Hello, kittens and dawgs! In Last Thursday BoTB, I featured Blondie’s Call Me cover between two rival bands got the gears spinning in my head. I took on the persona as internet detective to see what I could learn about, What ever happened to Blondie?
I always thought Blondie was around throughout the 80s and 90s, but I discovered after the band gained mainstream success in the late 70s that they took a break in 1981.
During the group’s music pause, the band members kept busy with their solo careers. Debbie Harry released her album KooKoo with Stein’s help and she even did a little acting. Jimmy Destri (with Burke’s help) released the album, Heart on a Wall. Both had little success as solo artists. Burke went to Europe to play drums on Eurythmics début album. At the end of 1981 Blondie gathered to produce a new album, The Hunter, which released in 1982. It didn’t get the kind of success as their earlier work. Again, Harry continued to work her moderately successful solo career in the mid-80s through the 90s with Stein active contribution. Burke became much-in-demand session drummer. Destri kept his career active as a producer and session musician.
The 80s and 90s spawn new interest with a newer generation of listeners. They reunited at the end of 1996 and the following year they gave their first performance. In 1998, they did an international tour. No Exit released in 1999, hitting the US charts #18 and #3 in the UK. From this album, song track Maria became a #1 hit single in the UK.
In 2003, they released The Curse of Blondie, (chart positions US at 160 and UK at 36) ) which proved rather dismal on the music charts. However, song track Good Boys managed to rank at #12 on the UK charts.
To commemorate the 30th anniversary of their album Parallel Lines, Blondie began a world tour in June 2008. Inspired by the attendance received on the world tour the band began working on another album. Panic of Girls released in May 2011 to the UK as a limited edition “fan pack” offer. The lead single offered as a free download from this album beforehand put Mother at #30.
2012 Blondie continued to tour doing a concert in NYC which streamed live on YouTube. Blondie 4(0) Ever is a 2-disc remix of old hits and new songs from their album Ghost of Downloads released in 2014; spawning three new singles from Blondie’s 10th album.
Supposedly Blondie was working on an album for 2015 and taped a special for PBS to air this year featuring two new songs but I don’t know if this episode aired and I can’t find an upcoming schedule.
I’ll leave you with a factoid I found interesting. Commissioned to write a song bearing the same name as 1981 James Blond Flick, For Your Eyes Only, but the producer rejected Blondie going with another.
Have a tunetastic day and I’ll be seeing all my peeps back tomorrow for not-so Wordless Wednesday!