Adopting the approach that, rather than ensure that everyone had a quota of songs on the album, the best tracks would make the record regardless of who wrote them, Mike was happy to relinquish writing. The album was also new ground for Mike as it was the first time he was producing tracks in which he’d had no input in the writing. Convinced of Blondie’s potential to become pop’s next big thing, Wright bought their contract for $1 million.Īlthough their second album Plastic Letters – their first on Chrysalis, increased their profile in the UK, Europe and Australia, producing hits with Denis and (I’m Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear, it failed to provide them with their much sought-after US mainstream breakthrough. Wright was immediately won over by their canon of spiky pop confections and the onstage dynamism of Debbie Harry, with her two-tone hair – black at the back and bleached blonde at the front (an effect she later accredited to being an accident as she couldn’t reach the back of her head to apply the peroxide) and sporting a dress which she had fashioned from a hotel pillowcase and gaffer tape – an exciting alchemy of Hollywood glamour and punk’s DIY ethos.
Sensing the limitations they faced due to being signed to indie label Private Stock, manager Peter Leeds invited Chrysalis Records founder Chris Wright to watch them perform at legendary venue the Whisky A Go-Go on Los Angeles’ famed Sunset Strip. Outside of the New York scene, Blondie’s appeal was limited to a cult following of punk purists who lusted after singer Debbie Harry thanks to a string of provocative photographs of her taken by guitarist Chris Stein and printed in the celebrated Punk fanzine, earning her the title of Punkmate Of The Month.ĭespite touring virtually non-stop in support of their eponymous debut album, the band were frustrated that mainstream success had continued to elude them.
Forsaking their punk sound but not their attitude, Blondie: Parallel Lines earned the band global success thanks to a string of hits and the undeniable star power of their charismatic frontwoman… By Mark LindoresĪ lthough they’re regarded as the quintessential New York group, it was the West Coast stop-off on their Plastic Letters Tour in 1977 that proved to be the impetus for catapulting Blondie from the bowels of New York’s Bowery to the upper strata of pop groups.ĭespite beginning to achieve recognition in the UK and Australia with minor hits such as X Offender, Rip Her To Shreds and In The Flesh, in their homeland they were still regarded as a niche punk act, CBGB also-rans who were seen as vastly inferior to their peers the Ramones, Television and Talking Heads.
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