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 (1978), 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:

"I was actually stalked by a nutjob so it came out of a not-so-friendly personal event. But I tried to inject a little bit of levity into it to make it more lighthearted. I think in a way that's a normal kind of survival mechanism. You know, just shake it off, say one way or another, and get on with your life. Everyone can relate to that and I think that's the beauty of it."

The song was included on the US and Canadian versions of the band's first hits compilation, The Best of Blondie (1981), 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 (Teenage Kicks)".

Blondie released a manipulated live version of the song (with the audience noise removed) 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.

Rolling Stone ranked the song at number 298 on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Track listing

 * US 7" (CHS 2336)
 * 1) "One Way or Another" (Nigel Harrison, Debbie Harry) – 3:31
 * 2) "Just Go Away" (Harry) – 3:21


 * US 12" promo (CHS 10 PDJ)
 * 1) "One Way or Another" (Harrison, Harry) – 3:31