Blondie hit #1 with “Heart of Glass”

Heart of Glass Blondie

Writer(s): Deborah Harry, Chris Stein (see lyrics here) Released: January 3, 1979 First Charted: January 27, 1979 Peak: 11 US, 11 CB, 11 HR, 11 RR, 44 AC, 14 UK, 11 CN, 15 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 1.32 UK, 3.72 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 173.0 video, 189.9 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Blondie had been around several years, releasing nine singles from three albums before finding success with “Heart of Glass.” They’d never even charted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 when that song – the fourth single from their Parallel Lines album – took them all the way to the top. There was some backlash from fans who thought the band had sold out, but Blondie has said they liked the idea of deliberately being uncool by crafting a disco song. SF Lead singer Deborah Harry said, “I don’t think being commercial is totally derogatory.” She saw “Heart of Glass” as helping to “introduce new wave music in a more commercial way.” FB Guitarist Chris Stein said the song was added to the Parallel Lines album as “a novelty item to put more diversity into the album.” FB The band had actually performed a more funk-oriented version of the song for years. FB Harry and Stein wrote an early version called “Once I Had a Love” back in 1974-75. On the show Words and Music, she said “lyrically, it was about a stalker who was pursuing me, and Chris saved me from him.” SF In 1975, they recorded a demo with a slower, funkier sound inspired by the Hues Corporation’s “Rock the Boat.” WK When they started working with producer Mike Chapman in 1978, he asked them to play all the songs they had and he liked that one. The band re-recorded the song with a more pop-oriented, disco vibe. WK “Heart of Glass” marked one of the first uses of a Roland CR-78 drum machine, which was first introduced in 1978. WK Harry said it took more than 10 hours to get the sound down right. SF The band’s decision to combine the drum machine with actual drumming as well as synthesizers alongside guitars – made for one of the first rock/disco fusion hits. WK The song was released as a 12-inch single in December 1978. The nearly six-minute version met with reluctance from radio stations because of the line “pain in the ass” so the song was edited into a 7-inch single version released in January 1979. That version topped the charts in the U.S. and UK. Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Blondie FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 502. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 10/31/2019; last updated 11/12/2022.

Blondie charted with Parallel Lines

Parallel Lines Blondie

Charted: September 16, 1978 Peak: 6 US, 14 UK, 2 CN, 2 AU, 12 DF Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 1.69 UK, 20.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: new wave

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Hanging on the Telephone (10/30/78, 19 CL, 7 CO, 5 UK, 39 AU, 25 DF) One Way or Another (6/2/79, 24 BB, 22 CB, 24 GR, 28 HR, 26 RR, 4 CL, 1 CO, 7 CN, 11 DF) Picture This (8/26/78, 26 CL, 13 CO, 12 UK, 88 AU) Fade Away and Radiate (32 DF) Pretty Baby (39 DF) I Know But I Don’t Know 11:59 (32 DF) Will Anything Happen? (33 DF) Sunday Girl (5/19/79, 22 CL, 4 CO, 1 UK, 5 AU, 33 DF) Heart of Glass (1/3/79, 1 BB, 1 CB, 1 GR, 1 HR, 1 RR, 44 AC, 1 CL, 1 CO, 1 UK, 1 CN, 1 AU, 1 DF, gold single) I’m Gonna Love You Too (38 DF) Just Go Away (40 DF) Total Running Time: 39:06 The Players: Deborah Harry (vocals) Chris Stein (guitar) Clem Burke (drums) Jimmy Destri (keyboards) Nigel Harrison (bass) Frank Infante (guitar)

Rating: 4.466 out of 5.00 (average of 28 ratings) Quotable: “Downtown art-punk goes pop” – Blender Magazine Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “After bursting onto the New York music scene with their punk-centric, self-titled debut – followed up by the rowdy Plastic Letters – fans got a taste of what silkier new wave hooks would come on their third album, Parallel Lines.” PM The album “solidified the band as pioneers of a beloved musical movement.” PM However, “Blondie were too smart and sexy to be genuine punks” BL and “abandoned any pretensions to new wave legitimacy (just in time, given the decline of the new wave) and emerged as a pure pop band.” WR To that end, they turned to Mike Chapman for their third album. He was an “Australian-born producer who’d cut a wathe through the British charts with bubblegum glam bands.” CM He helped Blondie “forge a fusion of punk energy and gir group mystique, street smarts and disco dreams.” CM “With pop chops, disco grooves and enough cooing harmonies to pass for low-rent Ronettes, …Parallel Lines transcended new wave, winning over Middle America” BL taking Blondie “the periphery to superstardom.” CM “But it wasn’t just Chapman that made Parallel Lines Blondie’s best album; it was the band’s own songwriting.” WR Heart of Glass, with its “burbling autobahn rhythms,” CR is the song that made the world aware of Blondie. It hit #1 on both sides of the Atlantic and “is an enduring Blondie classic for its funky guitar grooves and Harry’s biting lyricism of a toxic romance—the theme song for many a scorned lover.” PM In the U.S., Blondie also had a top-40 hit with “the taunting roar of One Way Or Another,” PM written by new bass player Nigel Harrison. It’s “one of many songs where [Harry] played herself as the pursuer; a woman of action at odds with the sex kitten image that had started to cling to her.” CM The album produced three more hits in the UK, including Picture This, Hanging on the Telephone, and the #1 Sunday Girl. While those may be what gets the band attention, “what impresses is the album's depth and consistency.” WR “I Know But I Don’t Know is rock & roll pop with disparate but electrifying elements that predate sampling.” CR “Harry’s vocal performances are evocative and eclectic: wary but exposed on” CM the “infectiously catchy” PM “doo-wop-inspired Pretty Baby.” PM and “yearning on Destri’s breakneck 11:59.” CM “Pretty Baby” “served as a contrast to the eerie art-rock monument that is Fade Away and Radiate,” CM in which “the CBGB icons brought groovy psychedelia to the front of the line.” PM It also featured “a guest appearance from Robert Fripp of King Crimson on a wailing guitar solo.” PM Album tracks like “Radiate” and “Just Go Away are as impressive as the songs pulled for singles.” WR It all combines to make for “state-of-the-art pop/rock circa 1978” WR that “boasts Blondie’s unmistakable flavor of intoxicating post-punk.” PM “Harry’s tough-girl glamour setting the pattern that would be exploited over the next decade by a host of successors led by Madonna.” WR

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Blondie BL Blender (10/08). “100 Greatest American Albums” CM Toby Creswell & Craig Mathieson (2012). 100 Best Albums of All Time. Hardie Grant Books. Page 170. PM PasteMagazine.com (6/3/2024). “The 300 Greatest Albums of All Time” WR William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide First posted 2/19/2008; last updated 6/5/2024.