Chart (1980)

! scope="col"| Position

|-

! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)

| 56

|-

! scope="row"| Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)

| 67

|-

! scope="row"| UK Albums (BMRB)

| 40

|-

! scope="row"| US Billboard 200

| 8

|}

Certifications

References

Bibliography