Peak
1
Weeks
20
Score
4,001
Chart Year
1981
The accompanying music video for "Rapture" made its US television debut on Solid Gold on January 31, 1981,[7] and not only became the first rap video ever broadcast on MTV, but was part of its first 90-video rotation.[8] Set in the East Village section of Manhattan, the "Man from Mars" or "voodoo god" (dancer William Barnes in the white suit and top hat) is the introductory and central figure. Barnes also choreographed the piece.[9] Much of the video is a one-take scene of lead singer Debbie Harry dancing down the street, passing by graffiti artists, Uncle Sam, an American Indian, child ballet dancer and a goat. Fab Five Freddy and graffiti artists Lee Quiñones and Jean-Michel Basquiat make cameo appearances. Basquiat was hired when Grandmaster Flash did not show for the shoot.[10][11] The UK 7" version of the song is used in the video.
This was the first #1 hit song with a rap. Artists like Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, and Kurtis Blow had been rapping since the mid-'70s, and The Sugarhill Gang cracked the Hot 100 in 1979 with "Rapper's Delight," but until "Rapture," rap had never been incorporated into a hit pop song. Debbie Harry did the rap, and it was really ridiculous, with lyrics about the "man from Mars eating cars," but the novelty helped the song become a hit. Harry's rap is so goofy that it sounds like she could be mocking the genre, but this was very early in the evolution of hip-hop, and many of the rhymes that came out of the New York block parties were just as silly. Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie championed rap and got involved in the community, often attending these block parties - they even took Nile Rodgers to one, which is where he learned that his song "Good Times" was a DJ favorite. Blondie brought rap to a far larger audience with this song; Debbie Harry says that a lot of rappers - including members of Mobb Deep and Wu-Tang Clan - told her it was the first rap song they ever heard, since the genre wasn't welcome on the radio then. Until this came out, rappers typically used existing songs as the basis for the music they would rap over; they usually took disco or soul records and looped the beats to extend the breaks. Debbie Harry's rap in this was nothing special, but it was the first rap in a song that had its own original music. In certain Christian theology, The Rapture is an event where believers are transported to heaven while others must endure the beginning of the end times on Earth. The lyrics of this song are a bit apocalyptic, as the "Man from Mars" starts destroying the planet with his insatiable appetite. The word "Rapture" is also a play on the rap aspect of the song. As the age of disco ended, so did Blondie's success. This was their last US hit until 1999, when they had a comeback song called "Maria." They did have another UK hit in 1982 called "Island Of Lost Souls." If you listen carefully to the lyrics, you might hear something naughty. Shortly before the rap, there is a line that sounds a lot like "Finger F--king." Most lyric sheets list this line as "Finger Popping." Hip-pop promoter and future host of Yo! MTV Raps Fab 5 Freddy is in the video and is mentioned in the song. He was part of the early rap scene and is credited with helping bring it into the mainstream. Blondie originally met Fab 5 Freddy and his crew at a club. They all became friends, and one day Freddy jokingly suggested that Debbie Harry should write a song about them. She did, and the result was the rap that is the second half of the song. She sent it to Freddy, he and his crew loved it and she ended up recording it. The video for this features a cameo appearance by New York artist/Andy Warhol disciple Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose life was portrayed in the 1996 film Basquiat. The lyrics, "Flash is fast, flash is cool" are a reference to pioneering hip-hop DJ Grandmaster Flash. KRS-One interpolated this song on his 1997 single "Step Into A World (Rapture's Delight)," which made #70 in the US. Singing with KRS-One on the track is Keva Holman. The song can be heard in the 2013 movie This Is the End, where it fits with the rapture theme. A few months after this song was released, Tom Tom Club issued their first single, "Wordy Rappinghood." The Tom Tom Club song wasn't issued in America, but became a big hit in Europe and Latin America. Like "Rapture," it featured a white female vocalist doing a rap (Tina Weymouth). Like Blondie, Tom Tom Club was immersed in the New York music scene and influenced by hip-hop. Neither act knew the other was working on a rap song - Blondie was recording in New York while Tom Tom Club was working in the Bahamas. This was used in a 2015 commercial for the Acura RDX where a woman sings along to the song while driving.
Toe to toe Dancing very close Barely breathing Almost comatose Wall to wall People hypnotized And they're stepping lightly Hang each night in rapture Back to back Sacroiliac Spineless movement And a wild attack Face to face Sightless solitude And it's finger popping Twenty-four hour shopping in rapture Fab Five Freddy told me everybody's fly DJ spinnin' I said, "My my" Flash is fast, Flash is cool François c'est pas, Flash ain't no dude And you don't stop, sure shot Go out to the parking lot And you get in your car and drive real far And you drive all night and then you see a light And it comes right down and it lands on the ground And out comes a man from Mars And you try to run but he's got a gun And he shoots you dead and he eats your head And then you're in the man from Mars You go out at night eatin' cars You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns too Mercurys and Subaru And you don't stop, you keep on eatin' cars Then, when there's no more cars you go out at night And eat up bars where the people meet Face to face, dance cheek to cheek One to one, man to man Dance toe to toe, don't move too slow 'Cause the man from Mars is through with cars He's eatin' bars, yeah wall to wall Door to door, hall to hall He's gonna eat 'em all Rapture, be pure Take a tour through the sewer Don't strain your brain, paint a train You'll be singin' in the rain Said don't stop to punk rock Well now you see what you wanna be Just have your party on TV 'Cause the man from Mars won't eat up bars where the TV's on Now he's gone back up to space Where he won't have a hassle with the human race And you hip-hop, and you don't stop Just blast off, sure shot 'Cause the man from Mars stopped eatin' cars and eatin' bars And now he only eats guitars, get up
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jan 31, 1981 | 61 | 65 |
| 2 | Feb 7, 1981 | 42 | 84 |
| 3 | Feb 14, 1981 | 32 | 94 |
| 4 | Feb 21, 1981 | 19 | 107 |
| 5 | Feb 28, 1981 | 15 | 111 |
| 6 | Mar 7, 1981 | 12 | 114 |
| 7 | Mar 14, 1981 | 7 | 119 |
| 8 | Mar 21, 1981 | 6 | 120 |
| 9 | Mar 28, 1981 | 1 | 125 |
| 10 | Apr 4, 1981 | 1 | 125 |
| 11 | Apr 11, 1981 | 2 | 124 |
| 12 | Apr 18, 1981 | 2 | 124 |
| 13 | Apr 25, 1981 | 6 | 120 |
| 14 | May 2, 1981 | 6 | 120 |
| 15 | May 9, 1981 | 14 | 112 |
| 16 | May 16, 1981 | 31 | 95 |
| 17 | May 23, 1981 | 52 | 74 |
| 18 | May 30, 1981 | 75 | 51 |
| 19 | Jun 6, 1981 | 93 | 33 |
| 20 | Jun 13, 1981 | 100 | 26 |