New York City-based Blondie was formed in 1974, honing its musical skills at the famous club, CBGBs, and eventually emerging on top of the new wave scene and then crossing over to the pop music mainstream. After a number of band name and personnel changes, Blondie had its greatest success with the following lineup: Deborah Harry, vocals; Chris Stein, guitar; Jimmy Destri, keyboards; Clem Burke, drums; Frank Infante, guitar; and Nigel Harrison, bass. Their self-titled first album, Blondie, on the Private Stock record label, reflected a punk ethos and 1960s girl group sensibilities or, the Ramones meets the Ronettes, as one music critic opined. Blondie made six albums from 1976 to 1982, the most successful being Parallel Lines, considered by many music critics to be one of the best rock albums of all time. Within this time span, from the late seventies to the early eighties, Blondie constituted a major force on the rock/pop scene, producing a string of hit singles internationally. The most well-known of these singles are the reggae-inspired "The Tide Is High," the rap song "Rapture," and the disco-flavored "Heart of Glass" and "Call Me." A number of factors led to Blondie's demise--dissention among band members over the focus on photogenic lead singer Harry, tensions and disputes with management and their record company (Chrysalis), a disappointing showing of the band's sixth album, The Hunter, and a tour curtailed by a rare disease, pemphigus, which afflicted Chris Stein. Regarding Chrysalis, however, Harry recently has observed that: "'It wasn't all bad with Chrysalis, they did a good job on promoting Blondie and introducing it in such a way that our reputation has remained. We still exist today because of the way they marketed us.'" Following a long-term recovery by Stein, she and Stein remained active in the music industry with Harry embarking on a solo comeback career. The other band members pursued careers in and out of the music business. Harry released one solo album while Blondie still was together in 1981 (Koo Koo) and three subsequent ones (Rockbird, 1986; Def, Dumb and Blonde, 1989; and Debravation, 1993), the latter two with the musical collaboration of Chris Stein. These albums and the singles (for example, "French Kissing in the USA" and "I Want That Man") they spawned, however, did not approach the commercial attainment of the more successful Blondie albums, although they generally fared better in the United Kingdom. Following the breakup of Blondie, Harry branched out into films, theater, television, and modeling. Musically, in addition to her solo work, she also sang in the 1990s with the avant-garde jazz group, the Jazz Passengers, performing the vocals on the critically acclaimed album Individually Twisted. Considering the musical experimentation of Blondie, it is not surprising that either Harry tried other fields or successfully challenged her vocal talents with jazz. Chris Stein was the major impetus to reunite Blondie both for artistic and commercial reasons, not wanting the later regret of not having made this attempt. In the mid-1990s, Stein broached the reunion idea with Harry, who was reluctant at first. Stein's persistence, however, paid off as Harry agreed along with two other original band members, Clem Burke and Jimmy Destri. (Two former band members, Frank Infante and Nigel Harrison, are not part of the Blondie reunion and sued over the use of the Blondie name, but their lawsuit did not succeed. They are replaced by bassist Leigh Foxx and guitarist Paul Carbonara. Gary Valentine, who was the band's bassist from 1975 to 1977, currently is not a member of the band). Legal matters aside, the band went ahead with its plans, rehearsing and doing occasional live performances to fine-tune its sound. By 1998, the group was ready and this process included a European tour in fall 1998. 1999 is the big year of the Blondie reunion so far. Album-wise, the original plan had been to record two new songs as part of yet another compilation album of earlier songs. Rather than following the route of other '70s and '80s band reunions, the group decided to release a CD with all new original material and signed on with a small independent label, Los Angeles-based Beyond Records. The album was released in the United States on February 23, 1999 and the first single ("Maria") from the new album the following month. The winter of 1999 witnessed a media blitz for Blondie in support of the new album--television and radio appearances, some concert dates, and much exposure in the print media. From mid-May through the end of the year, Blondie toured both Europe and the United States. The reunion effort has been promising. The single, "Maria," debuted at number one in the United Kingdom, making this song the sixth number one single for the group over there. With this hit single, Blondie reached yet another milestone--the first band to have had a number one single in each of the last three decades in the United Kingdom. Following past trends, "Maria" did not fare as well in the United States, debuting and remaining in the lower reaches of the top 100 singles. The album, however, fared better, debuting at number 18 in the Billboard album charts and remaining in the top 100 for nine weeks. International album sales exceeded one million in the first month following No Exit's release and it is approaching gold status in the United States. A new Blondie Live album is scheduled for release November 23, 1999. Having already attained this level of commercial and artistic success, a second album is virtually assured.
Bio written by: anon |
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