Debbie Harry

Deborah Ann Harry (born July 1, 1945, in Miami, Florida) is a singer-songwriter and actress most famous for being the lead singer for the punk rock/new wave band Blondie. Following Blondie's split in 1982, she went on to success as a solo artist, recording four solo albums before the group reunited in 1997. In 2007 she released her fifth solo disc Necessary Evil (her first since Blondie reunited). In the mid Nineties she also performed and recorded as part of the Jazz Passengers. Harry has also enjoyed a successful acting career, with over 30 film roles and several television appearances to her credit.

Debbie Harry Blondie

With her two-tone bottle-blonde hair, Debbie Harry quickly became a recognizable icon of punk style. Her look was further popularized by the band's early presence in the music video revolution of the era. She was a continued regular at Studio 54 and was associated with Andy Warhol. The clip for 'Rapture' appeared within the first 24 hours of MTV's launch. Harry's strong stage persona of cool sexuality and streetwise style became so closely associated with the group's name that many came to believe the singer's name to be "Blondie". The difference between the individual Harry and the band Blondie was famously highlighted with a "Blondie is a Group" button campaign by the band in 1979. To complicate matters further, Harry sometimes described her character in the band as being named "Blondie", as in this quote from the No Exit tour book:“ Hi, it's Deb. You know, when I woke up this morning I had a realization about myself. I was always Blondie. People always called me Blondie, ever since I was a little kid. What I realized is that at some point I became Dirty Harry. I couldn't be Blondie anymore, so I became Dirty Harry.”

Through 1976 and 1977, Blondie released their first two albums to varying success outside the US. However, 1978's Parallel Lines shot the group to huge international success, and included the smash hit single "Heart of Glass". The release of Eat to the Beat in 1979 and Autoamerican in 1980 continued the band's run of hits, including "Atomic", "The Tide Is High", "Rapture" and the #1 single "Call Me" from the film soundtrack American Gigolo.

After a year long hiatus in 1981 during which Harry released her first solo album (see below), Blondie regrouped and released their sixth studio album The Hunter, which featured the U.S. and UK hit single "Island of Lost Souls" and the minor UK hit "War Child". Blondie launched a North American tour to support the release, but it was cut short when Stein fell ill with the rare autoimmune disease pemphigus. Coupled with declining sales, the band called it quits and announced their split.

Later in the 1980s, the remix album "Once More Into The Bleach" was released (featuring remixes of tracks by Blondie and from Harry solo career). The mid-1990s saw the release of further Blondie remix albums Beautiful (in Europe) and Remixed Remade Remodeled (in the U.S.). New mixes of "Heart of Glass", "Atomic", and "Union City Blue" were released as singles and all made the UK Top 40, while remixes of "Atomic", "Rapture", and "Heart of Glass" had major success on the U.S. dance charts. Then in 1997, Blondie began working together again for the first time in 15 years. Two tracks recorded with TV. Mania (the production trio of Duran Duran members Nick Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo), and producer Anthony J. Resta, "Studio 54" and "Pop Trash Movie" were scheduled to be released on a Blondie compilation entitled This Is Blondie. However, the project and the tracks were shelved as the four original members (Harry, Stein, Clem Burke and Jimmy Destri) embarked on sessions for what would become Blondie's seventh studio album. During this period they released a cover of Iggy Pop's "Ordinary Bummer" on the tribute album We Will Fall (1997).

After a final tour of Europe with The Jazz Passengers in the summer of 1998, Deborah Harry resumed duties as lead vocalist of Blondie. Prior to the release of No Exit, the band completed a sold out tour of Europe. Dates at London's Lyceum Theatre were recorded by the BBC and aired on national BBC Radio 1. A week prior to the release of No Exit, the lead single "Maria" debuted at number one in the UK, giving Blondie their sixth UK no.1 hit. "Maria" also reached #1 in 14 different countries, the top 10 on the US Dance Charts, and Top 15 on the US Adult Top 40 Charts. No Exit debuted at No.3 in the UK and #17 in the US, and Blondie announced dates for a major Arena tour that summer during which they played the Glastonbury Festival and Party in the Park in London. "Nothing Is Real but the Girl" was another UK Top 30 hit, while the title track was released as a single to coincide with further arena dates in November of that year.

Harry entered the Guinness World Book of Records in 1999 as the "Oldest Female Singer to Reach No. 1 in the UK Chart" when Blondie went to number one with "Maria" on February 13, 1999 at the age of 53 years and 227 days.

Tracks culled from dates throughout the 1999 world tour were released as a live album, titled Live in the U.S. and Livid in the UK, and released in late 1999 and early 2000 respectively. A Blondie Live companion DVD was also released, recorded at a show in NYC Town Hall.

Although Blondie commenced recording tracks for the follow-up to No Exit in 2001, the sessions were besieged with problems including the loss of master tapes after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In the winter of 2002, Blondie burst back into life with a full scale UK tour. This preceded the release of a new single in 2003 entitled "Good Boys" (a hit across the UK and Europe that autumn, and top 10 on the US Dance Charts the following spring) and the release of Blondie's eighth studio album, The Curse of Blondie. The band toured throughout 2003 and 2004 completing two further full scale tours of the UK.

A second live album, entitled Live By Request, was released in 2005 along with a companion DVD set. 2005 saw the release of the mash-up "Rapture Riders", which combined their 1981 hit "Rapture" with The Doors' "Riders on the Storm". This track was taken from a Blondie Greatest Hits compilation entitled Sound and Vision (first issued in the UK as Sight + Sound) - released with a companion DVD disk and new mixes of "In the Flesh" and "Good Boys".

In the winter of 2005, Blondie toured the UK for the fourth time in as many years. In 2006, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Around this time Blondie released a new studio track, a cover of the Roxy Music song "More Than This" to promote their "Road Rage" tour. The single was made available for free download.

At the end of 2006, a new mix of "Heart of Glass" became a club hit in Europe, while Harry released the single "New York New York", a collaboration with Moby. The song debuted on YouTube some four weeks before its official release.

In Summer 2007, Blondie toured in the UK once again. Around this time, Harry delineated the different personas (Blondie the band, her role in the band, and Deborah Harry the singer) in an interview which asked why she played only solo music on the 2007 True Colors Tour: "I've put together a new trio with no Blondie members in it - I really want to make a clear definition between Debbie's solo projects and Blondie - and I hope that the audience can appreciate that and also appreciate this other material."