page_title: Blondie (band)
section_title: 1978–1981: Mainstream success
hierarchical_section_title: Blondie (band) / History / 1978–1981: Mainstream success
caption_attribution_description: Chris Stein and Debbie Harry of the band Blondie
context_page_description: Blondie is an American rock band co-founded by singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band were pioneers in the American punk and then the new wave scene of the mid-1970s in New York. Their first two albums contained strong elements of these genres, and although highly successful in the United Kingdom and Australia, Blondie was regarded as an underground band in the United States until the release of Parallel Lines in 1978. Over the next three years, the band achieved several hit singles including "Heart of Glass", "Call Me", "Rapture" and "The Tide Is High". The band became noted for its eclectic mix of musical styles incorporating elements of disco, pop, reggae, and early rap music.
  Blondie disbanded after the release of its sixth studio album, The Hunter, in 1982. Debbie Harry continued to pursue a solo career with varied results after taking a few years off to care for partner Chris Stein, who was diagnosed with pemphigus, a rare autoimmune disease of the skin. The band re-formed in 1997, achieving renewed success and a number one single in the United Kingdom with "Maria" in 1999, exactly 20 years after their first UK No. 1 single.
context_section_description: Blondie's third album, Parallel Lines (UK No. 1, US No. 6, Australia No. 2), was released in September 1978. Produced by Mike Chapman, it finally broke the band into the American market on the strength of the worldwide hit single "Heart of Glass". Parallel Lines became the group's most successful album, selling 20 million copies worldwide. The album's first two singles were "Picture This" (UK No. 12) and "Hanging on the Telephone" (UK No. 5). Because the biggest hit from Blondie's previous album Plastic Letters was "Denis", a cover of Randy & The Rainbows' 1963 song "Denise", Chrysalis Records chose Buddy Holly's "I'm Gonna Love You Too" as the lead single from Parallel Lines in the United States. This turned out to be a miscalculation as the single failed to chart. The song was eventually released as a single in a few other countries in 1979.
  "Heart of Glass" was released in early 1979 and the disco-infused track topped the UK charts in February 1979 and the US charts in April 1979. It was a reworking of a rock and reggae-influenced song that the group had performed since its formation in the mid 1970s, updated with strong elements of disco music. Clem Burke later said the revamped version was inspired partly by Kraftwerk and partly by the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive", whose drum beat Burke tried to emulate. He and Stein gave Jimmy Destri much of the credit for the final result, noting that Destri's appreciation of technology had led him to introduce synthesizers and to rework the keyboard sections. Although some critics condemned Blondie for "selling out" by dabbling in disco, the song became a monumental worldwide success and became one of the biggest selling singles of 1979. The song was accompanied by a music video filmed at a club in New York City (incorrectly surmised as being Studio 54 due to a shot of its exterior at the start of the video). The music video showcased Harry's hard-edged and playfully sexual character, as well as her famously stiff, marginally disinterested persona. She began to attain a celebrity status that set her apart from the other band members, who were largely ignored by the media.
  Blondie's next single in the US was a more aggressive rock song, "One Way or Another" (US No. 24), though in the UK, an alternate single choice, "Sunday Girl", became a No. 1 hit. Parallel Lines is ranked No. 140 on Rolling Stone's list of 500 greatest albums of all time. In June 1979, Blondie, photographed by Annie Leibovitz, was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
  Blondie's fourth album, Eat to the Beat (UK No. 1, US No. 17, Australia No. 9), was released in September 1979. Though well received by critics as a suitable follow-up to Parallel Lines, the album and its singles failed to achieve the same level of success in the US. In the UK, the album delivered three top 20 hits, including the band's third UK number one ("Atomic", UK No. 1, US No. 39). The lead track off the album, "Dreaming", narrowly missed the top spot in the UK, but only made it to number 27 in the US. "Union City Blue" (UK No. 13) was not released in the US in favor of the track "The Hardest Part". In a daring move, Chrysalis Records' Linda Carhart asked Jon Roseman Productions US division to shoot videos for every song and make it the first ever video album. David Mallet directed and Paul Flattery produced it at various locations and studios in and around New York.
  Blondie's next single, the Grammy-nominated "Call Me", was the result of Debbie Harry's collaboration with the Italian songwriter and producer Giorgio Moroder, who had been responsible for Donna Summer's biggest hits. The track was recorded as the title theme of the Richard Gere film American Gigolo. Released in February 1980 in the US, "Call Me" spent six consecutive weeks at No. 1 in the US and Canada, reached No. 1 in the U.K. (where it was released in April 1980) and became a hit throughout the world. The single was also No. 1 on Billboard magazine's 1980 year-end chart. In the summer of 1980, the band appeared in a bit part in the film Roadie starring Meat Loaf. Blo
caption: Debbie Harry and Chris Stein
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