One Way or Another


"One Way or Another" is a song by American new wave band Blondie from the album Parallel Lines. The song was released as the fourth single in the US and Canada as the follow-up to the no. 1 hit "Heart of Glass". "One Way or Another" reached No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 7 on the RPM 100 Singles.

Song information

Written by Debbie Harry and Nigel Harrison for the band's third studio album, Parallel Lines, the song was inspired by one of Harry's ex-boyfriends who stalked her after their breakup. Harry explained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:
According to Harry's former bandmate Elda Gentile from The Stilletoes the stalking had taken place in 1973.
The song was recorded between June and July 1978 at New York's Record Plant studio.
The song was included on the US and Canadian versions of the band's first hits compilation, The Best of Blondie, as it was released as a single there, but not on the international releases. Although never officially released as a single in the United Kingdom, the song charted there from download sales in February 2013 due to the success of One Direction's cover/mashup "One Way or Another ". Adam Boult of The Guardian considered this version of the song to be an "abomination".
Blondie released a manipulated live version of the song as the theme for the 1999 US television series Snoops. This version was released in the US as a bonus track on the Live live album. The original un-edited live version was later included on the European edition of Live, which was re-titled Livid, instead of the manipulated one.
Billboard said that "One Way or Another" as "moves in machine gun fashion as Debbie Harry's vocal sounds almost demonic." Rolling Stone ranked the song at number 298 on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Track listing

;US 7"
  1. "One Way or Another" – 3:31
  2. "Just Go Away" – 3:21
;US 12" promo
  1. "One Way or Another" – 3:31

    Charts

Weekly charts

Chart Peak
position

Year-end charts