Sunday Girl
05/09/2010Blondie – Sunday Girl
circa 1979.
"I know a girl from a lonely street, cold as ice cream but still as sweet"
Blondie burst on to the music scene in the late Seventies, their perfectly crafted songs giving them a string of hits. To say I had a crush on Debbie Harry is a bit of an understatement – I was besotted.
Their third album, Parallel Lines, came out in 1978 to critical acclaim. For me though, Blondie will always be a great singles band. Over the course of a few short years, they released classics such as Denis, Hanging On The Telephone, Heart Of Glass, One Way Or Another, Call Me, Atomic and The Tide Is High.
Some time in the early 90s I got back into listening to them for the first time in years. One afternoon an ad came on the TV for a blindness charity, its soundtrack – Blondie’s Picture This, get it? Of course I didn’t make a donation but instead went straight out and bought their Greatest Hits.
In 2000, me and Paul A. got tickets to see Mad For The Racket at Whelans in Dublin. They were a sort of alternative super group consisting of Wayne Kramer (MC5), Mani (Stone Roses), Brian James (Damned), and Blondie’s Clem Burke on drums. They’d just put out an album, unfortunately it was not the sum of its parts. The show was really poorly attended, just me and Paul and a couple of other guys standing around. I felt really bad considering the calibre of talent on show. Turned out we’d walked into the soundcheck – the place filled up within an hour so we watched the set all over again. It was great to see these legends in the flesh even if the music wasn’t brilliant, though their version of Kick Out The Jams lifted the roof off.
Anyway, I will always remember those few weeks back in May 1979. Blondie were at number one with Sunday Girl. Debbie Harry was fucking gorgeous – I was 7 and I was in love.
P.
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Artist: Blondie
Album: Get Parallel Lines to be cool, but you can’t go wrong with the Greatest Hits
Label: Chrysalis
Released: 1979
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Just got my Debbie Harry Barbie: http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MTR4459 to go with my 2 pairs of Blondie Converse: http://www.classicsportshoes.com/blondie-converse-chuck-taylors.html and http://www.mamstore.co.uk/bin/pxisapi1.exe/large?item=802417. She can keep Joey (http://cgi.ebay.com/Joey-Ramone-Ramones-action-figure-doll-package-MIP-/380201084118?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5885c024d6) company on my doll shelf.
My Debbie obsession is to blame for a lifetime of split ends and overpriced bleach jobs. Just got my Debbie Harry doll:
http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MTR4459
to go with my 2 pairs of Blondie Converse: http://converse-shoe-store.blogspot.com/2009/07/blondie-converse-shoes.html and http://www.amazon.co.uk/Converse-Unisex-Blondie-Parallel-Lace-Up/dp/B0033UVNXC.
Good post! Scary and amazing to think that all those classic hits – Denis, Presence, Telephone, Picture This, Heart Of Glass, Sunday Girl, One Way Or Another, Dreaming, Union City Blue, Atomic, Call Me, Tide Is High, Rapture all happened in a 2-3 year period. Fair to say they were on fire.
Parallel Lines was the first album I ever bought (as a wee lad in the 70s), and I still play it regularly to this day.
An all-time classic!