Singer, songwriter and actress Deborah Harry, better known as Debbie Harry, is most famous as the lead singer of punk rock band Blondie. She was born on 1 July 1945 and adopted at the age of three months by Catherine and Richard Harry in Miami, Florida, USA. Her jobs before she became a full-time singer included a secretary, a waitress and a Playboy Bunny.
Her music career is still going strong and in 2011 Blondie released a new album Panic of Girls.
Debbie Harry’s Early Music Career
Debbie Harry’s first band, according to her web site, was a folk rock group called The Wind in the Willows, which released one album and recorded a second that was never released. She then teamed with Tish Bellomo and Eileen Bellomo to form The Stilettos.
The Bellomo sisters at the time had blonde hair and so Debbie Harry died her hair blonde to match. This earned her wolf whistles and cries of “blondie” from men in passing cars and so when she formed a new band with The Stilettos’ guitarist Chris Stein that is what they eventually called it after rejecting the initial name Angel & The Snake. Chris Stein later became Debbie Harry’s boyfriend. The Bellomo sisters initially joined Blondie as backing singers but soon left.
Debbie Harry and Blondie
When Blondie was formed in 1974, according to the band's web site, the band also included drummer Billy O’Connor and bassist Fred Smith. A year later, Clem Burke became the drummer and they were joined by keyboard player Jimmy Destri and bass player Gary Valentine.
The band played most of their gigs in downtown New York at venues such as CBGB's, Max's Kansas City and Mothers. Their first album Blondie was released in 1977 on the Private Stock label and is included in the list of classic punk albums of the 1970s. To promote it, the band toured in support of Iggy Pop and David Bowie. The album contained the song “X-Offender”, which Blondie released as a single the previous year. The B side of the single was “In The Flesh” the video for which was accidentally played on an Australian music television show and this gave them some initial success on which they could build.
By the time the second album Plastic Letters was released in 1978, Gary Valentine had left the band. Plastic Letters contained the song “Denis”, a cover version of a 1963 song by Randy & the Rainbows. This was a hit, bringing the band chart success, which they followed with the second single from the album “I’m Always Touched By Your Presence, Dear”.
More success followed with the third album Parallel Lines, which contained hit singles “Picture This”, “Hanging on the Telephone”, “Heart of Glass” and “Sunday Girl”. The album though also marked a shift musically from their punk origins to a more poppy sound.
In 1979, Blondie released the album Eat to the Beat with hit singles “Dreaming”, “Atomic” and “Call Me”. A year later saw the release of Autoamerican, which had the number one hits “The Tide is High” and "Rapture", the latter being the first number one in the USA to have rap vocals. At about the same time, Debbie Harry released her first solo album Koo Koo, which produced the single “Backfired”.
Blondie’s final album in this period was 1982’s The Hunter. Chris Stein was then taken seriously ill and the band broke up.
Debbie Harry the Actress and Solo Performer
Debbie Harry has had more than thirty film roles and many television appearances. Probably her best known role was as Nicki Brand in the 1983 David Cronenberg film Videodrome.
She also released another three solo albums – Rockbird, Def, Dumb & Blonde, and Debravation, which all had some minor success but nothing compared with her days with Blondie. In 2007, she released a fifth solo album Necessary Evil.
Debbie Harry and The Jazz Passengers
In 1994, Debbie Harry joined the New York based avant-garde jazz ensemble The Jazz Passengers and was a featured vocalist on "Dog In Sand" from their 1994 album In Love. She was then the main vocalist on the 1997 album Individually Twisted. The live album Live In Spain also featured Debbie Harry on vocals. This was released in 1998 by which time Debbie Harry was back with Blondie.
Debbie Harry and the Return of Blondie
In 1997, Blondie reformed after they came together to play a one-off concert. This led the following year to a new album – No Exit – produced by Craig Leon, who also produced “X-Offender” back in 1976. In 2003, the band released a follow-up album The Curse of Blondie.
The latest Blondie album was released in July 2011 and is called Panic of Girls.
Steve Rogerson - Steve Rogerson is a UK-based writer specialising in television, technology, sports and beer.
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