Blondie “Parallel Lines” released 40 years ago today, September 23rd, 1978. Parallel Lines was Blondie’s third album and their first major hit, reaching #1 in the UK and #6 in the US with practically an entire record stuffed with hit singles. It has since been included on multiple “greatest albums of all-time” lists, with Rolling Stone crediting it as the moment when “punk and new wave broke through to a mass US audience.”

Blondie released a whopping six singles from Parallel Lines. “Picture This,” released about a month before the album, was only released in the UK where it hit #12. “I’m Gonna Love You Too,” first recorded by Buddy Holly in ‘57, was Blondie’s first single from Parallel Lines released in the US where it failed to chart, however it was a hit in a few northern European countries including Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland.  “Hanging on the Telephone,” written by Jack Lee and first performed by his band The Nerves in ‘76, made it to #5 in the UK (but again didn’t chart in the US). Finally with the fourth single, “Heart of Glass,” Blondie managed to break onto the US single charts where it hit #1. It also made it to #1 in the UK and remains one of the country’s biggest selling singles of all-time. “Sunday Girl” also hit #1 in the UK but wasn’t released as a single in the US. The final single from Parallel Lines was the stalker anthem “One Way or Another,” which hit #24 in the US. Not released as a single but worth mentioning is one of my favorite tracks “I Know But I Don’t Know” which might be the least pop-orientated song on the album, the male-female duet vocals reminiscent of their punk contemporaries, X’s John Doe and Exene Cervenka.