Debbie Harry

Debbie Harry
Debbie Harry performing performing with Blondie, live in Barcelona, 2008
Background information
Birth name	Angela Tremble
Born	(1945-07-01) July 1, 1945 Miami, Florida, U.S.
Genres	New wave, punk rock, disco
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, actress, former Playboy bunny
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1965–present
Labels	Chrysalis (1981) Geffen (1986) Sire (1989-1993) Eleven Seven (2007)
Associated acts	Blondie (1974-1982, 1999-present) The Wind in the Willows (1968-1968)
Website	Debbie Harry's' Official Site

Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry (born July 1, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter and actress best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she recorded and performed with The Jazz Passengers. Her acting career spans over 30 film roles and numerous television appearances.

Early life and starting point

Harry was born in Miami, Florida, and adopted by Catherine Harry and Richard Smith, gift shop proprietors in Hawthorne, New Jersey. She attended Hawthorne High School, where she graduated in 1963. She graduated from Centenary College in Hackettstown, New Jersey, with an Associate of Arts degree in 1965. Before starting her singing career she moved to New York City in the late 1960s and worked as a secretary at BBC Radio's office there for one year. Later, she was a waitress at Max's Kansas City, a go-go dancer in Union City, New Jersey, discothèque, and a Playboy Bunny.

In the late 1960s, Deborah Harry began her musical career as a backing singer for the folk rock group, The Wind in the Willows, which released one self-titled album in 1968 on Capitol Records. The group also recorded a second album which was never released and the studio tapes remain lost to this day.

In 1974, Harry then joined The Stilettos with Elda Gentile and Amanda Jones. The Stilettos included her eventual boyfriend and Blondie guitarist, Chris Stein.

After leaving The Stilettos, Harry and Stein formed Angel and the Snake with Tish and Snooky Bellomo. Shortly thereafter, Harry and Stein formed Blondie, naming it after the term of address men often called her when she bleached her hair blonde. Blondie quickly became regulars at Max's Kansas City and CBGB in New York City. After a debut album in 1976, commercial success followed in the late 1970s to the early 1980s, first in Australia and Europe, then in the United States.

In 1989 and 2010 interviews, Harry claimed that she had been lured into a car driven by serial killer, Ted Bundy, while in New York during the early 1970s but said that she luckily escaped. While Harry has claimed to identify the driver as Bundy from TV news reports, the fact checking website snopes.com says the driver was probably not Bundy because there is no known record that Bundy was in New York at that time. Snopes noted that Ann Rule, an author of a book on Bundy, says false claims of Bundy abductions are not uncommon.

While leading Blondie, Harry and Stein became life as well as musical partners, though they never married. Harry has no children. In the mid-1980s, she took a few years off to care for Stein while he suffered with pemphigus, a rare autoimmune disease that affects the skin and mucous membranes. Stein and Harry broke up in the 1980s, but continued to work together. In 1999, Harry was deemed the 12th greatest woman of rock and roll by VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll and in 2002, she was called the 18th sexiest artist of all time by VH1's 100 Sexiest Artists.

Blondie

Debbie Harry performing in Toronto in 1977

With her two-tone bleached-blonde hair, Harry quickly became a punk icon. Her look was further popularized by the band's early presence in the music video revolution of the era. She was a regular at Studio 54. In June 1979, Blondie was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone. Harry's persona, combining cool sexuality with streetwise style, became so closely associated with the group's name that many came to believe "Blondie" was the singer's name. 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. In 1981, Harry issued a press release to clarify that her name was not "Debbie Blondie" or "Debbie Harry", but Deborah Harry, though Harry later 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.

”

In 1976 and 1977, Blondie released their first two albums. The second experienced some marginal success outside the United States. However, 1978's Parallel Lines (UK No.1, US No.6) shot the group to international success and included the global smash hit single "Heart of Glass." Riding the crest of disco's domination, the infectious track hit No.1 in the US and sold nearly two million copies. The follow-up single "One Way Or Another" reached No.24 on Billboard's Hot 100. The album was the band's biggest success. Although it has sold over 4 million copies in the United States alone, it has never been certified above the Platinum level. It was also the biggest selling album of 1979 in the United Kingdom.

The release of the platinum-selling Eat to the Beat album (UK No.1, US No.17) in 1979 and Autoamerican (UK No.3, US No.7) in 1980 continued the band's run of hits, including "Dreaming", "Atomic" and three more US No.1 singles: "The Tide Is High", "Rapture" and "Call Me" from the soundtrack to the film American Gigolo, which became Billboard's No.1 song of 1980.

Promotional photo from 1982.

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 (UK No.9, US No.33). The album met with a disastrous reception, peaking at No.33 in the US and falling rapidly off the charts. The single "Island of Lost Souls" briefly cracked the US Top 40 though narrowly missed the top ten in the UK, where the album had been a top ten entry but sold far less than their previous albums. Blondie launched a worldwide tour to support the release, but it was cut short due to slow ticket sales. Stein also fell seriously ill with the rare autoimmune disease, pemphigus. Coupled with declining record sales and internal struggles, the band split up.

Later in the 1980s, the remix album Once More Into The Bleach was released, featuring remixes of tracks by Blondie and from Harry's solo career. The mid-1990s saw the release of further Blondie remix albums Beautiful in Europe and Remixed Remade Remodeled in the US. 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 US dance charts.

In 1997, Blondie began working together again for the first time in 15 years. Two tracks were recorded with TV Mania, the production trio of two Duran Duran members, Nick Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo, and producer Anthony J. Resta. "Studio 54" and "Pop Trash Movie" were scheduled for release 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 before the release of No Exit, the lead single "Maria" debuted at No.1 in the UK, giving Blondie their sixth UK No.1 hit. "Maria" also reached No.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 No.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 limited-edition single to coincide with further arena dates in November of that year.

Tracks culled from dates throughout the 1999 world tour were released as a live album, titled Live in the US and Livid in the UK and were released in late 1999 and early 2000, respectively. A Blondie Live companion DVD was also released, recorded at a show in New York City's The Town Hall.

Harry performing in July 2007.

Although Blondie commenced recording tracks for the follow-up to No Exit in 2001, the sessions were dogged with problems including the loss of master tapes after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In the winter of 2002, Blondie returned 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. In that year, the band also released the mash-up "Rapture Riders," which combined their 1981 hit "Rapture" with The Doors' "Riders on the Storm". This track was taken from a greatest hits compilation entitled Sound and Vision (first issued in the UK as Sight + Sound), released with a companion DVD 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 Roxy Music's 1982 hit "More Than This". This was to promote their "Road Rage" tour and 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 the summer of 2007, Blondie toured in the UK once again. Around this time, Harry delineated the different personae (Blondie the band, her role in the band, and Deborah Harry the singer) to an interviewer who 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."

On July 3, 2008, Blondie commenced a world tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Parallel Lines with a sell-out concert at the amphitheatre in Ra'anana, Israel. During the tour, drummer Clem Burke stated that the tour had inspired the band to make another record, Panic of Girls, their first new album since the release of The Curse of Blondie in 2003.

In 2009, Blondie joined Pat Benatar for the Call Me Invincible tour. The majority of the shows were opened by The Donnas. In December 2009, Blondie recorded their version of the traditional song "We Three Kings" to coincide with the band's new album.

In the summer of 2010, Blondie began a UK and Ireland tour, including venues in Newcastle, Manchester, Sheffield and Dublin. They also played festivals including the Isle of Wight and Rockness Festival in Inverness, Scotland. Tracks from their forthcoming album Panic of Girls were performed during their tour of the UK, notably 'D-Day' and 'What I Heard'.

The album was released first in July 2011 in the United Kingdom, with Germany, USA and Japan following. As a marketing innovation, the band made a lot of special editions with different bonus tracks and added content, such as extra CDs and magazines. It received good reviews from the press and spotted No.1 in Amazon. "Mother" was the first single, accompanied by a video, and "What I Heard" was the second.

Filmography

Film and television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1976	Unmade Beds	Blondie
1978	The Foreigner	Dee Trik
1980	Union City	Lillian
1981	Downtown 81	Fairy Godmother
1983	Videodrome	Nicki Brand
1987	Tales from the Darkside (TV series)	Sybil
	Crime Story (TV series)	Bambi
	Forever, Lulu	Lulu
1988	Satisfaction	Tina
	Hairspray	Velma Von Tussle
1989	New York Stories	Girl at Blind Alley (segment "Life Lessons")
	Wiseguy (TV series)	Diana Price
1990	Tales from the Darkside: The Movie	Betty (wraparound story)
	Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme	Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
1991	Monsters (TV series)	Dr. Moss
1992	Intimate Stranger (TV movie)	Cory Wheeler
1993	TriBeCa (TV series)	Cat
	The Adventures of Pete & Pete (TV series)	Neighbor
	Body Bags (TV movie)	The Nurse (segment "Hair")
1994	Dead Beat	Mrs. Kurtz
1995	Drop Dead Rock	Thor Sturmundrang
	Heavy	Delores
	Sandman (short)
1996	Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (TV series)	Cassandra
1997	L.A. Johns (TV movie)	Madam 'Jacq' Jacqueline
	Cop Land	Delores
	Six Ways to Sunday	Kate Odum
1998	Joe's Day
1999	Zoo
2000	Red Lipstick	Ezmeralda The Psychic
2001	The Fluffer	Marcella
2002	Deuces Wild	Wendy
	Spun	Neighbor
2002	All I Want	Ma Mabley
2003	My Life Without Me	Ann's mother
	A Good Night to Die	Madison
	The Tulse Luper Suitcases	Fastidieux
2005	Honey Trap (short)	The Lawyer
	Patch (short)	Belinda
	I Remember You Now... (short)	Margaret
2006	Full Grown Men	Beauty
2007	Anamorph	Neighbor
2008	Elegy	Amy O'Hearn
2009	The Mystery of Claywoman (short)	Simone
2011	Pipe Dreams (short)	Norah
2012	Believe the Magic (short)

Discography

Main article: Deborah Harry discography

For Harry's releases with Blondie, see Blondie discography.

Philanthropy

In a recent interview, Harry stated that "after witnessing Elton John and his tireless efforts against HIV/AIDS", she has been inspired to put philanthropy as her top priority. "These things are important to my life now. I have the privilege of being able to get involved, so I do. I applaud people like Elton John, who have used their position to do so much good. I could really feel his power and see how effective it was in helping to highlight causes like HIV/AIDS and I thought I should get up off my fat ass and do something too." Some of Harry's charities include those devoted to fighting cancer and endometriosis .

Bibliography

Rock, Mick (Author), Harry, Debbie (Foreword), (April 1, 2011). "Debbie Harry and Blondie: Picture This ". Palazzo Editions. ISBN 095649420X.

External links

Official site(s)

• Debbie Harry's' Official Site
• Blondie's Official Site

Media links

• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame entry
• Debbie Harry Pop Culture Madness interview
• Debbie Harry at NNDB