The Intro
Blondie were one of the best bands around in the late-70s and rightfully continued to storm the charts in the early 80s. Their last number 1, Sunday Girl, was a nice tune, but they were at their best when they combined disco and rock. Atomic does this extremely well.
Before
Blondie’s third album, Parallel Lines had been a huge success, despite some critics referring to them as sell-outs for supposedly jumping on the disco bandwagon with Heart of Glass. Which is nonsense, as the band had dabbled in disco from its early days.
However, tensions were high. Drug use was increasing among the six-piece, and there was understandable jealousy over the fact Blondie were fast becoming known as ‘Debbie Harry and some men’. There was no wonder of course – Harry was the singer, and an incredibly cool and beautiful one at that, so the spotlight was always on her. And Harry used this momentum to increasingly decide on future material, which coincided with the making of their fourth album, Eat to the Beat. Their new wave stylings were on the way out in favour of a more pop-oriented approach.
The first fruits of Eat to the Beat to be released – opening track Dreaming – peaked at two. When the follow-up, Union City Blue, stalled at 13, Blondie must have been worried their fortunes were waning. Fortunately they had Atomic up their sleeves, which after two singles of plaintive melancholy, was a return to a more fiery sound.
Atomic came from Harry and keyboardist Jimmy Destri, who was trying to find a sound akin to Heart of Glass. From there the track was transformed by the twangy guitar sound, which simultaneously gave the tune a Spaghetti Western and surf sound. Harry has described that her songwriting approach with Blondie would often involve working out the lyrics while the rest of the band were rehearsing. She would scat ideas, often as placeholders. She came up with ‘Ooooh, your hair is beautiful’ first. The song transformed into an erotically charged pop-rock anthem. The song title most likely came from Harry trying to find a word that matched the guitar hook. It was perfect. Although some think the title has no fixed meaning, to me, it’s describing the potentially explosive level of attraction she’s feeling for the person she’s singing about.
Review
Coward of the County spoiled a very impressive run of number 1 singles but Atomic puts us firmly back on track. What a single. It doesn’t matter that the lyrics are somewhat basic because they fit the mood and get the message across perfectly. It’s a night out, and a girl wants a man to ‘make it magnificent’. The tense, edgy sound here is a million miles away from the sedate bounce of Rogers’ song. It’s Blondie at their best, and is expertly produced by Mike Chapman, as you’d expect from such a prolific pop and rock hitmaker. For me, although Heart of Glass edges it as their best chart-topper, Atomic does a better job of combining disco, rock and pop naturally. However, the album mix, with its intro based on Three Blind Mice, features a bass guitar solo, which makes the disco element more obvious. This is the essential version and is nearly a minute longer than the single edit.
It’s worth nothing that singing backing vocals is Ellie Greenwich. The singer, songwriter and producer wrote or co-wrote some of the most famous pop music of the 60s, including Da Doo Ron Ron, River Deep – Mountain High and Do Wah Diddy Diddy, number 1 for Manfred Mann in 1968.
Eat to the Beat was the first full LP to have a video made for every song, by director David Mallet. The video for Atomic has a very literal premise but is a charming product of its time. The band are seen performing in a post-apocalyptic nightclub as the crowd do some freaky dancing. Harry is one of the only people in the world who could manage to look cool while dancing badly in a binbag. The video also features Gia Carangi – considered the world’s first supermodel. You can see similarities in Mallet’s video for Ashes to Ashes later in the year, as both feature solarising effects. Strangely, the version of the song in the full video is the album version, minus the intro.
After
Released in February, Atomic quickly rocketed up the charts to number 1 on 1 March. It was followed only two months later by Call Me, which had already been a US chart-topper and soon repeated the feat here.
The Outro
Atomic is a song that stands outside of time, sounding as hip now as it did 43 years ago. Attempts to update it only end up sounding more dated. In 1994 the ‘Diddy’s Edit’ (not P Diddy) gave the song a backing ideal for clubbing in the 90s, but it’s not aged well. It performed respectably though, reaching 19. To mark the 40th anniversary of Blondie, the band re-recorded Atomic for Greatest Hits Deluxe Redux. It’s better than the 1994 remix but only because it’s so similar to the original – the only real difference is the understandably inferior new vocal performance from Harry.
The Info
Written by
Debbie Harry & Jimmy Destri
Producer
Mike Chapman
Number of weeks
2 (1-14 March)
Trivia
Births
2 March: Footballer Chris Barker
13 March: Scottish field hockey player Linda Clement
Deaths
1 March: Footballer Dixie Dean/Motorcycle racer Eric Oliver
3 March: Socialite Sir Michael Duff, 3rd Baronet
4 March: Football manager Alan Hardaker
5 March: Historian Jack Gallagher/John Raven/John Skeaping
6 March: Conservative MP Harry Becker/Philanthropist Noel Croucher/Cricket journalist Norman Preston/Physician EA Underwood
7 March: Yacht designer John Illingworth
14 March: Chemical engineer Dudley Maurice Newitt/Artist Vere Temple
Meanwhile…
10 March: An opinion poll in the Evening Standard suggests six out of 10 Britons are unhappy with the Conservative government, who are trailing Labour in the opinion polls.
