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This memorable Pop-Rock act was assembled in New York City in the summer
of 1974 by two art students, guitarist Chris Stein and Playboy bunny,
vocalist Deborah Harry; emerging from the New York downtown Punk-Rock
New Wave scene, the two got together with bassist Gary Valentine, keyboardist
Jimmy Destri and drummer Clement Burke to complete the original line-up.
Blondie released their self-titled debut album in late 1976 on independent
label Private Stock, it included the first single "X Offender"
and their first Australian hit, "In The Flesh", the quintet
strengthened their popularity during a tour of the United States as supporting
act for Iggy Pop.
The following year, they replaced Valentine with bass player Frank Infante
and released their second effort, "Plastic Letters", which arrived
in the summer of 1977 on Chrysalis Records; by this point the band toured
overseas in Europe and Asia; two singles "Denis" and "(I'm
Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear" smashed into the top 10 of
The Official U.K. Pop chart with the band's second album also peaking
in the the top 10; "Plastic Letters" finally cracked the top
100 of the U.S. Pop Albums chart.
Blondie expanded the line-up to six members with bass player Nigel Harrison
who joined the band in time for the recording sessions for the explosive,
"Parallel Lines"; released in autumn of 1978, the album stormed
all the European charts spawning two #1s U.K. hit singles: "Sunday
Girl" and "Heart Of Glass", the latter of which climbed
to the top of the U.S. Pop Singles list; the album soared to #6 on the
U.S. Top 200 LPs & Tapes chart and generated three more hugely successful
singles: "One Way Or Another", "Hanging On The Telephone"
and "Picture This".
In late 1979, the group issued their fourth album, "Eat To The Beat",
which debuted at #17 in U.S. Pop chart while two singles, "Atomic"
and "Dreaming", ranked in the U.S. Top 40; in Europe "Dreaming",
"Union City Blue" and "Atomic" burnt the charts with
the latter at #1 in the U.K. National Singles list.
The following year Debbie Harry and Blondie contributed the song "Call
Me" to the movie soundtrack of "American Gigolo", the track
went straight to the #1 spots in the U.S. and U.K. Pop Singles charts;
before the year's end they recorded "Autoamerican" which peaked
at #7 on The Official U.S. Pop Albums chart and continued to expand their
stylistic range, the first single "The Tide Is High" was reggae-influenced,
the follow-up was aptly titled "Rapture", it's one of the first
white rap-oriented tracks in music history, both the singles peaked at
#1 on Pop Singles chart in the States and cemented their popularity on
the other side of the Atlantic.
In August of 1981, Harry released her first solo album, "Koo Koo",
it was followed, a year later, by the final album, "The Hunter",
which included only one American Top 40 single: "Island Of Lost Souls";
a few months later the band broke-up, Stein was felled by a rare and often
fatal genetic disease, Deborah Harry spent the next several years nursing
her boyfriend back to health.
After 16 years, during 1998, Harry, Stein, Destri and Burke decided to
get back together and recorded a new album, "No Exit", it was
released in March of 1999 and climbed into the top 20 of The Billboard
Top 200 Albums chart, highlighted by the hit single "Maria"
which hit #1 in 14 countries, their seventh LP reached the multi-platinum
success levels of earlier Blondie discs.
Their long and amazing career continued, when in late 2003 arrived the
group's eleventh LP, including "best of" and live discs: "The
Curse Of Blondie"; but the record failed to become a hit, the set
generated "Good Boys" which received moderate success in U.S.
Dance chart.
Blondie biography is an exclusive of 100xr.com
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