Beautiful: The Remix Album

Beautiful: The Remix Album is a remix album of recordings by American band Blondie, released by Chrysalis/EMI Records in the UK during 1995. Several remix singles were released from the album in various formats: "Atomic" '94, which reached number 19 in the UK Singles Chart the previous year, "Heart of Glass" '95, which reached number 15, and "Union City Blue" '95 which reached number 31.[1]

Beautiful: The Remix Album
Remix album by
ReleasedJune 18, 1995
Genre
LabelChrysalis/EMI Records (UK)
Disky (Netherlands)
Blondie chronology
The Platinum Collection
(1994)
Beautiful: The Remix Album
(1995)
Remixed Remade Remodeled: The Remix Project
(1995)

The album was re-released by Dutch budget label Disky in 1999.

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Muzik     [2]
NME4/10[3]

Upon its release, Andrew Mueller of Melody Maker called the album an "even more heinous and pointless desecration" of Blondie's material than on their previous remix album Once More into the Bleach (1988) and noted that those involved have "just basically put on their pantomime bull outfits and bolted through Blondie's china shop". He concluded, "If Beautiful precipitates a full-scale Blondie revival, then the ends will just about justify the means. If not, then Chrysalis would be best advised to cease trying to fix what isn't broken."[4] Dele Fadele of NME noted how "various clubland luminaries have re-score[d] your favourite memories in electronic Technicolor, to hideously variable effect" and concluded, "The fact remains that the past should be allowed to remain untarnished, and anyone who wants to discover Blondie only need trawl through secondhand shops to get full satisfaction." He picked "Union City Blue" and "Dreaming" as two tracks which "survive [their] mauling, thanks to the pop sensibilities of the hired hands involved" and noted "Fade Away and Radiate" as a "futuristic noir chiller", but felt the rest of the tracks "give 'bilge' a new meaning".[3]

Track listing

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No.TitleWriter(s)Remixer(s)Length
1."Union City Blue" (Diddy's Power & Passion Mix)Diddy8:36
2."Dreaming" (Utah Saints Mix)Utah Saints6:22
3."Rapture" (K-Klassic Radio Mix)
  • Harry
  • Stein
K-Klass4:22
4."Heart of Glass" (Diddy's Adorable Illusion Mix)
  • Harry
  • Stein
Diddy7:28
5."Sunday Girl" (Hardly Handbag Mix)SteinCraig Burger Queen7:36
6."Call Me" (Debbie Does Dallas)Blu Peter6:19
7."Atomic" (Diddy's 12" Mix)Diddy6:51
8."The Tide Is High" (Sand Dollar Mix)John Holt
  • Peter Arden
  • Vinny Vero
7:04
9."Hanging on the Telephone" (Nose Bleed Handbag Mix)Jack LeeBlu Peter6:12
10."Fade Away and Radiate" (108 BPM Mix)SteinThe Black Dog5:19
11."Dreaming" (The Sub-Urban Dream Mix)
  • Harry
  • Stein
Tommy Musto5:59
12."Atomic" (Armand's Short Circuit Mix)
  • Harry
  • Destri
Armand Van Helden5:08

Personnel

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"Union City Blue" (Diddy's Power and Passion Mix):

  • Engineer – Andy Allder

"Dreaming" (Utah Saints Mix):

  • Engineer (mix engineer) – Guy Hatton

"Call Me" (Debbie Does Dallas):

  • Programmer, engineer (remix engineer) – Mick Shiner

"Atomic" (Diddy's 12" Mix):

  • Engineer – Republica

"The Tide Is High" (Sand Dollar Mix):

  • Engineer, mixer – Guido Osorio

"Hanging on the Telephone" (Nose Bleed Handbag Mix):

  • Programmer, engineer (remix engineer) – Mick Shiner

"Dreaming" (The Sub-Urban Dream Mix):

  • Engineer (Co-engineered), mixed by (co-mixed by) – Matthias Heilbronn
  • Keyboards – Mac Quayle

Charts

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Chart (1995) Peak
position
UK Albums (OCC)[5] 25

References

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  1. ^ "Blondie | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". www.officialcharts.com.
  2. ^ Bush, Calvin (September 1995). "Blondie: Beautiful (The Remix Album)" (PDF). Muzik. No. 4. p. 66. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2022.
  3. ^ a b Fadele, Dele (22 July 1995). "Long Play". New Musical Express. p. 49. ISSN 0028-6362.
  4. ^ Mueller, Andrew (15 July 1995). "Albums". Melody Maker. p. 37. ISSN 0025-9012.
  5. ^ "Blondie | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 6 June 2021.