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.

My First Album: K-Tel’s High Energy compilation

High Energy various artists

Released: 1979 Charted: 5/27/1978 to 3/24/1979 Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: disco/pop/rock

Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.) Blondie “Heart of Glass” (Deborah Harry, Chris Stein) [3:09] (1/3/79, 11 US, 11 CB, 11 HR, 11 RR, 44 AC, 14 UK, 11 CN, 15 AU, sales: 3.72 million) Amii Stewart “Knock on Wood” (Floyd, Cropper) [3:20] (1/27/79, 11 US, 11 CB, 11 HR, 3 RR, 6 RB, 6 UK, 11 CN, 2 AU, sales: 2 million) Gloria Gaynor “I Will Survive” (Dino Fekaris, Freddie Perren) [3:16] (12/16/78, 13 US, 11 CB, 11 HR, 2 RR, 9 AC, 4 RB, 14 UK, 1 CN, 5 AU, sales: 14 million) Peaches & Herb “Shake Your Groove Thing” (Dino Fekaris, Freddie Perren) [3:25] (10/28/78, 5 US, 5 CB, 7 HR, 8 RR, 4 RB, 26 UK, 5 CN, 13 AU) Instant Funk “I Got My Mind Made Up (You Can Get It Girl)” (K. Miller, S. Miller, R. Earl) [3:23] (1/6/79, 20 US, 22 CB, 26 HR, 13 RB, sales: 1 million) Chic “Le Freak” (Edwards, Rodgers) [3:36] (9/21/78, 16 US, 17 CB, 17 HR, 12 RR, 15 RB, 48 AC, 7 UK, 12 CN, 15 AU) Foxy “Hot Number” (Ish Ledesma) [4:12] (2/17/79, 21 US, 29 CB, 38 HR, 4 RB) G.Q. “Disco Nights (Rock Freak)” (Emanuel LeBlanc, Herb Lane, Keith Crier, Paul Service) [3:37] (2/10/79, 12 US, 10 CB, 11 HR, 22 RR, 12 RB, sales: 1 million) The Pointer Sisters “Fire” (Bruce Springsteen) [3:38] (11/11/78, 2 US, 2 CB, 2 HR, 2 RR, 21 AC, 14 RB, 34 UK, 3 CN, 7 AU, sales: 1 million) Foreigner “Double Vision” (Lou Gramm, Mick Jones) [3:25] (9/22/78, 2 US, 5 CB, 8 HR, 2 RR, 2 CL, 7 CN, 97 AU, sales: 1 million) Orleans “Love Takes Time” (Larry Hoppen, Marilyn Mason) [3:28] (3/24/79, 11 US, 12 CB, 18 HR, 7 RR, 13 AC, 23 CL, 23 CN) Pablo Cruise “Love Will Find a Way” (David Jenkins, Cory Lerios) [3:47] (5/27/78, 6 US, 5 CB, 4 RR, 28 AC, 18 CL, 5 CN, 8 AU) Farragher Brothers “Stay the Night” (Farragher, Farragher) [3:25] (2/24/79, 50 US) Captain & Tennille “You Never Done It Like That” (Greenfield, Sedaka) [2:58] (7/29/78, 10 US, 10 CB, 6 HR, 12 RR, 14 AC) Gino Vannelli “I Just Wanna Stop” (Gino Vannelli) [3:32] (9/9/78, 4 US, 2 CB, 8 HR, 2 RR, 4 AC, 21 RB, 12 CN, 59 AU) Styx “Renegade” (Tommy Shaw) [3:52] (3/17/79, 16 US, 18 CB, 22 HR, 17 RR, 10 CN) Total Running Time: 66:00

Rating: 4.033 out of 5.00 (average of 3 ratings) Quotable: This is where my obsession with music began. Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: 1979. I was 12 years old. I plunked down my hard-earned allowance at K-mart for the K-Tel compilation High Energy. K-Tel was a Canadian-based company launched in 1962. They specialized in selling products like the Veg-O-Matic and the Miracle Brush via infomercials, but also pioneered the idea of producing compilation albums featuring original hits by the original performers. From their first set in 1966 through the end of the ‘80s, the company put out somewhere around 100 albums. The album didn’t achieve any kind of landmark status for K-Tel, but it was significant for me as my very first album purchase. On his K-Tel tribute website, Herc proclaims it one of his top 5 K-Tel albums and that nearly a dozen fans told him High Energy was also their first album. HK I use the term “album” loosely as I bought it in the decidedly unwieldy 8-track format. Sure it allowed for more portability and durability than vinyl, but the listener didn’t have the same control – and there was that loud ka-klunk sound signifying the jump between tracks. Over the years I changed with the formats, accumulating cassettes, CDs, and now some 40,000 digitized songs on my laptop. Of the some 4000 albums I now have in my collection, though, none measures up to the sentimentality of High Energy. The collection was an odd mix. Side one of the vinyl version consisted of seven top-ten R&B songs, six of which were also top 5 hits on the disco chart, and 4 which hit #1 on the pop chart. HK Andrew Weiss of Armagideon Time said it “had one of the strongest first sides of any K-Tel release, ever.” AT “The one-two electrodance punch of Blondie’s Heart of Glass and Amii Stewart’s spaced-out cover of my favorite Sixties soul track was reason enough to buy a copy. Throwing in the apex disco of I Will Survive plus the party jam combo of Shake Your Groove Thing and Le Freak bumped High Energy into the stratosphere.” AT Three of those songs (“Heart of Glass,” “I Will Survive,” and “Le Freak”) rank in the DMDB’s top 1% of all time. “The second side was K-tel's usual blend of Top 40 fare with both soft rock and hard rock.” HK Weiss says it was “all over the place…[and] never manages to hit anything close to a sweet spot.” AT Of course, it was precisely the disparity which drew me in. I loved “Heart of Glass” and “Le Freak” as well as Foreigner’s Double Vision and Styx’s Renegade and now I had them all in one package! Four decades later, “Heart of Glass,” “Le Freak,” and “Renegade” still rank in my top 100 songs of all time. Interestingly, while side one felt like the pinnacle of disco, Weiss considers High Energy “a significant artifact” in the death of the format because it marked “a looming shake-up of the status quo” and the extinction of a “bloated and complacent music industry.” AT “Hard rock, soft rock, easy listening pop, mellow soul, jazz rock — all would stagger into the new decade of diminishing returns and increasingly fractalized formatting and marketing practices.” AT The album was a mess and it may well have marked the end of an era. It was, however, the beginning for me. More than forty years later, I look around my living room at the jukebox, the chart book sitting on my coffee table, and the photo over my fireplace of my kids playing air guitar. Music has become a pervasive force in my life and I can trace it back to the point when High Energy entered my life. Notes: Confusingly, the same title was used for K-Tel collections later released on cassette and CD which had very different track listings.

Review Sources: Dave’s Music Database (4/27/2016). “K-Tel Top 100 Songs and Top 20 Albums” AT Armagideon Time (9/18/2017). “Do K-Tel #17: High Energy (1979)” HK Herc’s K-Tel Albums “ K-Tel Kollection 1973-1984: High Energy 1979” Playlists.net (a Spotify playlist of 15 of the 16 songs on the set) WK Wikipedia: K-Tel First posted 8/6/2020; last updated 9/5/2021.

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.