blondie Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Blondie “Autoamerican”

sfilzen — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 17:00:53 +0000

Blondie “Autoamerican” released 40 years ago today, November 19th, 1980. The LP was Blondie’s fifth and it went to #7 in the US and to #3 in the UK. It has two of Blondie’s biggest hit singles: “The Tide is High” (a cover of the reggae song originally performed by The Paragons in 1967) which went to #1 in the US and UK (I remember absolutely loving this song in 4th grade), and “Rapture” which also hit #1 in the US and went to #5 in the UK. “Rapture” was the first “rap” song to hit #1 – though it’s really more disco/funk with some rapping – and was the first “rap” song to be played on MTV. I like the track a lot but find it ironic and a bit historically distasteful that it took an all-white new wave band to get hip hop/rap onto the airwaves (in particular MTV resisted playing black artists until Michael Jackson’s popularity overwhelmed the network’s policy). Though consistently categorized as punk/new wave, Blondie and in particular Autoamerican does not neatly fit those genres. In fact, besides other funky disco infused tracks (like “Do the Dark” and “Live It Up”), a chunk of the record sounds like an accompanying soundtrack to a stage or film musical, especially the first few tracks: “Europa” and “Here’s Looking at You.” The album’s closer, “Follow Me,” actually is a Broadway tune, a cover from the 1960 musical Camelot.

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Blondie “Atomic”

sfilzen — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 00:03:42 +0000

Blondie “Atomic” 1980, 12″ single. Today, July 1st, is Debbie Harry’s 75th birthday (b. Angela Trimble, 1945). From Blondie’s 4th studio LP Eat to the Beat (1979), “Atomic” was the 3rd single (released April 1980). The new wavey/disco track went to #1 in the UK (the 12″ single from the UK) and to #39 in the US. The 12″ b-side has the laid-back reggae-ish beat “Die Young Stay Pretty” and a super-sultry live version of David Bowie’s “Heroes” from Blondie’s performance at the Hammersmith Odeon in January 1980 (prominently featuring Robert Fripp on guitar). “Atomic” will always remind me of the old WMSE radio station (Milwaukee) sponsor placement pieces from the now long-closed Atomic Records. I saw Debbie Harry perform on her 45th birthday at Summerfest in 1990 (along with the Ramones and Tom Tom Club, maybe another band, I cannot remember – that was 30 years ago). She was fabulous. Summerfest, like literally every single other concert/show, has been cancelled this year so spinning “Atomic” on 12″ vinyl will have to suffice.

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Blondie “Heart of Glass”

sfilzen — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 15:41:53 +0000

Blondie “Heart of Glass” went to #1 40 years ago this weekend, on April 28th, 1979. “Heart of Glass” was the third single from Blondie’s album Parallel Lines and is ranked on many best-of lists for best song of the 70′s, dance tracks and flat-out best songs of all-time. Debbie Harry and Chris Stein wrote the track way back in the mid-70′s (originally dubbing it “The Disco Song”) and included it on their wildly popular third record at the encouragement of producer Mike Chapman. With the track’s recording and then massive success, Blondie succeeded in bridging the divide between new wave and disco (they had dabbled in this crossover during concerts starting around ‘78 when they began covering Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love,” probably shocking their punk and art-rock fans and leading many of them to accuse Blondie of selling out).

This US version 12″ single copy has the regular single on the A side and an instrumental version on the flip. The UK 12″ release is the same but also includes “Rifle Range” on the B-side, a track that originally appeared on Blondie’s debut record Blondie from 1976.

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Blondie “Parallel Lines”

sfilzen — Sun, 23 Sep 2018 20:36:18 +0000

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.

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Blondie “Autoamerican”

sfilzen — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 15:41:47 +0000

Blondie “Autoamerican” 1980. This week (January 25-31) in 1981 the single “The Tide Is High” was #1 on the US charts and helped propel Blondie’s fifth studio album to #7 in the US and #3 in the UK.

Duke Reid from Jamaica wrote “The Tide Is High” in the 1930′s and it has been covered several times over the years, Blondie’s version the best-known of course. Its ska-reggae groove was somewhat of a departure for Blondie but marked the experimental vein of the entire album: orchestral arrangements, jazz and blues, showtunes (“Follow Me” from Camelot) and rap. The other hit single from Autoamerican “Rapture” became the first pop song featuring rap to hit #1 on the charts and the first rap video to be aired on MTV. Hip hop artist Fab Five Freddy and graffiti artists Lee Quinones and Jean-Michel Basquiat make cameo appearances. I really do like Blondie and think Debbie Harry is hellacool but I think it’s kinda awful that it took a pop/new wave group with a model-pretty blonde front woman to get rap and hip hop to the top of the pop culture stage for the first time.

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Blondie “Blondie”

sfilzen — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 15:25:09 +0000

Blondie “Blondie” 1976. Today, July 1st, is Debbie Harry’s 70th (!) birthday (b. 1945). This self-titled LP is their first release and our copy is likely the Chrysalis Records re-release (Canadian version) from 1977 after the band ended its initial record contract with Private Stock records after poor sales. Chrysalis released the single “In the Flesh,” a lovely ballad tinged with a hint of naughtiness (the word “flesh” just does not feel like it belongs in a sweet song). “In the Flesh” reached #3 in Australia and the album “Blondie” reached #14. It also charted at #75 in the UK in early 1979.

Blondie are routinely classified as punk rock, but I’ve never been able to figure out why: maybe their fashion, the musical company they kept and Debbie’s hair? Regardless, it’s powerful pop. I saw Debbie Harry perform on her birthday at Summerfest in Milwaukee in 1990, exactly 25 years ago today, along with The Ramones and Tom Tom Club. I remember she looked fantastic and played a great show (as did the Ramones; my recollection is that Tom Tom Club were kinda boring and we may have left before their portion of the show finished).

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