There were two main reasons why I started listening to Blondie and they were: first I thought Debbie Harry was incredibly beautiful and second the style of music they did. By the time I entered Blondie I was listening to a lot of punk and new wave stuff like The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Sham 69, The Exploited, Ramones, Ian Dury, The Stranglers, etc … and it helped me too. annoy my parents. In fact, I used to like putting posters on my wall when I was a kid in school and one of my posters was a full-size Debbie Harry poster.

Blondie is an American punk / new wave crossover and was formed in 1975 and was originally made up of Chris Stein, Debbie Harry, Jimmy Destri, Clem Burke, and Gary Valentino. They were originally called “Angel And The Snake”, but changed their name to Blondie in 1975 because Debbie Harry was repeatedly known as Blondie.

Blondie’s self-titled debut album was released in 1976 and then relaunched a year later when they signed to a new record company. The band first received commercial success through a bug on an Australian TV show, the show was supposed to play the video for X Offender, but actually played it for In The Flesh. This event caused the album to reach number 5 on the chart. By 1977 Gary Valentine was gone and the Plastic Letters album was released and saw Blondie achieve success in the UK when the album made the top ten.

The hole that was made when Gary left the band was filled in in 1978 with the inclusion of Frank Infante and then a new member (Nigel Harrison) was also added and Blondie embarked on a massive UK tour that included a gig at The Roadhouse where The Boomtown Rats open. This tour made Blondie one of the first American New Wave bands to achieve success in the UK.

Blondie began to see even more success after the release of her third album Parallel Lines in 1978, which contained the song Heart Of Glass, which was her first hit in the United States and went on to sell over 1 million copies. Blondie seemed to be more popular in the UK and this was partly due to the Sunday Girl singles (which hit # 1) and also One Way Or Another. His fourth album Eat To The Beat also featured many singles that were popular in the UK (Dreaming, Atomic and Union City blues).

In 1980, Blondie rose again on the US chart with the release of the album Autoamerican, which contained the hit singles The Tide Is High, Rapture, and Call Me (which was recorded for the movie American Gigolo). Rapture is the only Blondie single to rank higher on the US charts (# 1) than the UK (# 5) and was revolutionary due to the combination of rap / hip-hop with its usual sound.

The Hunter was released in 1982 and did not fare as well as some of their previous albums and both Debbie Harry and Jimmy Destri had released solo albums in 1981. After the decline in the band’s popularity and Debbie’s growing attention in media, she decided to leave and Blondie broke up in August 1982. In 1997 they reformed and the 1999 release of No Exit saw them return to the top of the charts once again and the single Maria reached number 1 in the Kingdom. Joined exactly 20 years after their first album. which was Heart Of Glass.

Blondie released the album The Curse of Blondie in 2003 and in March 2006 Blondie was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and also the Rock Walk Of Fame at Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

My top 10 Blondie songs are:

01. Island of Lost Souls

02. Dreaming

03. One way or another

04. X Offender

05. Kung Fu Girls

06. (Your presence always moves me) Dear

07. Union City Blue

08. For your eyes only

09. Maria

10. Good guys