Co-written by Debbie Harry, her bandmates and hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy, 'Yuletide Throwdown' is a revamp of the rock band's 1980 hit 'Rapture' and was originally released as a special flexi-disc.
- Oct 12, 2021
AceShowbiz - Blondie are joining the Christmas charts rush with a throwback holiday track. Debbie Harry and her bandmates co-wrote "Yuletide Throwdown" with hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy, real name Fred Brathwaite, over 40 years ago and they have decided to release the track as a remix with the help of Cut Chemist.
"Yuletide Throwdown", a revamp of Blondie's 1980 hit "Rapture", features Harry and Freddy rapping Christmas-themed lyrics over the original backing track. The tune was originally released as a special flexi-disc that was given away with U.K. music magazine Flexipop in 1981.
Harry says, "It has been an impossible amount of time since I believed in Santa Claus, but I could very well believe again if he was Freddy Brathwaite!! Some of my best times have been making music with [bandmate] Chris Stein and Freddy B."
The rapper adds, "In the beginning of my journey into pop culture, Chris and Debbie were among the first to take me and my ideas about hip-hop culture seriously and were, like, mentors to me shining a light along the road and assisting my quest. I'm happy after all this time the world can now hear this fun holiday tune we did way back then!"
He continues, "The first time we recorded the basic track for 'Rapture' we decided it was too slow, so we sped it up and that's the final version we released. I had the master tapes and took a copy of the tape of the first version home, overdubbed on top of it and put Debbie and Freddy's vocals on it. It was originally for Flexipop magazine, and it came out with other Christmas tracks I'd produced by the bands The Brattles and Snuky Tate."
