Ahh ... the legendary American band Blondie ... they epitomised the early American new wave and punk movement of the 1970s.Their trademark is, I would say, lead singer Debbie Harry. She is classy with a capital "C" ... very much the gorgeous uberblonde with the commanding presence. Harry is the recognisable face of Blondie.
Their eponymous debut album spawned their first single X Offender. Originally titled Sex Offender, that song is a whole story in itself. Apparently, the original lyrics were about an 18-year-old boy being arrested for
having sex with his younger girlfriend which was then changed to a story about a prostitute being attracted to the police
officer that had arrested her. The record company insisted the title to be changed because they were worried the title might be too much.
Blondie really came into their own with the album Parallel Lines which produced the UK No. 1 singles Heart of Glass and Sunday Girl. Further hits followed including UK No. 1 singles Atomic and The Tide Is High.
One of my most favourite Blondie songs is Rapture which came from Autoamerican, the same album that gave us The Tide Is High. Blondie has a talent for recording different genres of music. They had given us disco (Heart of Glass), reggae (The Tide Is High) and they were soon to give us calypso (Island of Lost Souls). Rapture was the first song to top the US Billboard Hot 100 to feature a rap.
In the UK the song failed to top the charts but still peaked at a respectable No. 5. Check out the video here :-
Justin Timberlake recreated Rapture as part of a medley of songs at the 2003 Brit Awards with the Princess of Pop herself, Kylie Minogue, performing the rap. Check out the video here :-
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