No Exit (Blondie album)

No Exit
Studio album by Blondie
Released	February 15, 1999 (1999-02-15)
Recorded	1998
Studio	Red Night Recording, Electric Lady and Chung King House of Metal (New York City)
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	59:05
Label	Beyond Music
Producer	Craig Leon
Blondie chronology
The Hunter (1982) No Exit (1999) The Curse of Blondie (2003)
Singles from No Exit
"Maria" Released: February 1, 1999 (UK) "Nothing Is Real but the Girl" Released: May 31, 1999 "No Exit" Released: October 22, 1999

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Robert Christgau	A−[2]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[3]
Entertainment Weekly	C[4]
Rolling Stone	[5]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[6]

No Exit is the seventh studio album by American rock band Blondie, released on February 15, 1999,^[7] by Beyond Music. It was the band's first album in 17 years and features the UK number-one single "Maria". As of March 2006, the album had sold two million copies worldwide.^[8]

Overview

As was customary for a Blondie album, No Exit dabbled in many genres, including pop, reggae, country, and hip hop. Mike Chapman, who had produced all but the first two of Blondie's previous albums, produced some of the early demos for the album, though final production of the album fell to Craig Leon.

A cover of the Shangri-Las' 1965 song "Out in the Streets" was included on the album. It was originally recorded by the band in 1975 while they were trying to get a record deal. The demo version was first issued on EMI's 1994 anthology The Platinum Collection and was later included on the 2001 remastered version of the band's eponymous debut studio album.

A comeback promotional tour, the No Exit Tour, was launched preceding the release of the album, which spanned 13 months and visited Europe, North America and Oceania.

Release and reception

No Exit reached number three on the UK Albums Chart, and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales in excess of 100,000 copies. It was preceded by the single "Maria", which became Blondie's sixth UK number one, exactly 20 years after the band's first number one, "Heart of Glass", making them the first American band to have chart-topping UK singles in three different decades: 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.^[9] A second single, "Nothing Is Real but the Girl", peaked at number 26 on the UK Singles Chart. The title track, "No Exit", was released as a limited-edition third single in Europe, and is a fusion of classical, hip hop and rock, and featured raps by Mobb Deep, Coolio, U-God, and Inspectah Deck. "Screaming Skin" was released as a promo single in the US in late 1999.

The album was released in several editions in different countries with various bonus tracks, mainly live versions of songs recorded during the band's No Exit Tour. The album was also reissued in 2001 along with all of Blondie's other studio albums.

Chris Stein commented on the title of the album in a 2004 interview: "The title was taken from a Sartre play, which says there's no madness in individuals, it's all in groups. I think that's probably what all these reality TV shows are about. Maybe we were a reality TV show before there was reality TV."

The album was not available on streaming platforms or digital music stores for several years, most likely because of a possible dispute in licensing or distribution rights, although the song "Maria" from the album could still be found on these platforms and stores on compilation albums. No Exit and its follower The Curse of Blondie (2003) were added to all streaming platforms on November 16, 2023.

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
1.	"Screaming Skin"	Deborah Harry Romy Ashby	Chris Stein Leigh Foxx	5:37
2.	"Forgive and Forget (Pull Down the Night)"	Stein	Stein	4:31
3.	"Maria"	Jimmy Destri	Destri	4:51
4.	"No Exit"	Destri Harry Ashby Coolio	Destri Stein	4:19
5.	"Double Take" (featuring Candy Dulfer)	Harry	Stein	4:12
6.	"Nothing Is Real but the Girl"	Destri	Destri	3:13
7.	"Boom Boom in the Zoom Zoom Room"	Harry Ashby	Clem Burke Kathy Valentine Denny Freeman	4:08
8.	"Night Wind Sent"	Harry Ashby	Foxx Stein	4:40
9.	"Under the Gun" (for Jeffrey Lee Pierce)	Stein	Stein	4:09
10.	"Out in the Streets"	Ellie Greenwich Jeff Barry	Greenwich Barry	3:03
11.	"Happy Dog" (for Caggy)	Harry Ashby	Stein	3:24
12.	"The Dream's Lost on Me"	Ashby	Stein Harry	3:19
13.	"Divine"	Burke Valentine	Burke Valentine	4:14
14.	"Dig Up the Conjo"	Destri	Stein Harry Destri	4:55

US and Canadian edition bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
15.	"Dreaming" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998) (hidden track)	Harry Stein	3:22
16.	"Call Me" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998) (hidden track)	Giorgio Moroder Harry	4:47
17.	"Rapture" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998) (hidden track)	Stein Harry	7:07

Australian edition bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
15.	"Call Me" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998)	Moroder Harry	4:47
16.	"Rapture" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998)	Stein Harry	7:07
17.	"Heart of Glass" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998)	Harry Stein	6:49

Limited edition bonus EP

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Call Me" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998)	Moroder Harry	4:47
2.	"Rapture" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998)	Stein Harry	7:07
3.	"Dreaming" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998)	Harry Stein	3:21
4.	"Heart of Glass" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998)	Harry Stein	6:49

Japanese edition bonus track

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
15.	"Hot Shot"	Andrew Kahn Kurt Borusiewicz	3:46

2001 reissue bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
15.	"Hot Shot"	Kahn Borusiewicz	3:46
16.	"Rapture" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998)	Stein Harry	7:07
17.	"Heart of Glass" (live at Lyceum Ballroom, London, November 22, 1998)	Harry Stein	6:49

Notes

• On the 2001 reissue, tracks 15 to 17 are sequenced as one track with a total duration of 17:51.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of No Exit.^[10]

Blondie

• Clem Burke
• Jimmy Destri
• Deborah Harry
• Chris Stein

Additional musicians

• Leigh Foxx – bass guitar
• Paul Carbonara – guitar
• James Chance – saxophone
• Candy Dulfer – saxophone (track 5)
• Helen Hooke – violin
• Frank Pagano – percussion
• Dave Ironside – saxophone
• Robert Aaron – tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, flute
• Rick Davies – trombone
• Ken Fradley – trumpet
• Rik Simpson – drum programming
• Coolio – vocals (track 4)
• Donna Destri – backing vocals
• Cassell Webb – backing vocals
• Jeffrey Lee Pierce – backing vocals
• Nancy West – backing vocals
• Theo Kogan – backing vocals
• Romy Ashby – backing vocals

Technical

• Craig Leon – production, recording (all tracks); mixing (tracks 1, 7, 9–11, 13, 14)
• Cassell Webb – production assistance
• Mike Shipley – mixing (tracks 2–6, 8)
• Randy Nicklaus – mixing (track 12)
• Michael Tocci – engineering assistance
• John Wydrycs – engineering assistance
• Ian Blanch – engineering assistance
• Milton Chan – engineering assistance
• Tal Miller – engineering assistance
• John Tamburello – technical installation
• Michael Block – technical installation
• Steve Hall – mastering

Artwork

• Rob Roth – art direction, design, photography
• Jana Paterson – design

Charts

Weekly charts Weekly chart performance for No Exit Chart (1999) Peak position Australian Albums (ARIA)[11] 72 Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[12] 20 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[13] 45 Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[14] 34 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[15] 80 European Albums (Music & Media)[16] 8 French Albums (SNEP)[17] 25 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[18] 18 Greek Albums (IFPI)[19] 2 Irish Albums (IRMA)[16] 10 Portuguese Albums (AFP)[20] 6 Scottish Albums (OCC)[21] 3 Spanish Albums (AFYVE)[22] 16 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[23] 36 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[24] 21 UK Albums (OCC)[25] 3 US Billboard 200[26] 18

Year-end charts Year-end chart performance for No Exit Chart (1999) Position European Albums (Music & Media)[27] 86 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[28] 66 UK Albums (OCC)[29] 76

Certifications and sales

Certifications and sales for No Exit

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Portugal	—	8,000[30]
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[31]	Gold	50,000^^
United Kingdom (BPI)[32]	Gold	100,000^^
United States	—	417,000[33]
Summaries
Worldwide	—	2,000,000[8]
^^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

1. Byrkit, Becky. "No Exit – Blondie". AllMusic. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
2. Christgau, Robert. "CG: Blondie". RobertChristgau.com. Retrieved April 15, 2006.
3. Larkin, Colin (2011). "Blondie". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
4. Mirkin, Steven (February 19, 1999). "No Exit". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
5. Kot, Greg (February 10, 2003). "Blondie: No Exit". Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
6. "Blondie: Album Guide". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved May 29, 2011.
7. "BPI".
8. Taylor, Chuck (March 18, 2006). "Blondie". Billboard. Vol. 118, no. 11. p. 36. ISSN 0006-2510 – via Google Books.
9. "Blondie overview". rockhall.com. Retrieved 2014-01-10.
10. No Exit (liner notes). Blondie. Beyond Records. 1999. 7432164114.
11. Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
12. "Austriancharts.at – Blondie – No Exit" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
13. "Ultratop.be – Blondie – No Exit" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
14. "Top RPM Albums: Issue 7488". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
15. "Dutchcharts.nl – Blondie – No Exit" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
16. "Hits of the World". Billboard. Vol. 111, no. 10. March 6, 1999. p. 75. ISSN 0006-2510 – via Google Books.
17. "Lescharts.com – Blondie – No Exit". Hung Medien. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
18. "Offiziellecharts.de – Blondie – No Exit" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
19. "Top National Sellers" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 16, no. 15. April 10, 1999. p. 10. OCLC 29800226 – via World Radio History.
20. "Hits of the World". Billboard. Vol. 111, no. 13. March 27, 1999. p. 71. ISSN 0006-2510 – via Google Books.
21. "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
22. Salaverrie, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Madrid: Fundación Autor/SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
23. "Swedishcharts.com – Blondie – No Exit". Hung Medien. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
24. "Swisscharts.com – Blondie – No Exit". Hung Medien. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
25. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
26. "Blondie Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
27. "Year in Focus – European Top 100 Albums 1999" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 17, no. 1. January 1, 2000. p. 11. OCLC 29800226 – via World Radio History.
28. "Top 100 Album-Jahrescharts – 1999" (in German). GfK Entertainment. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
29. "End of Year Album Chart Top 100 – 1999". Official Charts Company. Retrieved January 21, 2017.
30. Reis, Bárbara (February 25, 1999). "O segredo de "Maria"". Público (in Portuguese). Retrieved November 9, 2022.
31. Salaverrie, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (PDF) (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Madrid: Fundación Autor/SGAE. p. 949. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
32. "British album certifications – Blondie – No Exit". British Phonographic Industry. March 12, 1999. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
33. Caulfield, Keith (January 4, 2008). "Ask Billboard: Happy Anniversary". Billboard. Archived from the original on May 8, 2018. Retrieved April 21, 2018.