Debbie Harry - Blondie

Blondie

With her two-tone bleached-blonde hair, Harry quickly became a punk icon. Her look was further popularized by the band's early presence in the music video revolution of the era. She was a regular at Studio 54. In June 1979, Blondie was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone. Harry's persona, combining cool sexuality with streetwise style, became so closely associated with the group's name that many came to believe "Blondie" was the singer's name. The difference between the individual Harry and the band Blondie was famously highlighted with a "Blondie is a Group" button campaign by the band in 1979. In 1981, Harry issued a press release to clarify that her name was not "Debbie Blondie" or "Debbie Harry", but Deborah Harry, though Harry later described her character in the band as being named "Blondie", as in this quote from the No Exit tour book:

Hi, it's Deb. You know, when I woke up this morning I had a realization about myself. I was always Blondie. People always called me Blondie, ever since I was a little kid. What I realized is that at some point I became Dirty Harry. I couldn't be Blondie anymore, so I became Dirty Harry.

During 1976 and 1977, Blondie released their first two albums. The second experienced some marginal success outside the United States. However, 1978's Parallel Lines (US No. 6, UK No. 1) shot the group to international success and included the global smash hit single "Heart of Glass." Riding the crest of Disco's domination, the infectious track hit No. 1 in the US and sold nearly two million copies. The follow-up single "One Way Or Another" reached No. 24 on Billboard's Hot 100. The album was the band's biggest success. Although it has sold over 4 million copies in the United States alone, it has never been certified above the Platinum level. It was also the biggest selling album of 1979 in the United Kingdom.

The release of the platinum-selling Eat to the Beat album (US No. 17, UK No. 1) in 1979 and Autoamerican (US No. 7, UK No. 3) in 1980 continued the band's run of hits, including "Dreaming", "Atomic" and three more US No. 1 singles: "The Tide Is High", "Rapture" and "Call Me" from the soundtrack to the film American Gigolo, which became Billboard's No. 1 song of 1980.

After a year-long hiatus in 1981, during which Harry released her first solo album (see below), Blondie regrouped and released their sixth studio album The Hunter (US No. 33, UK No. 9). The album met with a disastrous reception, peaking at No. 33 in the US and falling rapidly off the charts. The single "Island of Lost Souls" briefly cracked the US Top 40 though narrowly missed the top ten in the UK, where the album had been a top ten entry but sold far less than their previous albums. Blondie launched a worldwide tour to support the release, but it was cut short due to slow ticket sales. Stein also fell seriously ill with the rare autoimmune disease, pemphigus. Coupled with declining record sales and internal struggles, the band split up.

Later in the 1980s, the remix album Once More Into The Bleach was released, featuring remixes of tracks by Blondie and from Harry's solo career. The mid-1990s saw the release of further Blondie remix albums Beautiful in Europe and Remixed Remade Remodeled in the US. New mixes of "Heart of Glass", "Atomic" and "Union City Blue" were released as singles and all made the UK Top 40, while remixes of "Atomic", "Rapture" and "Heart of Glass" had major success on the US dance charts.