Autoamerican

Autoamerican
Studio album by Blondie
Released	November 1980
Recorded	1980, United Western Studios, Hollywood
Genre	New wave
Length	46:39 50:49 (cassette)
Label	Chrysalis
Producer	Mike Chapman
Blondie chronology
Eat to the Beat (1979)Eat to the Beat1979 Autoamerican (1980) The Hunter (1982)The Hunter1982
Singles from Autoamerican
"The Tide Is High" Released: October 1980 "Rapture" Released: January 12, 1981

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Robert Christgau	B−
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004)

Autoamerican is the fifth studio album by the American rock band Blondie. It was released in November 1980 and reached #3 in the UK charts, #7 in the US, and #8 in Australia.

Overview

The album was a radical departure for the band, with opening track "Europa" setting the pace. The track is a dramatic instrumental overture featuring orchestral arrangements and ending with vocalist Debbie Harry declaiming a passage about automobile culture over an electronic soundtrack. Besides rock and pop tracks, the band explored a wide range of other musical genres: "Here's Looking at You" and "Faces" show jazz and blues influences, the reggae hit "The Tide Is High" was a cover of The Paragons' 1967 Jamaican ska hit, whereas "Rapture" combined funk, rock, jazz, and even saw them embracing the then emerging genre of rap. The closing track, "Follow Me", was a cover of a torch song from Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's 1960 Broadway musical Camelot.

Producer Mike Chapman insisted the band record in Los Angeles. Guitarist Chris Stein lamented: "Every day we get up, stagger into the blinding sun, [and] drive past a huge Moon-mobile from some ancient sci-fi movie." Drummer Clem Burke welcomed the change: "Autoamerican was fun. We got to spend two months in California. I'm always up for a free ride." However, the band insisted on the cover artwork shot being from their hometown, posing on a roof at New York's Broadway and Eighth. The image was taken from a commissioned painting by artist Martin Hoffman (1935-2013).

The band released two singles from this album, "The Tide Is High" and "Rapture". "The Tide Is High" hit number 1 in several countries, including the US and the UK. "Rapture" became the first rap song ever to reach number 1 on the singles chart in the US (it also reached number 5 in the UK).

Autoamerican was digitally remastered and reissued with two bonus tracks by Chrysalis Records in the UK in 1994 which included extended the 12" Special Disco Mix versions of "Rapture" and its B-side "Live It Up", from 1981. The album was again remastered and re-released by EMI-Capitol in 2001, again featuring the extended version of "Rapture" along with the extended version of their number 1 hit "Call Me" (from the film soundtrack to American Gigolo), and also "Suzy & Jeffrey" which was originally the B-side to "The Tide Is High" single.

Track listing

Side One
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Europa"	Chris Stein	3:31
2.	"Live It Up"	Stein	4:09
3.	"Here's Looking at You"	Debbie Harry, Stein	2:58
4.	"The Tide Is High" (Cover of The Paragons)	John Holt, Howard Barrett, Tyrone Evans	4:39
5.	"Angels on the Balcony"	Laura Davis, Jimmy Destri	3:47
6.	"Go Through It"	Harry, Stein	2:40

Side Two
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
7.	"Do the Dark"	Destri	3:51
8.	"Rapture"	Harry, Stein	6:30
9.	"Faces"	Harry	3:51
10.	"T-Birds"	Nigel Harrison, Harry	3:56
11.	"Walk Like Me"	Destri	3:44
12.	"Follow Me"	Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe	3:01

Bonus tracks on cassette edition
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
7.	"Susie and Jeffrey" (B-side to "The Tide Is High" single)	Harry, Harrison	4:10

Bonus tracks 1994 CD reissue
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13.	"Rapture (Special Disco Mix)"	Harry, Stein	9:59
14.	"Live It Up (Special Disco Mix)"	Stein	8:13

Bonus tracks 2001 CD reissue
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13.	"Call Me (Original Long Version)" (From the original motion picture soundtrack American Gigolo)	Giorgio Moroder, Harry	8:06
14.	"Suzy & Jeffrey" (B-side to "The Tide Is High" single)	Harry, Harrison	4:10
15.	"Rapture (Special Disco Mix)"	Harry, Stein	9:59

Personnel

• Deborah Harry – vocals
• Chris Stein – guitar, vibraphone
• Jimmy Destri – piano, organ, synthesizer, background vocals
• Frank Infante – guitar, background vocals
• Nigel Harrison – bass, background vocals
• Clem Burke – drums, background vocals

Additional personnel

• Howard Kaylan – vocals on "T-Birds"
• Mark Volman – vocals on "T-Birds"
• Jimmie Haskell – string and horn arrangements on "Here's Looking at You", "The Tide Is High", "Europa" and "Go Through It"
• Wah Wah Watson – guitar on "Live It Up"
• Tom Scott – saxophone on "Rapture" and "Faces", lyricon on "Do the Dark"
• Steve Goldstein – piano on "Faces", synthesizer on "Follow Me"
• Ray Brown – bass on "Faces"
• Scott Lesser – percussion on "Live It Up"
• Ollie Brown – percussion on "The Tide Is High"
• Emil Richards – percussion on "The Tide Is High"
• Alex Acuña – percussion on "The Tide Is High"
• B-Girls – background vocals on "Live It Up"

Production

• Mike Chapman – record producer
• Recorded at United Western Studio, Hollywood, California in 1980. Originally released on Chrysalis Records on November 14, 1980 (CHE-1290).
• Kevin Flaherty – 2001 reissue producer

Chart peaks

Chart (1980–81)	Peak position
Australian Albums Chart	8
Austrian Albums Chart	18
Canadian Albums Chart	4
Dutch Albums Chart	16
Gegman Albums Chart	42
New Zealand Albums Chart	6
Norwergian Albums Chart	12
Swedish Albums Chart	11
UK Albums Chart	3
US Billboard 200	7
US Top R&B Albums	25

Year-end charts

Chart (1981)	Peak position
Canadian RPM 1981 Top 100 Albums	23

Certifications

Region	Certification	Sales/shipments
Canada (Music Canada)	3× Platinum	300,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	Platinum	300,000
United States (RIAA)	Platinum	1,000,000
*sales figures based on certification alone ^shipments figures based on certification alone xunspecified figures based on certification alone