Happy Birthday Blondie

“Once I had a love and it was a gas
Soon turned out had a heart of glass.”

Happy Birthday Blondie! http://on.vh1.com/18qOxzI

Blondie is an American rock band founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein.^[3] The band was a pioneer in the early American new wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s. Their first two albums contained strong elements of these genres, and although successful in the United Kingdom and Australia, Blondie was regarded as an underground band in the United States until the release of Parallel Lines in 1978. Over the next three years, the band achieved several hit singles^[4] including “Call Me“, “Atomic” and “Heart of Glass” and became noted for its eclectic mix of musical styles incorporating elements of disco,^[1][2] pop,^[1][2][5] rap,^[2][6] and reggae,^[2] while retaining a basic style as a new wave band.^[7]

Blondie broke up after the release of their sixth studio album The Hunter in 1982. Deborah Harry continued to pursue a solo career with varied results after taking a few years off to care for partner Chris Stein, who was diagnosed with pemphigus, a rare autoimmune disease of the skin.^[8]

The band reformed in 1997, achieving renewed success and a number one single in the United Kingdom with “Maria” in 1999. The group toured and performed throughout the world^[9] during the following years, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.^[10] Blondie has sold 40 million records worldwide^[11] and is still active today. Their ninth studio album, Panic of Girls, was released in 2011.^[12]

Early career (1974–78)

Inspired by the burgeoning new music scene at the Mercer Arts Center, Chris Stein sought to join a similar band. He joined The Stilettos in 1973 as their guitarist and formed a romantic relationship with one of the band’s vocalists, Deborah Harry, a former waitress and Playboy Bunny.^[13] Harry had been a member of a folk-rock band, The Wind in the Willows, in the late 1960s. In 1974, Stein parted ways with The Stilettos and Elda Gentile, the band’s originator. Stein and Harry formed a new band with drummer Billy O’Connor and bassist Fred Smith. By 1975, after some personnel turnover (including sisters Tish and Snooky Bellomo on backing vocals), Stein and Harry were joined by drummer Clem Burke, keyboard player Jimmy Destri and bass player Gary Valentine. Originally billed as Angel and the Snakes,^[14] they renamed themselves Blondie in late 1975. The name derived from comments made by truck drivers who catcalled “Hey, Blondie” to Harry as they drove by.^[15][16]

Blondie became regulars at Max’s Kansas City and CBGB.^[17] Their debut album Blondie (UK No. 75, AUS No. 14) was issued in December 1976. In September 1977, Blondie bought back its contract with Private Stock and then signed with Chrysalis Records.^[18] The first album was re-released on the new label in October 1977. Rolling Stone‘s review of the debut album observed the eclectic nature of the group’s music, comparing it to Phil Spector and The Who, and commented that the album’s two strengths were Richard Gottehrer‘s production and the persona of Deborah Harry, saying she performed with “utter aplomb and involvement throughout: even when she’s portraying a character consummately obnoxious and spaced-out, there is a wink of awareness that is comforting and amusing yet never condescending.” It also noted that Harry was the “possessor of a bombshell zombie’s voice that can sound dreamily seductive and woodenly Mansonite within the same song”.^[19]

Blondie, 1976. L-R: Gary Valentine, Clem Burke, Deborah Harry, Chris Stein and Jimmy Destri.

The band’s first commercial success occurred in Australia in 1977, when the music television program Countdown mistakenly played their video “In the Flesh“, which was the B-side of their then current single “X-Offender“.^[10] Jimmy Destri later credited the show’s Molly Meldrum for their initial success, commenting that “we still thank him to this day” for playing the wrong song.^[20] In a 1998 interview, drummer Clem Burke recalled seeing the episode in which the wrong song was played, but he and Chris Stein suggested that it may have been a deliberate subterfuge on the part of Meldrum. Stein asserted that “X-Offender” was “too crazy and aggressive [to become a hit]“, while “In the Flesh” was “not representative of any punk sensibility. Over the years, I’ve thought they probably played both things but liked one better. That’s all.” In retrospect, Burke described “In the Flesh” as “a forerunner to the power ballad“.^[21]

Both the single and album reached the Australian top five in October 1977, and a subsequent double-A release of “X-Offender” and “Rip Her to Shreds” was also popular. A successful Australian tour followed in December, though it was marred by an incident in Brisbane when disappointed fans almost rioted after Harry cancelled a performance, due to illness.^[22]

In February 1978, Blondie released their second album, Plastic Letters (UK No. 10, US No. 78, Australia No. 64). The album was recorded as a four-piece band because Gary Valentine left the band.^[23] Plastic Letters was promoted extensively throughout Europe and Asia by Chrysalis Records.^[10] The album’s first single, “Denis“, was a cover version of Randy and the Rainbows‘ 1963 hit. It reached number two on the British singles charts, while both the album and its second single, “(I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear“, reached the British top ten. Chart success, along with a successful 1978 UK tour, including a gig at London’s Roundhouse, made Blondie one of the first American new wave bands to achieve mainstream success in the United Kingdom.^[10] By this time, Gary Valentine had been replaced by Frank Infante (guitar, bass guitar), and shortly after that Nigel Harrison (bass guitar) joined, expanding the band to a six-piece for the first time.

Mainstream success (1978–81)

Parallel Lines (UK No. 1, US No. 6, Australia No. 2) Blondie’s third album, released in September 1978 was produced by Mike Chapman, became the group’s most successful effort, selling 20 million copies worldwide.^[24] The album’s first two singles were “Picture This” (UK No. 12) and “Hanging on the Telephone” (UK No. 5). Because the biggest hit from Blondie’s previous album Plastic Letters was “Denis”, a cover of Randy & The Rainbows’ 1963 song “Denise”, Chrysalis Records chose Buddy Holly’s “I’m Gonna Love You Too” as the lead single to promote Blondie’s Parallel Lines in the U.S. This turned out to be a miscalculation, however, as “I’m Gonna Love You Too” failed to chart in the U.S. – a stark contrast to the subsequent breakthrough U.S. singles from Parallel Lines, namely “Hanging On The Telephone”, “Heart of Glass” and “One Way or Another”. The song was eventually released as a single in a few other countries in late 1979 as the fifth or sixth single from Parallel Lines, after other songs from the album had completed their run in the charts. In The Netherlands, it was the first single of the album in September 1978, where it made the top 10.

The third single to be released in the U.S. from Parallel Lines was “Heart of Glass”. It was their first U.S. hit. The disco-infused^[1][2] track topped the U.S. charts in April 1979. It was a reworking of a rock and reggae-infused song that the group had performed since its formation, updated with strong elements of disco music. Clem Burke later said the revamped version was inspired partly by Kraftwerk and partly by the Bee Gees‘ “Stayin’ Alive“, whose drum beat Burke tried to emulate. He and Stein gave Jimmy Destri much of the credit for the final result, noting that Destri’s appreciation of technology had led him to introduce synthesizers and to rework the keyboard sections.^[25] Although some members of the music press condemned Blondie for “selling out”, the song became a success, worldwide. Selling more than a million copies and garnering major airplay, the single reached number one in many countries including the U.S., where Blondie had previously been considered an “underground” band. The song was accompanied by a music video filmed at Studio 54 in New York City that showcased Harry’s hard-edged and playfully sexual persona, and she began to attain a celebrity status that set her apart from the other band members, who were largely ignored by the media.

Blondie’s next single in the U.S. was a more aggressive rock song, “One Way or Another” (US No. 24), which became their second hit single in the United States. Meanwhile, in the UK, an alternate single choice, “Sunday Girl“, became a No. 1 hit. Parallel Lines is ranked No. 140 on Rolling Stone’s list of 500 greatest albums of all time.^[26] In June 1979, Blondie, photographed by Annie Leibovitz, was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.^[27]

Their fourth album, Eat to the Beat (UK No. 1, US No. 17, Australia No. 9), released in October 1979, was well received by critics as a suitable follow-up to Parallel Lines, but in the U.S., its singles failed to achieve the same level of success^[10] as in the UK, where “Atomic” (UK No. 1, US No. 39) reached number one, “Dreaming” (UK No. 2, US No. 27) reached number two, and “Union City Blue” (UK No. 13) charted in the top 20.^[10] In a daring move, Chrysalis Records’ Linda Carhart asked Jon Roseman Productions US division to shoot videos for every song and make it the first ever video album. David Mallet directed and Paul Flattery produced it at various locations and studios in and around New York.

Blondie’s next single, the Grammy-nominated “Call Me” was the result of Deborah Harry’s collaboration with the Italian songwriter and producer Giorgio Moroder, who had been responsible for Donna Summer‘s biggest hits. At the time this track was not included on any Blondie studio album; rather, it was the title theme of the soundtrack for the Richard Gere film American Gigolo. Released in February 1980, “Call Me” spent six consecutive weeks at No. 1 in the U.S. and Canada, reached No. 1 in the U.K. and became a hit throughout the world. The single was also No. 1 on Billboard magazine’s 1980 year-end chart.

In November 1980, Blondie’s fifth studio album, Autoamerican (UK No. 3, US No. 7, Australia No. 8) was released and contained two more No. 1 US hits: the reggae-styled “The Tide Is High“, a cover version of a 1967 song by The Paragons, and the rap-flavored^[2] “Rapture“, which was the first song featuring rapping to reach number one in the U.S.^[28] In the song Harry mentions downtown graffiti and hip hop icon Fab Five Freddy who also appears in the video for the song. Autoamerican was a departure from previous Blondie records, featuring less new wave and rock in favor of stylistic experiments, including acoustic jazz: “Faces”, and from an early Broadway show, “Camelot”, came “Follow Me”. As the title somewhat suggested, a recurring general theme of the album was the car as a subject; obvious for example in the song “T-Birds”, referring to the Ford Thunderbird, and Harry’s spoken intro after the first instrumental track, “Europa”. Autoamerican was, however, not generally well received by critics.

In October 1981, Chrysalis Records released The Best of Blondie (UK No. 4, US No. 30, Australia No. 1), the group’s first greatest hits compilation.

Hiatus, The Hunter, and breakup (1981–82)

Promotional photo from 1982.

Following their success of 1978-80, Blondie took a brief break in 1981. That year, Deborah Harry and Jimmy Destri both released solo albums; Stein worked on Harry’s album KooKoo (UK No. 6, US No. 28) and Burke with Destri’s Heart on a Wall.^[29] Frank Infante sued the band regarding a lack of involvement during the Autoamerican sessions; it was settled out of court, and Infante remained in the band (though Harry has subsequently said Infante was not on the next LP). Around this time Harry also was cultivating an acting career that included a high-profile appearance in 1980′s Roadie and later David Cronenberg’s Videodrome in 1982.

The band reconvened in 1981 to record and release a new album, The Hunter, in 1982 (UK No. 9, US No. 33, Australia No. 15). In contrast to their earlier commercial and critical successes, The Hunter was poorly received. The album did have two moderate hit singles: “Island of Lost Souls” (UK# 11, US, No. 37, Australia No. 13) and “War Child” (UK No. 39).^[30][31] The album also included “For Your Eyes Only”, a track the band had been commissioned to write and record for the 1981 James Bond film of the same name, but was rejected by the film’s producers (the producers ultimately chose another song that would be recorded by Sheena Easton).

With tensions within the band on the rise due to the act’s commercial decline and the attendant financial pressures that brought, as well as the constant press focus on Harry to the exclusion of the other band members, events reached a breaking point when Stein was diagnosed with the life-threatening illness pemphigus.^[32]

As a result of Stein’s illness, coupled with drug use by members of the band, financial mismanagement, and slow ticket sales, Blondie canceled their tour plans early in August 1982. Shortly thereafter, the band splintered, with at least one (unspecified) member quitting and instigating lawsuits against the other group members. The group formally announced their split in November 1982.^[33]

Stein and Harry, still a couple at the time, stayed together and retreated from the public spotlight for a while. Harry made attempts to resume her solo career in the mid-1980s, but two singles (1983′s “Rush Rush” and 1985′s “Feel The Spin”) met with little success. Harry was forced to sell the couple’s five-story mansion to pay off debts that the band had run up, Stein owed in excess of $1 million, and drug use was becoming an increasing concern for them. Harry decided to call off her intimate relationship with Stein and moved downtown. She stated in a 2006 interview that she felt she was having a sort of breakdown due to all the stress. After Stein recovered from his illness, Harry resumed her solo career with a new album (Rockbird) in 1986, with active participation from Stein. The album was a moderate success in the UK where it gave her a top ten single. Meanwhile, Burke became a much-in-demand session drummer, playing and touring for a time with Eurythmics, and Destri maintained an active career as a producer and session musician.

A remix album entitled Once More into the Bleach was released in 1988, and featured remixes of classic Blondie tracks and material from Harry’s solo career.

Reformation and No Exit (1997–2004)

During the 1980s and 1990s, Blondie’s past work began to be recognized again by a new generation of fans and artists including Garbage and No Doubt.^[25][34] Chrysalis/EMI Records also released several compilations and collections of remixed versions of some of its biggest hits.

Harry continued her moderately successful solo career after the band broke up, releasing albums in 1989 and 1993 which helped keep the band in the public eye. In 1990, she reunited with Stein and Burke for a summer tour of mid-sized venues, as part of an “Escape from New York” package with Jerry Harrison, the Tom Tom Club and the Ramones.

In 1996, Stein and Harry began the process of reuniting Blondie and contacted original members Burke, Destri, and Valentine. Valentine had by this time moved to London and become a full-time writer under his real name Gary Lachman; his New York Rocker: My Life in the Blank Generation (2002) is a memoir of his years with the band.^[35] Former members Nigel Harrison and Frank Infante did not participate in the reunion, and they unsuccessfully sued to prevent the reunion under the name Blondie.^[36]

In 1997, the original five-piece band reformed, including Valentine on bass, did three live performances, all at outdoor festivals sponsored by local radio stations. Their first reunion performance occurred on May 31, 1997, when they played the HFStival at R.F.K. Stadium in Washington, DC.^[37] An international tour in late 1998 and early 1999 followed.^[38]

A new album, No Exit (UK No. 3, US No. 18), was released in February 1999. The band was now officially a four-piece, consisting of Harry, Stein, Burke and Destri. Valentine by this point had left the group, and did not play on the album or contribute to the writing of any songs. (The two songs on the album co-authored by “Valentine” were in fact co-authored by Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s, no relation to Gary Valentine.) Session musicians Leigh Foxx (bass) and Paul Carbonara (guitar) played on this and subsequent Blondie releases.^[39]

No Exit reached number three on the UK charts, and the first single, “Maria“, which Destri had written thinking about his high school days,^[40] became Blondie’s sixth UK number one single exactly 20 years after their first chart-topper, “Heart of Glass”. This gave the band the distinction of being one of only two American acts to reach number one in the UK singles charts in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s (the other being Michael Jackson who had No. 1 hits with The Jacksons and solo in the same decades).

The reformed band released the follow-up album The Curse of Blondie (UK No. 36, US No. 160) in October 2003. Curse proved to be Blondie’s lowest-charting album since their debut in 1976, although the single “Good Boys” managed to reach number 12 on the UK charts.

In 2004, Jimmy Destri left the group in order to deal with drug addiction, leaving Harry, Stein and Burke as the only members of the original line-up still with the band. Though Destri’s stint in rehab was successful, he was not invited back into the band.^[41] He intended to work on their 2011 album Panic Of Girls, but did not contribute as either a songwriter or a musician to the finished product.^[42]

Parallel Lines 30th anniversary tour and Panic of Girls (2008–2012)

On June 5, 2008, Blondie commenced a world tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Parallel Lines with a concert at Ram’s Head Live in Baltimore, Maryland. The tour covered some Eastern and Midwestern US cities throughout the month of June. In July, the tour took the band overseas to Israel, the UK, Russia, Europe and Scandinavia, wrapping up on August 2, 2008 at Rockefeller in Oslo, Norway.

Clem Burke and Paul Carbonara both told interviewers in 2008 and 2009 that the band was working on another record, which would be their first new album since the release of The Curse of Blondie in 2003. Carbonara described it as “a real Blondie record.”^[43][44]

Blondie undertook a North American tour of mid-sized venues with Pat Benatar and The Donnas in the summer of 2009. Following the tour, in October, the band began recording sessions for their ninth studio album with producer Jeff Saltzman in Woodstock, New York.^[45] After playing with the band for over a decade, both Leigh Foxx (bass) and Paul Carbonara (guitar) were elevated to official membership status with Blondie; keyboard player Matt Katz-Bohen, who had replaced Destri, was also made on official member, making Blondie a six-piece band.

In December 2009, the band released the song “We Three Kings” to coincide with the Christmas holiday. The new album, to be titled Panic of Girls, which was being mixed at the time, was said to follow in 2010. Chris Stein stated that Dutch artist Chris Berens would provide the cover art.^[46] In April 2010, it was announced that guitarist Paul Carbonara had amicably left Blondie to pursue other projects and was replaced by Tommy Kessler. (The finished Panic of Girls album credits both Kessler and Carbonera as official members.)

In June 2010, Blondie began the first leg of a world tour named “Endangered Species Tour”, which covered the United Kingdom and Ireland, supported by UK band Little Fish. The set lists featured both classics and new material from the forthcoming Panic of Girls. After a break in July, the tour resumed in August and covered the United States and Canada over a course of six weeks. Blondie then took the “Endangered Species Tour” to Australia and New Zealand in November–December 2010, co-headlining with the Pretenders. It was revealed that the band’s album was going to be released first in Australia on the Australian Sony label in December 2010, but Sony later backed out of the deal, leaving the album still unreleased. The album’s release date was finally set for mid-2011 without the involvement of a major record label. The album was first released in May 2011 as a limited edition “fan pack” in the UK with a 132 page magazine and various collectible items, before being released as a regular CD later in the summer. The lead single, “Mother”, was released beforehand as a free download. A music video for the song was released on May 18, 2011. The video was directed by Laurent Rejto, and includes cameos by Kate Pierson of The B-52s, James Lorinz (Frankenhooker), Johnny Dynell, Chi-Chi Valenti, The Dazzle dancers, Rob Roth, Barbara Sicuranza, Larry Fessenden, Alan Midgette (Andy’s Warhol double), The Five Points Band, Guy Furrow, Kitty Boots, and Hattie Hathaway. A second single from the album, “What I Heard”, was available as a digital release in July 2011.

The band continued to tour regularly into 2012. A concert in New York City was streamed live on YouTube on October 11, 2012. The same week, the band listed three previously unreleased songs recorded during the Panic of Girls sessions (“Bride of Infinity”, “Rock On”, and “Dead Air”) on Amazon.com which were made available for free download for US, and in the UK via the band’s official website. Another track, “Practice Makes Perfect”, was also made available as a free download in November 2012.

Ghosts of Download (2013–Present)

On March 20th, 2013, Harry and Stein were interviewed on the radio show WNYC Soundcheck in which they confirmed they were working on a new Blondie album and previewed a new song entitled “Make a Way”.^[47] On June 11th, 2013 at a concert in Moscow they debuted four other tracks called “A Rose By Any Name,” “Take Me In The Night,” “Rave,” and “Drag You Around”. The album title “Ghosts of Download” was revealed on June 18th through the band’s official Facebook page with the first single “A Rose By Any Name” featuring Gossip lead singer Beth Ditto debuting on the Ken Bruce show on June 20th, 2013. Song titles confirmed through concerts and the Blondie website include “Make a Way”, “Take Me In The Night”, “Sugar on the Side”, “Rave”, “Drag You Around”, “A Rose By Any Name”, “Can’t Stop Wanting”, “Winter” and “I Screwed Up”.

Legacy

By 1982, the year the band initially broke up, Blondie had released six studio albums, each exhibiting a stylistic progression from the last. The band is known not only for the striking stage persona and vocal performances of Harry but also for incorporating elements in their work from numerous subgenres of popular music, reaching from their punk roots to embrace new wave, disco,^[1][2] and rap.^[2] Each of the group’s four No. 1 singles in the U.S. demonstrated a different style, or influence, of music including disco (“Heart of Glass“),^[1][2] Europop (“Call Me“), reggae (“The Tide Is High“) and rap (“Rapture“).^[2]

In March 2006, Blondie, following an introductory speech by Shirley Manson of Garbage,^[48][49] were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Seven members were invited to the ceremony, which led to an on-stage spat between the extant group and their former bandmates, Nigel Harrison and Frank Infante, who asked during the live broadcast of the ceremony to be allowed to perform with the group, a request refused by Harry who stated that the band had already rehearsed their performance.^[50] On May 22, 2006, Blondie was inducted into the Rock Walk of Fame at Guitar Center on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard. New inductees are voted on by previous Rock Walk inductees.^[51]

Members

Current members

• Debbie Harry – lead vocals (1975–1982, 1997–present)
• Chris Stein – guitar, bass (1975–1982, 1997–present)
• Clem Burke – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1975–1982, 1997–present)
• Leigh Foxx – bass (2004–present; session musician: 1997-2004)
• Matt Katz-Bohen – keyboards, piano, organ (2008–present)
• Tommy Kessler – guitar (2010–present)

Former members

• Fred Smith – bass (1975)
• Billy O’Connor – drums (1975)
• Tish Bellomo – backing vocals (1975)
• Eileen Bellomo – backing vocals (1975)
• Jimmy Destri – keyboards, piano, synthesizer, organ, backing vocals (1975–1982, 1997–2003)
• Gary Valentine – bass, guitar (1975–1977, 1997)
• Frank Infante – guitar, bass, backing vocals (1978–1982)
• Nigel Harrison – bass (1978–1982)
• Paul Carbonara – guitar (2004–2010; session musician: 1997-2004)
• Kevin Patrick (aka Kevin Topping) – keyboards, piano (2003–2007)
• Jimmy Bones - guitar (2003)

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