This entry refers to the successful American punk/new wave group fronted by Debbie Harry.

Blondie are an American rock group considered to be one of the pioneers behind the punk and new wave music scene. Fronted by the charismatic Deborah Harry, they were more successful overseas than in their home country, having notched up six number one singles in the UK to date, as well as a string of hit albums.

The band first formed in 1975 from the ashes of another group, The Stilettos, featuring both Harry on vocals and founding Blondie member Chris Stein as guitarist. The pair, who became romantically linked while playing in the band together, formed a new group featuring drummer Clem Burke, bassist Gary Valentine and Jimmy Destri on keyboards. Originally called Angel And The Snake, they renamed themselves Blondie as a tribute to Harry’s blonde hair, and the comments she received from admirers.

Success Beckons

Their self-titled debut album was released the following year, with early singles including X-Offender and Rip Her To Shreds. The band also underwent a change in line-up when Valentine left, to be replaced by Nigel Harrison. Another guitarist, Frank Infante, also joined.

Blondie had their first taste of commercial success purely by accident. In 1977, the Australian music show Countdown mistakenly played the video for the B-side of X-Offender, a ballad called In The Flesh. While X-Offender was a punk song, In The Flesh – which had a kind of 60s girl group feel to it – had more commercial appeal, and as a result of its unlikely exposure, both single and album were swiftly propelled into the Aussie top five.

Success in the UK swiftly followed after the release of their second album, Plastic Letters, in 1978, which spawned two hits, Denis and (I’m Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear. However, it was their next long-player, Parallel Lines, which finally turned them into stars Stateside, with the third single from the album, Heart Of Glass, a worldwide smash. It topped the charts both in the UK and the US, as well as numerous other countries. Other hits from Parallel Lines in this country included Hanging On The Telephone and Picture This.

The hits kept coming in the UK, including the chart-toppers Sunday Girl in 1979 and Atomic in 1980 (the latter taken from their fourth album Eat To The Beat), but they didn’t repeat the same level of success in the US until the release of Call Me later that year. The theme from the steamy Richard Gere movie American Gigolo, it spent seven weeks at No 1 in the US charts and was No 1 for two weeks in the UK.

A further US chart-topper followed in the shape of The Tide Is High, from their fifth album Autoamerican. The second single from that album, the rap-inspired Rapture, also hit the top spot in the US although only managed to reach number five in the UK. It was the first song incorporating elements of rap to top the American charts.

Beyond Blondie

However, the band broke up in 1982 after their sixth album The Hunter received poor reviews, and Stein became ill with the rare, potentially fatal skin disease Pemphigus, from which he later recovered.

Harry launched a solo career, with notable hits including French Kissing In The USA and I Want That Man, as well as adding a string of films to her CV (she had already done some acting while in Blondie, appearing in such films as 1980’s Union City and New York Beat Movie, which followed a day in the life of the offbeat street artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, in 1981.) She starred alongside James Woods in David Cronenberg’s controversial 1983 horror movie Videodrome, and also had notable roles in Hairspray, Satisfaction (which starred a young Julia Roberts) and Tales From The Darkside: The Movie.

Debbie Harry also enjoyed some success as a jazz singer in the late 1990s, performing with New York band the Jazz Passengers and performing on at least two of their albums.

The band were reunited in 1998 – or at least partly – with Harry, Stein, Destri and Burke present and correct, joined by newcomers Leigh Foxx on bass, guitarist Paul Carbonara and Kevin Patrick on keyboards. Harrison and Infante had taken legal action to prevent the reunion from happening, but were unsuccessful. This led to conflict and an actual falling out live on stage when the band were inducted into the Rock n’Roll Hall Of Fame in 2006, and all the original members were invited.

Although the modern-day incarnation of Blondie hasn’t hit the same heights of popularity they have still enjoyed a certain degree of success, notably with the UK chart-topper Maria in 1999. and the top 20 hit Good Boys in 2003. Their 1999 album No Exit also did well, and they continue to tour on a regular basis. A greatest hits album, Sight And Sound, was released in 2005.