Blondie Regeneration
 In the early 1970s, Chris Stein moved to New York City, and inspired by the New York Dolls, aimed to join a similar band. He joined The Stilettos in 1973 as their guitarist and formed a romantic relationship with the band's vocalist, Deborah Harry. A former waitress and Playboy Bunny, Harry had been a member of the folk-rock band, Wind in the Willows, in the late 1960s. In 1974, she parted ways with The Stilettos and Elda Gentile, the band's originator. Stein and Harry formed a new band with drummer Clem Burke, keyboard player Jimmy Destri and bass player Gary Valentine. Originally billed as Angel and the Snake the band renamed themselves Blondie in late 1975. The name was taken from comments from truck drivers who called Hey, Blondie to Harry as they drove by. Two former members of the original lineup were sisters Tish Bellomo and Eileen Bellomo (who is more commonly known as Snooky), who were both vocalists. The two left the band, and now they are famous for starting the company Manic Panic. The two of them are now the current vocalists in their band Sic F*cks, who only perform once a year.
Audio samples:
In the Flesh (1977)
Blondie achieved their first hit single with the ballad In the Flesh, after it was played by mistake on an Australian television program.
Rip Her to Shreds (1977)
Harry's aggressive vocals on this track are typical of the band's early style.
Denis (1977)
Blondie's first European hit added a danceable pop music beat to their established new wave sound.
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Blondie became regulars at New York's Club 51, Max's Kansas City, and CBGB. They got their first record deal with Private Stock Records in the mid-'70s and released their debut album Blondie in 1976, along with the single X-Offender. Private Stock Records was then bought out by the UK-based company, Chrysalis Records, and the first album was re-released on the new label in 1977 along with the single Rip Her to Shreds. Rolling Stone wrote about Blondie for the first time in August 1977 and observed the eclectic nature of the group's music, comparing it to Phil Spector and The Who and commented that the album's two strengths were Richard Gottehrer's production and the persona of Deborah Harry, saying she performed with utter aplomb and involvement throughout: even when she's portraying a character consummately obnoxious and spaced-out, there is a wink of awareness that is comforting and amusing yet never condescending. It also noted that Harry was the possessor of a bombshell zombie's voice that can sound dreamily seductive and woodenly Mansonite within the same song.
Their first commercial success occurred in Australia in 1977, when the music television program Countdown mistakenly played their video In the Flesh, which was the b-side of their current single X-Offender. Jimmy Destri later credited the show's Molly Meldrum for their initial success, commenting that we still thank him to this day for playing the wrong song. In a 1998 interview, bandmember Clem Burke recalled seeing the episode in which the wrong song was played, but he and Chris Stein suggested that it may have been a deliberate subterfuge on the part of Meldrum. Stein asserted that X-Offender was too crazy and aggressive [to become a hit], while In the Flesh was not representative of any punk sensibility. Over the years, I've thought they probably played both things but liked one better. That's all. In retrospect, Burke described In the Flesh as a forerunner to the power ballad.
Blondie, 1976. From left to right : Gary Valentine, Clem Burke, Deborah Harry, Chris Stein and Jimmy Destri.The single and album each reached the Australian top 5 in October 1977, and a subsequent double-a release of X-Offender and Rip Her to Shreds, was also popular. A successful Australian tour followed in December, though it was marred by an incident in Brisbane when disappointed fans almost rioted after Harry canceled a performance due to illness.
1977 also saw the release of their second album, recorded as a four piece band because Gary Valentine had left. Plastic Letters was promoted extensively throughout Europe and Asia by Chrysalis Records. The album's first single Denis, was a cover version of Randy and the Rainbows' 1963 hit. It reached number two on the British singles charts, while both the album and its second single, (I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear, reached the British top ten. That chart success, along with a successful 1978 UK tour including a gig at the Roundhouse (the Boomtown Rats opened), made Blondie one of the first American new wave bands to achieve mainstream success in the United Kingdom. By this time, Gary Valentine had been replaced by Frank Infante (Bass Guitar / Guitar), and shortly after that Nigel Harrison (Bass Guitar) was added, expanding the band to a six piece for the first time.
All Music Review later described Plastic Letters as inferior to its predecessor, saying that with the exception of the two singles, it appeared to have been constructed from leftovers from the Blondie album. It noted that Gottehrer's production could not compensate for the pedestrian musical tracks or save the album from general mediocrity
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