BLONDIE
Members Past & Present: Clem Burke, Jimmy Destri, Nigel Harrison, Debbie Harry, Frank Infante, Chris Stein, Gary Valentine
Blondie has certainly covered much ground in its 30 years of making music. In addition to touring the world many times over, the group has embraced a variety of sonic sensations, from punk rock, new wave and reggae to disco, rap and pop.
Along the way, the band, which disbanded in 1982 only to reunite in 1999, has released eight studio albums and numerous greatest-hits and remix collections. A new CD/DVD retrospective, "Greatest Hits: Sound & Vision," arrives March 7 via Capitol Records -- just in time for Blondie's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Originally signed to Private Stock Records, Blondie's self-titled debut album included underground hits "X Offender," "In the Flesh" and "Rip Her to Shreds." With its second album, "Plastic Letters," Blondie moved from Private Stock to Chrysalis. The album managed to climb to No. 72 on The Billboard 200 without a radio hit.
Blondie went from underground darlings to mainstream hipsters with its third album, "Parallel Lines." Produced by uber-pop producer Mike Chapman, the 1978 disc spawned the No. 1 single "Heart of Glass."
Though its successor, "Eat to the Beat," did not fare as well, 1980's "Autoamerican" reached No. 7 on The Billboard 200. The musically diverse album included two No. 1s: "The Tide Is High" and "Rapture." The group was responsible for a third chart-topping single in 1980: "Call Me," the theme song for the film "American Gigolo." The band's 1999 disc, "No Exit" (Beyond Records), entered The Billboard 200 at No. 18.
Along with career ups and downs, Blondie experienced personnel changes, too. Today's Blondie includes longtime members Debbie Harry (vocals), Chris Stein (guitars), Clem Burke (drums) and Jimmy Destri (keyboards).
According to Harry, the announcement of Blondie's induction into the Hall of Fame "put a big boost in our credibility."
While Harry says she never personally doubted the group's credibility, she has come to fully understand the ins and outs of the industry. "You know how the business is," she says. "I don't want to say it's fickle, but it's certainly not very constant. We haven't had a really big worldwide hit in a while. And you know what they say: 'You're only as big as your last hit.'"
Burke adds that being inducted into the Hall of Fame "legitimizes what Blondie did -- and still does." That said, he looks forward to the band's post-induction tour this year. "We're definitely doing a U.S. tour," he says. "We're looking at 40 cities."
- Michael Paoletta
