Debbie Harry

456. Blondie – Call Me (1980)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

In what must surely be one of the shortest durations between chart-toppers for one act, Blondie only had a month inbetween Atomic and Call Me – two of the best number 1s that year. This collaboration with Italian genius producer Giorgio Moroder (the man behind I Feel Love) was the theme song to Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo. The film starred a little-known actor called Richard Gere as a high-end male escort and it made him a star.

Before

Call Me began as a Moroder instrumental known as Man Machine. Not the tune by Kraftwerk, but similar in the sense it combined electronic music with pop. He originally had his eye on Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac to add lyrics and perform songs for American Gigolo, but she couldn’t for contractual reasons. Luckily for Moroder, Blondie were one of the hottest bands on the planet, and singer Debbie Harry was up for it. She watched the film and had the opening scene – driving on the Californian coast – in mind as she set to work writing the words, which only took a few hours.

Blondie went into the studio in New York with Moroder in August 1979 to record Call Me – just one month after finishing up their fourth LP Eat to the Beat. The pressure of following up the massive album Parallel Lines, and Harry’s perceived increasing dominance of the group, was causing tension. The recording of Call Me didn’t help. The first session, in LA, had seen Moroder and his crew, including keyboardist Harold Faltermeyer and Keith Forsey (drummer on I Feel Love), record an instrumental version to a timecode so it would synchronise with American Gigolo.

It’s unknown whether Moroder was only expecting Harry, but Faltermeyer later claimed the producer was surprised the rest of the band were insisting on adding their own instrumentation. Guitarist Chris Stein’s equipment was buzzing and annoying the perfectionist Moroder, who, after realising the musicians were struggling to play in time and fighting among themselves, aborted the sessions. The backing tape was completed by Moroder and co, including the keyboard solo by Faltermeyer. This riled an already paranoid Blondie (minus Harry of course), but when Call Me shot to number 1 in the US before Atomic did, and then after Atomic in the UK, they changed their tune. Who is it on backing vocals, is it drummer Clem Burke, keyboardist Jimmy Destri, bassist Frank Infante, all three, or Moroder’s boys? I don’t know.

Review

Moroder and Blondie are two of the greatest names in disco, so it’s a given that any collaboration between the two would be great. Call Me and Atomic are like sisters, both showing Blondie at the top of their game, melding disco, pop and rock in a totally natural way. And although only Harry is on the recording, you’d never know upon listening, which shows how effectively Moroder had also become in combining different genres. Moroder was intending to produce Blondie’s next LP, but the infighting caused him to change his mind. It’s fascinating to imagine how good that could have been.

The rest of the band’s jealousy towards their singer is only natural, but she is also at the peak of her powers as a songwriter. Where Atomic featured improvised lines that captured the feel of the band’s blistering performance, Call Me shows Harry studying her source material and coming up with a song that is perfect as a film soundtrack. She succinctly communicates that Gere’s character is available whenever you need him, referencing the classic Martini ad tagline ‘Anytime, anyplace, anywhere’. He’s clearly used to a higher class of clientele (‘Roll me in designer sheets’) and ‘speaks the languages of love’, with a smattering of Italian and French thrown in for good measure. But the best lines are Harry’s frustration at feelings ruining what are meant to be a purely business arrangement: ‘Emotions come I don’t know why/Cover up love’s alibi’. As with I Feel Love, this Moroder classic is best heard in full via the 8:05 album version. The video edit is way too short at only 2:15

Further proof that Harry now pretty much was Blondie in the public eye is apparent in the record sleeve above and the video to Call Me, in which the striking singer is filmed in the city, on the beach and on stage. The rest of her band are nowhere to be seen.

After

Call Me was released in the US first in January 1980 and surprisingly was only their second number 1. It became their biggest-selling single and was also number 1 on Billboard‘s end-of-year chart that December. In addition to the soundtrack version, video edit and radio edit, there was a Spanish-language 12″. A Ben Liebrand mix missed out on top 40 action in 1988. Oh, and an abbreviated version was sung by Harry on The Muppet Show in 1981.

The Outro

Of course, the problem with being at the peak of your powers is that the only way is down. There was only one more Blondie 80s number 1, and it was a cover that didn’t hit the heights of Call Me. The band re-recorded Call Me in 2014, and to be fair, this probably felt more needed than their other 2014 covers, as it meant Blondie were actually on the recording. However, it’s probably not a huge surprise to find out it doesn’t match the original.

The Info

Written by

Giorgio Moroder & Debbie Harry

Producer

Giorgio Moroder

Weeks at number 1

1 (26 April-2 May)

Trivia

Births

28 April: Cyclist Bradley Wiggins
2 May: Footballer Zat Knight 

Deaths

26 April: Actress Cicely Courtneidge/Conservative MP Irene Ward, Baroness Ward of North Tyneside
27 April: Theatre director E Martin Browne/Producer John Culshaw
29 April: Film director Sir Alfred Hitchcock (see ‘Meanwhile…’)
30 April: Scottish Labour MP Thomas McMillan
2 May: Conservative MP Sir Jocelyn Lucas, 4th Baronet/Army captain Herbert Westmacott

Meanwhile…

29 April: Legendary filmmaker Sir Alfred Hitchcock died at home in Los Angeles, aged 80.

30 April: A six-man team of terrorists from the Democratic Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Arabistan began the Iranian Embassy Siege, taking 26 hostages at the Embassy of Iran in Knightsbridge.

1 May: British Aerospace was privatised.

452. Blondie – Atomic (1980)

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The Intro

Blondie were one of the best bands around in the late-70s and rightfully continued to storm the charts in the early 80s. Their last number 1, Sunday Girl, was a nice tune, but they were at their best when they combined disco and rock. Atomic does this extremely well.

Before

Blondie’s third album, Parallel Lines had been a huge success, despite some critics referring to them as sell-outs for supposedly jumping on the disco bandwagon with Heart of Glass. Which is nonsense, as the band had dabbled in disco from its early days.

However, tensions were high. Drug use was increasing among the six-piece, and there was understandable jealousy over the fact Blondie were fast becoming known as ‘Debbie Harry and some men’. There was no wonder of course – Harry was the singer, and an incredibly cool and beautiful one at that, so the spotlight was always on her. And Harry used this momentum to increasingly decide on future material, which coincided with the making of their fourth album, Eat to the Beat. Their new wave stylings were on the way out in favour of a more pop-oriented approach.

The first fruits of Eat to the Beat to be released – opening track Dreaming – peaked at two. When the follow-up, Union City Blue, stalled at 13, Blondie must have been worried their fortunes were waning. Fortunately they had Atomic up their sleeves, which after two singles of plaintive melancholy, was a return to a more fiery sound.

Atomic came from Harry and keyboardist Jimmy Destri, who was trying to find a sound akin to Heart of Glass. From there the track was transformed by the twangy guitar sound, which simultaneously gave the tune a Spaghetti Western and surf sound. Harry has described that her songwriting approach with Blondie would often involve working out the lyrics while the rest of the band were rehearsing. She would scat ideas, often as placeholders. She came up with ‘Ooooh, your hair is beautiful’ first. The song transformed into an erotically charged pop-rock anthem. The song title most likely came from Harry trying to find a word that matched the guitar hook. It was perfect. Although some think the title has no fixed meaning, to me, it’s describing the potentially explosive level of attraction she’s feeling for the person she’s singing about.

Review

Coward of the County spoiled a very impressive run of number 1 singles but Atomic puts us firmly back on track. What a single. It doesn’t matter that the lyrics are somewhat basic because they fit the mood and get the message across perfectly. It’s a night out, and a girl wants a man to ‘make it magnificent’. The tense, edgy sound here is a million miles away from the sedate bounce of Rogers’ song. It’s Blondie at their best, and is expertly produced by Mike Chapman, as you’d expect from such a prolific pop and rock hitmaker. For me, although Heart of Glass edges it as their best chart-topper, Atomic does a better job of combining disco, rock and pop naturally. However, the album mix, with its intro based on Three Blind Mice, features a bass guitar solo, which makes the disco element more obvious. This is the essential version and is nearly a minute longer than the single edit.

It’s worth nothing that singing backing vocals is Ellie Greenwich. The singer, songwriter and producer wrote or co-wrote some of the most famous pop music of the 60s, including Da Doo Ron Ron, River Deep – Mountain High and Do Wah Diddy Diddy, number 1 for Manfred Mann in 1968.

Eat to the Beat was the first full LP to have a video made for every song, by director David Mallet. The video for Atomic has a very literal premise but is a charming product of its time. The band are seen performing in a post-apocalyptic nightclub as the crowd do some freaky dancing. Harry is one of the only people in the world who could manage to look cool while dancing badly in a binbag. The video also features Gia Carangi – considered the world’s first supermodel. You can see similarities in Mallet’s video for Ashes to Ashes later in the year, as both feature solarising effects. Strangely, the version of the song in the full video is the album version, minus the intro.

After

Released in February, Atomic quickly rocketed up the charts to number 1 on 1 March. It was followed only two months later by Call Me, which had already been a US chart-topper and soon repeated the feat here.

The Outro

Atomic is a song that stands outside of time, sounding as hip now as it did 43 years ago. Attempts to update it only end up sounding more dated. In 1994 the ‘Diddy’s Edit’ (not P Diddy) gave the song a backing ideal for clubbing in the 90s, but it’s not aged well. It performed respectably though, reaching 19. To mark the 40th anniversary of Blondie, the band re-recorded Atomic for Greatest Hits Deluxe Redux. It’s better than the 1994 remix but only because it’s so similar to the original – the only real difference is the understandably inferior new vocal performance from Harry.

The Info

Written by

Debbie Harry & Jimmy Destri

Producer

Mike Chapman

Number of weeks

2 (1-14 March)

Trivia

Births

2 March: Footballer Chris Barker 
13 March: Scottish field hockey player Linda Clement

Deaths

1 March: Footballer Dixie Dean/Motorcycle racer Eric Oliver
3 March: Socialite Sir Michael Duff, 3rd Baronet
4 March: Football manager Alan Hardaker
5 March: Historian Jack Gallagher/John Raven/John Skeaping
6 March: Conservative MP Harry Becker/Philanthropist Noel Croucher/Cricket journalist Norman Preston/Physician EA Underwood
7 March: Yacht designer John Illingworth
14 March: Chemical engineer Dudley Maurice Newitt/Artist Vere Temple

Meanwhile…

10 March: An opinion poll in the Evening Standard suggests six out of 10 Britons are unhappy with the Conservative government, who are trailing Labour in the opinion polls. 

437. Blondie – Sunday Girl (1979)

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The Intro

Blondie’s third album Parallel Lines is understandably regarded as their best. It’s certainly the most successful, selling more than 20 million and containing some of their best-known songs, including first number 1 Heart of Glass and their next chart-topper, Sunday Girl.

Before

It didn’t get off to the best of starts in June 1978. Producer Mike Chapman, one of the songwriters and producers of some of the biggest glam rock hits of the decade, found them difficult to work with. He had high praise for guitarist Frank Infante and keyboardist Jimmy Destri, but in general found them lazy and juvenile. Guitarist Chris Stein was often stoned and unable to play well, so was advised to concentrate on songwriting rather than playing.

Singer Debbie Harry was a particular problem. Chapman quickly took note of her moodiness but could see she was a great, unique talent. Patience was a virtue, and despite some stormy moments, he was able to work on her vocal phrasing and general attitude.

Despite these issues, Parallel Lines was completed in six weeks – after being given six months. This is even more remarkable when you consider many of the songs were unfinished when recording started. On several occasions, instrumental tracks were laid down and Chapman would ask Harry to step into the recording booth, only to find her still penning lyrics.

Chrysalis Records were also sceptical and asked Blondie to go back and start again, but Chapman assured them the singles would prove popular. He was right. Picture This reached 12 and Hanging on the Telephone soared to five in 1978. Then Heart of Glass, one of the finest new wave number 1s, cemented their status as mainstream stars.

Sunday Girl was the eagerly awaited follow-up and the final single from the LP. Written by Stein, it was inspired by Harry’s cat, Sunday Man, who had recently ran away, which accounts for its plaintive, melancholy nature. Stein was nervous to be writing alone, and asked Harry if she’d be credited too, but in the end the idea was dropped. The original demo featured a Latin-influenced arrangement that impressed Chapman.

Review

As we know, this was transformed into effortlessly bright and breezy pop akin to the girl groups of the 50s – a regression back to the style of song Blondie made over their first two LPs. And like many Blondie songs, the upbeat tune masks downbeat lyrics. I’m not sure entirely, but I think it’s from the perspective of a woman remembering her lovelorn youth – she is the Sunday Girl of the title. She’s recalling her man running off with another woman:

‘Hey, I saw your guy with a different girl,
Looks like he’s in another world,
Run and hide, Sunday Girl’.

The archetypal bored teenager waiting for the weekend, Harry also sings:

‘She can’t catch up with the working crowd,
The weekend mood and she’s feeling proud,
Live in dreams Sunday girl’.

It’s a slight single, and I find it one of their weakest number 1s. But that’s when compared to classics like Heart of Glass or Atomic. It’ll stick in your head, and the chorus when Harry pleads for her love/ex-love to ‘Hurry up’ adds a welcome shot of speed to proceedings. However, in a year of classic chart-toppers, Sunday Girl is lost among the crowd.

After

Sunday Girl also reached number 1 elsewhere in Europe, but didn’t get a release in their home country. The US had One Way or Another instead, which is superior. But while the band enjoyed their second UK number 1, they were already working on the fourth Blondie album, Eat to the Beat.

The Info

Written by

Chris Stein

Producer

Mike Chapman

Weeks at number 1

3 (26 May-15 June)

Trivia

Births

12 June: Lawn bowler Ellen Falkner/Actor Jamie Harding

Deaths

8 June: Fashion designer Norman Hartnell

Meanwhile…

30 May: Nottingham Forest defeated Swedish football league champions Malmö FF 1-0 in the European Cup final at Olympiastadion, Munich.

7 June: The first direct election to the European Parliament results in a low turnout in Britain – only 32%. The Conservatives, riding high from Margaret Thatcher’s General Election victory, won 60 seats, while James Callaghan’s Labour only managed 17.

12 June: The new Tory government’s first budget saw chancellor Geoffrey Howe cut the standard tax rate by 3p and slash the top rate from 83% to 60%.

433. Blondie – Heart of Glass (1979)

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The Intro

Simultaneously one of the hottest and coolest new wave bands, US six-piece Blondie were also one of the most successful, notching up five UK number 1s in under two years (and another in 1999). Heart of Glass melded new wave, rock, disco and pop with a slither of punk attitude, and it’s their best single.

Before

Blondie’s beginnings start back in New York in 1973. Guitarist Chris Stein joined rock band the Stilettoes. He began a romantic relationship with one of their vocalists – Debbie Harry. She had been a waitress, a Playboy Bunny and a member of folk-rock group the Wind in the Willows in the late-60s. Harry and Stein decided to leave the Stilettoes and start a new band in 1974. Together with former bandmates Billy O’Connor on drums and Fred Smith on bass, they became Angel and the Snake that August.

Two months later and with only two gigs under their belts, they changed their name to Blondie. As the whole world knows, Harry was one of the most beautiful women in the world, and would turn heads wherever she went. Among no doubt filthier shouts, lorry drivers would bark ‘Hey, blondie!’ at her as they drove by her walking down the street.

Fast forward to spring 1975 and Blondie’s line-up had changed several times – including experimenting with female backing singers. Drummer Clem Burke then joined them, along with Gary Valentine on bass. They became regular performers at hip joints CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, wowing crowds with power-pop and Harry’s stage presence. A few months later they recruited keyboardist Jimmy Destri to fill out their sound.

Signing with Private Stock Records, their eponymous debut LP was released in December 1976. It made little of an impression, and first single X Offender sank without trace, despite them supporting Iggy Pop on tour. However, the follow-up In the Flesh became a number two hit in Australia after being played by accident on TV (they were supposed to be showing X Offender).

Blondie decided to buy back their contract and switched to the British label Chrysalis Records. Blondie was re-released on Chrysalis in October 1977 and the critics began to take note. Nevertheless Valentine left the group and they recorded second album Plastic Letters as a four-piece, released in 1978.

The first single from the album Denis (a cover of a 1963 song by Randy and the Rainbows) finally saw their commercial stock rise – all the way to number two in the UK, where the music papers made a story out of Harry battling it out for the top spot with another strong female pop star, namely Kate Bush, who won out with Wuthering Heights. Denis did reach the top spot in the Netherlands and Belgium though, and when the next 7-inch, (I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear peaked at 10 in the UK, it seemed Blondie were here to stay. They were.

Hiring Frank Infante on guitar and British bassist Nigel Harrison, the six-strong Blondie toured the UK and became one of the first new wave acts to hit the mainstream. Here at last was a rock group in which the men stayed out of the spotlight. It shone fully on Harry, who had star power like few others at the time.

In a clear attempt to really leave their mark on the pop scene, Blondie worked with a big-name producer. Australian Mike Chapman had been half of ‘Chinnichap’ with Nicky Chinn. Together they wrote and produced glam rock number 1 classics by The Sweet, Mud and Suzi Quatro. The latter proved particularly appropriate, as Chapman had experience in helping female rock stars climb the charts with catchy commercial pop songs.

Blondie’s Chapman-produced third album Parallel Lines was released in September 1978. first single Picture This climbed to 12 and Hanging on the Telephone peaked at five. Their first number 1 was next.

Heart of Glass was one of Blondie’s earliest tracks. Originally known as Once I Had a Love, it was written by Harry and Stein and 1974 and demoed a year later. Although slower and funkier than the released version, It had a disco influence right from the start, having been influenced by one of the genre’s earliest hits – The Hues Corporation’s Rock the Boat (1974). Harry later recounted that the lyrics to Heart of Glass weren’t directed personally to a former love of hers, it was written as a ‘plaintive moan about lost love’. They tried it as a ballad and even reggae over the years, but it never quite worked.

Blondie remained in thrall to disco, to the consternation of some rock die-hards, over the years, occasionally adding dance floor hits to their setlists. Harry expressed her love of the work of producer Giorgio Moroder in the NME early in 1978, and the band surprised a CBGB crowd with a cover of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love later that year.

When it came to meeting Chapman to start work on Parallel Lines, the producer asked Blondie to show him what they could record. At the end he asked if there was anything else, and the band sheepishly decided to perform Heart of Glass. Despite their reticence, Chapman loved it and saw a potential hit. Blondie began to agree, but having also become fans of Kraftwerk, wanted to recreate the futuristic sounds of the German innovators as well as Moroder’s hits.

The six-piece assembled at the Record Plant in New York in June 1978 to record Heart of Glass. Unusually at the time, a rock band chose to build the song around a drum machine. The Roland CR-78 had only been released earlier that year, and it was Stein and Destri who introduced it to the studio, having bought one from a store in Manhattan. Destri in particular had a lot to do with the sound of Heart of Glass and brought in some synthesisers. Other technology used in the production included the Roland SH-5 and Minimoog.

Review

Heart of Glass is one of my favourite number 1s of the 70s and one I’ll never tire of. It never dates either. You could argue the 80s began right here and it certainly had an influence on music over the next few years. It’s icy, cool as fuck and one of the greatest disco tracks of all time – despite not actually being that easy to dance to. I love the lyrics, which suit Harry’s ‘not arsed mate’ attitude. Yes, she was once in love. She’s not any more, and you only have to listen to the first few lines to know she’s totally over it.

The lyrics to Heart of Glass are fascinating. What actually is a heart of glass? Does she have a heart of glass or does he? If it’s him, does she mean she’s cut herself because of him? Or does she mean she’s discovered her heart is fragile and he broke it into pieces? Hard to tell, because although she’s given the impression she’s moved on, the choruses suggest otherwise. In the second one Harry suggests he’s cheated on her, and she sings ‘I’m the one you’re using, please don’t push me aside’. ‘Mucho mistrust’ also suggests infidelity.

It’s worth noting that, as far as I can tell, Heart of Glass is the first chart-topper to contain a swear word of sorts. Blondie decided to try and get away with one instance of ‘Soon turned out, it was a pain in the ass’ in both the single and album mixes. It soon got replaced on the radio with another ‘heart of glass’, but good on them for trying! The song then ends on that catchy-as-hell, resigned ‘Ooh ooh ooh, ah-ah’, which comes across as another ‘ah, fuck it’.

With Heart of Glass, Blondie and Chapman really melded those influences of Moroder and Kraftwerk together to create something unique. Like I Feel Love, it feels like it could go on forever and that wouldn’t be a bad thing. I listened to 45 minutes of different versions of this in one go and I only began to tire towards the end. And like Kraftwerk, its machine-like, but scratch the surface and there’s human emotions underneath.

For the single, Chapman beefed up the sound and accentuated the double-tracked bass drum. For me, the best version is the 5:50 ‘Disco Version’ released as a 12-inch. Unlike a lot of 12-inch mixes of the time, it doesn’t sound like bits have been unnecessarily tacked on. It sounds like the natural version, just for letting the rhythm stretch out that bit longer.

The promo video to Heart of Glass was directed by Stanley Dorfman, a British director who did just that on the very first edition of Top of the Pops. The film begins with aerial shots of New York, slowly revolving like a mirrorball, before showing the streets of the city and landmarks including the Ed Sullivan Theatre and Studio 54. Although we’re meant to get the suggestion the latter is where this is filmed, it was actually made in a long-forgotten, short-lived club.

The rest of the video alternates between close-ups of Harry miming and mid-distance shots of the rest of the band ‘performing’. Harry looks particularly drop-dead gorgeous here, her hair slightly dishevelled, in a silver dress with one shoulder strap. Her bored, slightly pissed-off performance really suits the song and apparently came about through a genuine sulk. Harry wanted to dance but she was told to stay still. She wasn’t keen on Dorfman after that and didn’t appreciate all the close-ups. Nonetheless, it’s an iconic performance.

After

Heart of Glass was a deserved global smash and number 1 in most countries, including the US. Harry became a pin-up and hero to millions of teens and were a breath of fresh air. With this song toppling Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick, 1979 was shaping up to be a hell of a year for pop.

The Info

Written by

Debbie Harry & Chris Stein

Producer

Mike Chapman

Weeks at number 1

4 (3 February-2 March)

Trivia

Births

13 February: Labour MP Rachel Reeves

2 March: Comedian Jocelyn Jee Esien

Deaths

14 February: Conservative MP Reginald Maudling – 14 February

19 February: Comedian Wee Georgie Wood

Meanwhile…

9 February: Trevor Francis signed for Nottingham Forest. He was the first player to sign a deal worth £1 million.

12 February: The Winter of Discontent continued, with more than 1,000 schools closed due to the heating oil shortage caused by the lorry drivers’ strike.

14 February: Talks between unions and the government, known as the ‘Saint Valentine’s Day Concordat’ marked the end to the Winter of Discontent.

15 February: However, the damage was done. Opinion polls showed the Tories up to 20 points ahead of Labour.

22 February: Saint Lucia became independent of the UK.

1 March: Scotland voted for a Scottish Assembly in the devolution referendum. However this was less than 40% of the electorate, which meant it wasn’t followed through.
Also on this day, Wales voted against devolution.