Original subtitles

■ There's a girl in my room with no clothes on ■

■ She could be cooler ■

- [Jennifer] Debbie Harry is an absolute icon

in every single way.

A trailblazer, a goddess, a queen.

There's really nothing about her that in my opinion,

she's ever done wrong.

- [Narrator] Deborah Harry, icon, actress, fashionista,

sex symbol, revolutionary, all words that can be used

to describe the lead singer of Blondie.

- In terms of crossing from underground

to mainstream culture.

Being an older woman in the music business

and showing how elegant and strong

and fantastic you can be,

everything about her is perfection.

There was never one like her before

and the mold was broken after her.

- [Narrator] Debbie and her impact

on the industry is unparalleled.

Blondie was a groundbreaking band launching her into stardom

and laid the groundwork for many rock, pop,

and punk bands in the future.

Though in the current year,

they have fallen out of the spotlight.

With over 40 million albums sold

and having influenced many artists working today,

it's hard to deny that Blondie has fully entrenched itself

into pop culture with some of their biggest hits

still getting radio play to this day.

This is the story of how Debbie Harry

went from zero to hero in the world.

She started from nothing

and ended up becoming a star

big enough to be compared to Marilyn Monroe.

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music continues)

Debbie Harry was born as Angela Trimble

on July 1st, 1945 in Miami, Florida.

- Debbie Harry was actually adopted

when she was three months old

by her parents Richard and Catherine.

And when she was four, she found out that she was adopted.

So as a child though, she recalled being a tomboy

and hanging out in the woods

and kind of having this quite healthy sounding childhood.

She didn't meet her birth mother though until the 1980s,

and when she did,

she found out her birth mother was a concert pianist,

which is interesting considering the trajectory

that Harry's career went on.

However, her mom did not want anything to do with her.

- [Narrator] A lot of her childhood was shaped

by the fact that she was adopted.

She later wrote, "I guess somewhere in my subconscious

a scene was playing on a loop of a parent

leaving me somewhere and never coming back."

This went on to give her a deep passion

for finding her place in the world

and looking to make a mark on it.

She explains in her memoir, "Face It."

"I was still trying to discover who I was,

but I knew in high school that I wanted to be

some kind of artist or Bohemian."

At an early age,

she already incorporated herself into music,

singing in her local church choir while growing up

in Hawthorne, New Jersey.

- And you have to kind of think in the 60s being a tomboy,

hanging out with other kids that are not girls

and doing things that are not necessarily feminine.

That's going to probably make her a little bit,

not an outcast,

but definitely on the perimeters

of other kids her age that are female especially.

It also would most likely set her up to be comfortable

hanging out with all boys, all males,

and understanding how guys work from a very, very young age.

- [Narrator] She later graduated

with an associate of arts degree

moving to New York City in the mid 60s.

She had odd jobs, including a waitress and a secretary.

- So before Debbie got into the music career,

she was actually a Playboy bunny,

and she did this from 1968 to 1973.

And if you see pictures of her from that era,

she does not have her trademark chopped off blonde bob.

She actually has long Brown, almost dare I say,

kind of a hippie vibe, wholesome looking hair.

And I think it's very easy to think of Playboy bunnies

as being put down by men, it's very misogynist

and it's something that's demeaning to women,

but of her time being a Playboy bunny

at the Playboy Bunny clubs,

she said it was very, very empowering.

She said women ran the Playboy Bunny clubs.

And if you think about it, it's really true.

Women are getting money out of the men that are coming,

women are entertaining,

women are having to use their brains

to engage with these clients,

but they're also obviously using their looks as well.

So it's kind of like the ultimate double dip,

power play for females in that environment,

and that's really what she took away from it.

- [Narrator] Debbie performed briefly in 1968

in the obscure psych folk band, The Wind in The Willows

who only ever released one album.

She provided backup vocals.

While not being a massive act,

this was an important stepping stone

in igniting her love for creating music.

- So the first band that Debbie Harry was a part of,

she was actually a backup singer in a band called

Wind in the Willows, which really could be nothing

but a folk band with that title.

This actually parlayed into her being

into a group called The Stilettos with Chris Stein.

And that's how they actually first met

was being in that together.

And I think it just was not really the right vibe for them,

and they both ended up leaving in 1974.

- [Narrator] Despite the short tenure

of The Wind in the Willow,

her passion for music was firmly cemented

as she began her journey to become lead singer in a band.

In 1973, she joined The Stilettos,

a stripped back punk band,

a massive departure from her previous folk roots.

The group broke up after less than a year.

However, this did lead her to meet Chris Stein,

who became romantically involved with her.

- Debbie Harry first met Chris Stein

when he joined The Stilettos,

and this is after she had left Wind in the Willows.

And Stein joined the band as a guitar player.

The two of them, I think, really saw in each other

a great collaboration creatively,

but also they became romantically involved.

And that was a relationship that lasted

for more than two decades

through the huge worldwide success of Blondie,

through both of them having drug problems,

through Stein getting an autoimmune disease,

which badly affected his skin,

the different financial problems the band had.

And I think something that people

don't necessarily talk about,

but you can see it in their record covers,

is also Blondie was for people.

It was not Debbie Harry. Debbie Harry was not Blondie.

And that could have really been an element

that I think ultimately broke them up in the first place.

But that must have put a lot of pressure

on their relationship because the two of them

were the nucleus, not just Debbie Harry.

So they weathered all those storms together

for many, many years as Blondie.

- [Narrator] Chris Stein was born on January 5th, 1950

to Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York.

He wanted to be an archeologist or historian growing up.

However, that all changed when his parents bought him

his first guitar, leading him on his journey as a musician,

leading to tumultuous teenage years,

and ultimately pushing him further into the world of music.

(upbeat music)

During this time period of her life,

she experienced some incredibly traumatizing things.

Before meeting Chris, Deborah dated a man

who went on to threaten at gunpoint to rape her,

accusing her of cheating.

When living with Chris Stein,

the two habited a cheap and seedy apartment in New York

due to their lack of money.

Speaking on the apartment, Chris said,

"Debbie and I lived on the Bowery.

We had a few cockroaches and a Poltergeist.

There was knocking in the walls and pictures would fall."

One day, the apartment was burgled,

the attacker holding them at knife point.

He tied them up before ransacking the place.

The man then proceeded to rape Debbie

while Kris was still tied up.

Debbie has also claimed to have narrowly

avoided being killed during this time.

She said that one night she was trying

to get a taxi home in the east side part of New York

when a man pulled up in a white car

offering her a ride home.

She eventually decided to take the man up on his offer.

However, he didn't talk to her at all in the car,

and she noticed there was no door handle or window crank.

The inside of the car had been totally stripped down.

She got very nervous as the man began to drive faster,

swerving the car around the corner

as she was launched out of the door and into the

street as the man sped away.

She never reported this to the police

and moved on with her life.

However, 15 years later,

she saw the man's face on a magazine cover.

He had been arrested.

It was the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy.

(suspenseful music)

However, some people have criticized this story

as at the time Bundy was said to be active in Florida.

Debbie, however, has always maintained

that it is a true story.

- I think regardless if it's true or not,

it's a great story.

So I don't really care if it's true or not.

- [Narrator] After The Stilettos split up,

Chris and Debbie decided to form their own band

with the drummer and bassist,

Clem Burke and Gary Valentine, respectively.

Originally they were going to be called Angel and the Snake.

However, they changed it a few months later

to the name we all know today, Blondie.

- So when Chris Stein and Debbie Harry

decided to start a band,

they originally were billed as Angel and the Snake.

And this only lasted for about two shows.

The name they felt didn't a hundred percent suit them,

and they also were going through

different bass players and drummers.

And they actually finally settled on the name Blondie.

And this was after repeatedly Debbie Harry

had been called out on the street by passing cars,

"Hey, Blondie," out the window.

So by that time she'd cut the hair

and that had become part of the whole persona

of her stage look and stage look and definitely

I would even say the kind of icy part

of their performance style.

The final Blondie lineup though

got cemented when Clem Burke joined the band on drums

and Gary Lachman joined the band on bass.

- [Narrator] The name came from the cat calling

she would get from men on the streets,

with Debbie recognizing it as easy to remember, simple,

and most importantly, taking a degrading name and owning it.

(upbeat music)

Blondie began their burgeoning career

playing in clubs in New York.

They had a gritty streetwise appeal

that made them popular among the punk scene of the day.

They enjoyed a modest success quickly.

However, the band had added and changed

a few members already with the drummer and bassist,

Clem Burke and Gary Valentine respectively joining the band

with Valentine, replacing Fred Smith,

who later went on to join the band Television.

By the end of 1975, Jimmy Destri was added on keyboards.

The band established themselves

at the clubs Max's Kansas City and the renowned CBGB,

which together were the heart of New York's

progressive arts community and frequented

by the likes of Andy Warhol's factory contingent.

Like many of the artists in these venues,

Blondie felt unconstrained by convention

and were exploring new approaches to rock music,

stripping it down to a bear raw and urgent form.

Blondie aesthetically took inspiration

from the 1960s fashion and pop style

further setting them apart from their contemporaries.

Debbie Harry was a femme fatal, sexy, smart, and dangerous,

and a rare female lead in the punk clubs.

After sounding innocent and sweet

during a song like "In the Flesh,"

she could come back at you with a vicious snarl

in "Rip Her to Shreds."

The fact that she was drop dead gorgeous

was an enhancing element to the band's musical package,

though a constant challenge to their identity.

Eventually, Harry and the band got noticed

when in June of 1975, Alan Bedrock,

a regular at the renowned CGBG Club,

well known for its punk atmosphere

and helping to push breakout artists into the mainstream

hear Blondie play, and decided to help them produce a demo.

Blondie had their chance to record for the first time,

their first single was "X Offender."

■ I had to know, so I asked ■

■ You just had to laugh ■

■ We sat in the night with my hands cuffed at my side ■

■ I look at your life and your style ■

- Blondie made their debut self-titled album,

"Blondie" in 1977 for the independent label Private Stock.

And they were not pleased really

with the way that the record performed.

The first track was a song called "Dennis,"

which if you see the video for it,

"You're like, oh yeah, I know that song."

But it didn't really have the breakthrough

and appeal and impact I think that the band was hoping for.

So they ended up buying back the rights

to that self-titled debut

and selling to Chrysalis later that year.

- [Narrator] In June, 1976,

Blondie released their first self-titled album.

The band was a pioneer in the early American new wave

and punk scenes of the mid to late 1970s.

Its first two albums contained

strong elements of both genres.

And although successful in the United Kingdom

and Australia, Blondie was regarded

as an underground band in the United States

until the release of "Parallel Lines" in 1978.

They enjoyed modest success for a time releasing two albums

as Harry continued to hone her performing style

with each release.

She knew how to utilize her beauty and sexuality

with a compelling combination of humor and ironic detachment

as she delivered songs that were often written

by her male band mates from their testosterone perspective,

making them favorites of the LGBTQ community

from their earliest days.

They represented a kind of gender fluidity and acceptance

rare for that era.

- It's easy now to look back and go, "Oh," you know.

Like Debbie Harry was super beautiful.

That's why she was who she is.

But the thing is, it has never been easy for women

to break into the music scene

maybe as a straight up pop star

that's a little bit manufactured,

but rock and roll, punk rock, even hip hop,

these genres are male dominated.

Males work at the record labels, they work at the the press.

They're the ones,

I mean, how many women even today are said,

you know what?

You can go play an instrument or you can do something,

like, it's very, very difficult.

And you can kind of count on your fingers,

I've tried to do it before.

Who are kind of iconic women from, you know, before 2000?

And you really kind of come up

with maybe five or six at a push.

And I think the thing is, is that it was just hard

because it was such a man's world

and like women were always on the outside of that.

They were always the groupies, they were in the audience.

They would come with their boyfriends to the show.

And I don't really know 100% why that is.

I think part of it is culturally women never saw themselves

in those places or playing instruments or fronting a band.

And so therefore if you don't see it,

you don't even think it's a possibility.

And that is I think one huge reason

that there weren't many women around then,

and there are more women around now

if we look at it like that.

Debbie Harry herself really walked this line of pretty much

nobody else I know of being gritty and dirty and tomboyish

in the way she dressed and looked, but still being sexy.

Like she never has the boobs out.

She never is like overtly like overly sexualized,

but that is what makes her so appealing.

So as a woman, it's that quintessential, I wanna be her.

I mean, even now I want to be Debbie Harry desperately.

Any era, I'll take it.

And as a man, you wanna be with a woman like that.

You want to be with a woman that can wear jeans

that can hang out with the guys, but still be cool and sexy.

And again, I think this is one of the things

that has been universally appealing about her.

But why she has maintained a fan base

is 'cause there's not many people period that can do that,

and she does it so perfectly.

As a woman that works in the music industry,

you look at her and go,

here's someone that is obviously,

the first thing people say about Debbie Harry

always is how beautiful she is.

But they don't talk about her songwriting

and they don't talk about her living a very public life

in terms of her relationship, in terms of creativity

and the judgment that must go into that,

go into being that figure.

And I think as a young artist looking at her,

you can be like, "I can be something like that.

I can lead a band of men, I can be a songwriter,

I can be a fashion icon without it all being about

the way I look or the fact that I have a vagina."

She really carved away for that.

And I think the reason she's still such an icon

is because she's still is someone we look up to.

There's not many people now

that are doing that in that same way.

And especially I would say since the internet started,

there's not gonna be people that have

that same kind of staying power.

We're living in a very disposable culture moment.

So are there gonna be other people that at 70,

like are there like is, you know,

the girl that sings "Call Me Maybe"

30 years now, 30 years from now,

are we going to be looking at at her and go,

"Ooh, what an icon?"

No, we won't even remember these people's name.

Debbie Harry is part of a culture

and a moment that happened,

but it has created the culture that exists now.

So that's one reason she's still so relevant.

It's easy to to say,

"Oh well, Debbie Harry, Blondie, Chris Stein,

that whole sound was new wave post-punk, punk."

But that's way too simplistic.

I think the crucial thing about this band

is that Debbie Harry and Chris Stein in particular

really moved around the New York culture

that they were living in.

They weren't above, or I should say,

closed off from experiencing different sounds,

different cultures, different people

than those they'd grown up in

or grew up around.

And that really comes to fruition

in the first instance in "Parallel Lines"

because you can hear the rap, you can hear the reggae,

you can hear the disco that Studio 54,

but then you still have that very icy, edgy, gritty almost

even though the production value is so high quality

of punk rock coming into it.

So it isn't like they're hearing

these other elements and saying, we're gonna copy that.

It literally is like they're taking a bit of this

and a bit of that and making something totally new.

And I think few, if any other bands

have been able to do that

as successfully as Blondie since then.

They really kind of created a genre less genre.

And I think that's one of the reasons

that so many people love them because they have,

there's something there for everybody.

If your way in is through "Heart of Glass,"

which is so disco,

if your way in is through "Dreaming," whatever it is,

a song like "Dreaming" is very much a message song.

It is a lyric driven song,

but something like "Heart of Glass" is very much just like,

you know, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.

So you may not think you would like anything

that's as punky as "Dreaming,"

but your entryway drug, if you would,

would be "Heart of Glass."

- [Narrator] Blondie enjoyed bending genres

and melding them together, which is why it's difficult

to strictly tie the band down to one music genre.

However, it wasn't until 1978 that they began

to ascend from popular underground act into mainstream stars

with the release of their 1978 album "Parallel Lines,"

which became and still remains a definitive

and seminal piece of new wave music.

The tracks, "One Way or Another,"

and "Heart of Glass" has became

two of the band's signature songs.

The latter ranking number 255 on Rolling Stone's list

of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

And with its 1.3 million sales in UK only,

"Heart of Glass" made Blondie

one of the zeitgeist bands of the 70s.

■ Once I had a love and it was a gas ■

■ Soon turned out had a heart of glass ■

- If I had to put Blondie into a category,

I think I'd say they're punk rock.

And here's why, because the idea

at the very base of punk rock is that anything goes

and you can just literally throw away anything

and everything that you thought something was.

So punk rock is about an attitude

that's the most founding part of punk,

and that's exactly what Blondie does

in terms of Debbie Harry as the front person

in terms of the sound, the fashion,

everything about them is it goes

by something totally different than what came before.

- [Narrator] The song is one of the UK's

greatest selling singles of all time

and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame

for its historical significance in 2015.

After the success of "Parallel Line,"

the group blew up in popularity.

Their mainstream success continued

with the group's next albums. "Eat To the Beat" in 1979,

which included "Dreaming" and "Atomic."

Another one of the group's most well-known songs.

(upbeat rock music)

(upbeat rock music continues)

Although the band's popularity skyrocketed

after they adopted a more polished sound,

many accused them of selling out

by embracing trendy dance music.

"But that was exactly the point.

For me, it was about dancing. I loved going to clubs."

Harry told the New York Times in August, 2022.

Interestingly, it was Blondie

that produced the first rap song to hit radio airwaves

with their love of mixing genres

taking center stage yet again, their single "Rapture."

"Autoamerican" was released in 1980,

the Band's Fifth Studio album,

which featured two more number one hits,

the reggae mariachi influenced, "The Tide is High,"

and the aforementioned "Rapture."

The band had also landed another number one

later in the year with their rock single, "Call Me"

a collaboration with producer songwriter Giorgio Moroder

that was featured on the soundtrack for "American Gigolo."

Debbie became well-known for her fashion.

Like a true fashionista,

she wore whatever she really felt like

not caring what anyone else thought,

and she never tried to fit in or look like anyone else.

Her clothing sense, along with her beauty

and uncaring attitude led to many eyes being on her.

During this time, Debbie became friends

with one of the most famous artists of all time,

Andy Warhol.

The two became good friends,

and Debbie has even been immortalized by Warhol

with the artist creating a small series

of four canvas portraits of the star in different colors

as well as Polaroids and a small number

of rare silver gelatine prints

from the shoot taken in Warhol's famous factory.

- New York in the seventies was downtrodden, dirty,

lots of graffiti everywhere.

You had had white flight.

So like a lot of white people lived in the suburbs,

a lot of African Americans and Latinos

had moved into the downtown area.

It was a lot cheaper.

It was so cheap that artists could actually

afford to live there.

And that itself is like a shocking idea

because New York, I think it has that reputation

of being somewhere where creative ideas

and people that are on the perimeters

and outsiders can blossom and bloom

but that really comes from this specific moment in time.

And a huge, huge instigator of that

were really kind of two places.

You have CBGBs, which is this little tiny punk club,

and you have Andy Warhol's factory.

Now both of these entities have grown to be bigger

and more important in as time has passed.

And we've seen what's come out of them

that maybe they actually were at that moment.

But the reason that's so fascinating

is because as the time was, they were just automatically

and authentically, I should say, attracting people

that wanted to engage with the avant garde,

that wanted to think differently,

that wanted to be around ideas

and creators that challenged them.

And Andy Warhol's factory,

it was a place for outsiders to suddenly be insiders.

And that was something that Debbie Harry

and Chris Stein were very, very drawn to.

And I think in Andy Warhol,

Debbie Harry saw a mentor in some ways.

But I also know that Andy Warhol saw a muse in Harry.

Around this whole time,

you have Warhol starting to have other collaborations

and creative inspiration.

One is a partnership that he forges

with a young black guy named, Jean-Michel Basquiat.

And Basquiat was a graffiti artist in New York.

He'd become infamous for the tag, SAMO.

And he started doing large paintings.

He actually approached Warhol at one point

and the two of them started doing work together.

And this again, Blondie, Debbie Harry, Chris Stein,

they're not immune to this.

They see this in it's osmosis. They're taking this on.

They're starting to engage with this.

Through Warhol, I think in a lot of ways,

is the conduit for some of the sounds

that they start experimenting with.

And you really, this comes to real full fruition

on "Autoamerican," the record that comes out in 1979.

And you have to see like

how quick these albums are coming out.

So you have to think about the changing music circles

and genres and creativity

that's going on in New York at that moment.

And the way that film, music and fashion

are all kind of creating this huge wave of culture

and vary in speed of what that's happening at.

And so, they actually take this emerging hip hop sound

and culture and put it into their song "Rapture,"

which goes on to be the first number one hip hop song

with the rap in the middle that Debbie Harry does.

And she's calling out hip hop culture in the song.

She's talking about Fab 5 Freddy,

who was a famous graffiti artist.

Jean-Michel Basquiat actually

is in the video doing graffiti.

So you have these elements of, I would say, Black culture

even further underground than punk culture that are emerging

and put on display in this Blondie video.

And what that does, it not only brings hip hop and rap

and that underground culture to the mainstream,

it also positions Blondie as the pioneers,

or if you would, being in touch

with the newest, coolest thing.

So it does two things at one time.

- [Narrator] Harry said of her relationship with Warhol,

"I think the best thing Andy Warhol taught me

was always to be open to new things, new music, new style,

new bands, new technology, and just go with it.

Never get mired in the past

and always accept new things whatever age you are."

(upbeat music)

Blondie, now five albums

into their four year recording history

were straining at the seams

despite being at their peak success,

now with three consecutive hit albums

and four number one songs.

Disputes over musical direction

and the media attention on Debbie

were leading to strained relationships.

- So the band took a short hiatus in 1981.

Debbie Harry had put out her first solo record "KooKoo."

So she wanted to focus a little bit on that.

I think they were a little bit burned out

from just literally pumping out these records

one after another in pretty quick succession.

And drugs had plagued the band members,

different stages of addiction throughout the their career.

So I think by the time 1981 rolled around,

they just needed a break from each other.

And from that kind of scrutiny in the paparazzi spotlight.

- [Narrator] The band, at this time,

were also heavy drug users,

which was another big factor

in their relationship straining.

In her memoir, "Face It," she revealed she used heroin to,

"Blank out parts of my life,"

or when she was dealing with some depression.

The band were also offered a chance to make the theme song

for the next James Bond movie, "For Your Eyes Only."

However, it was rejected in favor of a song by Bill Conti.

Their version of the song did

however appear in their next album "The Hunter."

- Blondie was going to be contributing a song

to the James Bond soundtrack, "For Your Eyes Only."

And again, this is a kind of a tension field time,

'cause Harry had gone solo

and things were not totally copacetic with the band.

And to make matters worse, Sheena Easton came

and stole the song out from under them.

And the the movies people decided

to go Sheena Easton instead of Blondie for the title track.

So that was a big blow to them.

And I think that kind of really was the hammer

that really sealed the coffin on the downward trajectory

that they were heading on at that moment.

And this wasn't helped

by their sixth studio album, "The Hunter."

Everything about that record is like, huh?

Like the, the cover itself,

you have the boys standing behind Debbie Harry

and she has her hair ratted out like a lion.

And just, you pick it up and it's confusion right there.

What is this that's going on?

And the sounds from it were, you know,

it didn't have that same mix of genres

as past Blondie records had.

It was much more convoluted

and it just sounded like a band

that didn't really care anymore.

So after that, the band actually broke up

and it was stated there was financial problems.

You could see that there were issues

with that record connecting with audiences

because a tour that they had booked not selling very well.

And I think the ban also was really irritated at this point

with all the attention going to Debbie Harry,

that Blondie was a band, not one person.

So that all ultimately ended in them breaking up.

Around the same time, the drug addiction problems

with Chris Stein really escalated

and he found out that he had an autoimmune disease.

So it kind of was good timing to take a break

in terms of Debbie Harry was able

to really help nurse him back to health

and the two of them had the chance to reconnect as a couple,

but also in a healthy way.

So I think just the strain of being on the road

and the constant attention for almost a decade

had just finally taken its toll on both of them.

- [Narrator] "The Hunter,"

while possibly better in retrospect,

lacked anything close to cohesion and the album flopped

while they continued to experiment in music.

This album proved to be rough.

This combined with drug issues,

tension with the band, bad live performances on TV and more

led to the band becoming more and more strained.

Ultimately, Blondie broke up

after the release of "The Hunter."

Coincidentally, around this time,

Stein was diagnosed with pemphigus,

an autoimmune disease that affects the skin

and could be fatal if not treated.

This development combined

with the general unhappiness in the band

led to them calling it quits,

announcing their breakup in November of 1982.

Harry took time out from her career to look after him.

He recovered.

And although their relationship didn't survive

as the two broke up in 1989,

the two have remained good friends.

Harry later revealed that she has also been

romantically involved with women confirming her bisexuality

though her longer term relationships were with men.

The singer has proudly spoken about desire

and intimacy throughout her life,

via interviews and her work.

The breakup of Blondie led to Debbie leading a solo career,

not just in music, but in acting too,

with her biggest role as being her starring one

in the David Cronenberg body horror flick "Videodrome"

as well as in John Water's "Hairspray."

Musically, Debbie had already dipped her toes

in a solo career made in 1981 during the small break

that Blondie took before "The Hunter."

The album was a moderate success showcasing fusions of funk,

rock and dance music.

However, after a long break of looking after Chris Stein,

Debbie returned with "Rock Bird" in 1986,

a rock centric solo outing,

which also came as a moderate success,

but showed her willingness to continue to evolve

and grow musically.

In 1989, Harry released her third solo studio album,

"Deaf, Dumb, and Blonde."

The album was not a commercial success.

However, musically it was reminiscent of Blondie,

purposely so, hinting at potential reunion

leading to her 1993 album, "Deprivation,"

which received middling review from critics.

- Debbie Harry continued to pursue a solo career.

She went by Deborah Harry.

So this record was different.

It was called "Rock Bird." It came out in 1985.

She went into almost like a torch song,

lounge kind of vibe with things.

So again, you could say a complete departure from punk rock,

or you could say it is just another evolution of punk rock.

I think it's very, very difficult to be an artist

because people love you and become a fan of yours

for one specific sound

or maybe a moment in time or a record.

And then they want you to both put out stuff

that sounds like that, what you like,

but they also want to be different enough

so it's not exactly the same.

So in some ways I think Blondie

really got chastised for that,

for going so far away from where they were in the beginning.

But at the same time,

I think that they need to be celebrated for being brave.

They could have just kept putting

out "Parallel Lines" over and over again.

That just wasn't who they were as artists or creatives.

So you know, you look at some of the best artists,

they change over time and that's I think, really important

to appreciate about a group like Blondie.

I always hoped that Blondie would make a comeback

because as like a young adult,

they weren't an entity that was touring around.

I actually saw their first,

their comeback tour.

And I remember what was really kind of strange about it is

we have that image of Debbie Harry

as the "Parallel Lines" Debbie Harry.

So is this so grooved into my brain?

I remember I was surprised when she came up on the stage

and she had like sweatpants and a butt bag.

And she, when she came up on to the, you know, to the mic,

she had had a mouthful of rose petals, which she spit out.

And I was like, "Whoa, what's happening with that?"

I was kind of taken aback,

but now that I've had time to kind of process

and think about it, I'm like, she's Debbie Harry.

She can wear whatever she wants.

And I think it was a kind of two fingers up

to the whole pinup, sex symbol image that she'd had.

She was like, "This is who I am and this is it."

And that again, references back to that original

punk rock ethos of just being yourself

and ripping up the rule book.

(heavy rock music)

- [Narrator] In the 1990s,

Blondie began receiving more praise again

from a whole new generation of fans,

including fellow bands like Garbage and No Doubt.

As Debbie continued her moderately successful solo career,

she reunited with Stein and Burke for a summer tour

as part of a package with other bands in 1990.

This reignited the band for a possible reformation,

but it didn't happen just yet.

In 1996, Stein and Harry began the process

of reuniting Blondie and contacted original members

Burke, Destri and Valentine.

Valentine had, by this time, moved to London

and become a full-time writer

under his real name, Gary Lachman.

Former members Nigel Harrison, and Infante

did not participate in the reunion

and they unsuccessfully sued

to prevent the reunion under the name Blondie.

In 1997, the original five piece band reformed,

including Valentine on bass,

and did three live performances

all at outdoor festivals sponsored by local radio stations.

Their first reunion performance occurred on May 31st, 1997,

when they played the HFStival

at R.F.K Stadium in Washington DC.

An international tour followed in late 1998 and early 1999.

During this period and without Valentine,

they released a cover of Iggy Pop's song,

"Ordinary Bummer" on the tribute album,

"We Will Fall: The Iggy Pop Tribute 1997,"

under the pseudonym "Adolfs Dog."

- Blondie brings in Jimmy Destri as a keyboard player

and that changes the sound

and the direction of their music

in a lot of ways after their reformation.

And I think it's one of those things again,

that they kind of can't win

if they start going in a totally different direction

than what people know 'cause by this time people

had had that greatest hits record,

they've been listening to those songs over and over again.

Those songs are two decades old at this point.

So I think whatever they did there was,

they would be both universally embraced

and universally panned.

So I don't think,

I think it's impossible

to recreate a hit like "Parallel Lines"

because it was so of its time.

I think this, the fact that they're trying

to change and evolve and keep their minds open

over all these years shows something

that's both very brave and definitely

positions them forever as innovators.

- [Narrator] In February of 1999,

the band finally released a new studio album,

"No Exit," Blondie's first album in 17 years.

- I think they had, you definitely could hear

a different sound with the reformed Blondie.

When you say new wave, when I think new wave,

I think synthesizers and electronic sounds.

and that was definitely incorporated

into the record and into "No Exit."

And I think it's the title Track,

"No Exit," it almost sounds,

it doesn't sound like a weird thing to say,

it sounds like they're going through a tunnel.

There's a lot more effects on it

than Past Blondie Records had.

And the track "Maria," which went on to be a huge, huge hit

that I think sounded almost like an amalgamation of,

in some ways I think "Dreaming,"

that poppiness of "Dreaming," the immediacy of "Dreaming."

But it also had kind of that "In The Flesh,"

the kind of like the chimes that are in the background.

You could definitely hear the definite,

and definitely not homage to past Blondie songs in that hit.

And I think that's one of the reasons

that it struck a nerve with so many people.

Of course, something that's hugely groundbreaking

about the success of Maria is the fact that

exactly 20 years it comes after

their first chart topper "Heart of Glass,"

And outside of Michael Jackson,

they're the only other artist to ever of number ones

in the 70s, the 80s, and the 90s.

So it's absolutely incredible.

- [Narrator] The album was a success

despite middling reviews from critics

reaching number three in the UK album's chart

and being certified Gold.

Fusing alt rock, pop, reggae country, and more,

it was truly Blondie at their most experimental.

Their single "Maria" became Blondie's sixth number one.

This gave the band the distinction

of being one of only two American acts

to reach number one in the UK singles charts

in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

The band later released "The Curse of Blondie" in 2003,

their eighth studio album,

unabashedly embracing dance music.

The fans, however, did not embrace this change.

Unfortunately, the album's title proved true

and the move to a pure dance sound

cursed them to mixed results

with fans not embracing the new direction.

The "Curse of Blondie" was the lowest charting album

since their debut LP and relegated the band

out of the spotlight within current music.

Perhaps "No Exit" had succeeded

due to the novelty of the reunion,

but now it appeared Blondie was yesterday's news,

left to touring casinos and other smaller venues

that catered to artists of yesteryear

even though not many older artists

were still producing new good music as regularly as Blondie.

- The progression style over the years,

definitely you can see

the thing that's the same is they're a band of their time.

So if we look back at that very, very early 70s

when Harry joins Wind in the Willows,

the name, the sound, the look with the brown hair,

everything about it was of that moment.

And then if we look at that time

when they're starting to really be involved with the factory

and the different scenes that are happening

in New York that captures that moment.

And again, when "Maria" comes out as a single off "No Exit,"

even the title of that record, "No Exit,"

there is no exit from being Blondie, is there,

that in and of itself, it's of a moment.

And that record of course,

comes out right before the internet

and streaming and the kind of music framework.

And the sound may have changed,

but who they are at the core has stayed the same

in terms of reflecting like a mirror of the culture

of what's going on around them.

- [Narrator] In 2011, the band released a new album,

their first new material in eight years

since "The Curse of Blondie."

And just three years later,

a double album called "Blondie 4 0 Ever" was released.

Both albums did relatively well,

both commercially and in reviews,

proving the band still had life in them.

In 2017, Blondie would release their 11th studio album,

"Pollinator," an alternative electronic rock outing,

which was a great success in the UK,

peaking at number four in the charts,

their highest UK chart peak in 18 years.

In 2019, Blondie were invited to perform in Havana, Cuba

as part of a cultural exchange

through the Cuban Ministry of Culture.

This experience was documented

by director Rob Roth in the short film,

"Blondie: Vivir en La Habana,"

which featured 16 millimeter, eight millimeter film

and digital footage from the shows

and the band members around Havana and interviews.

Guitarist Chris Stein couldn't travel

but is present in footage shot in New York.

The film is divided into three segments,

water, fire, and air,

which present a meditation on the experience

as well as highlights from the two night live

musical performances with special guests,

Alan Perez, David Torrens,

and Afro-Cuban Rock Band, Sintesis at Havana's Teatro Mella.

The film made several appearances in film festivals

receiving good responses from critics and audiences.

- I don't think it's fair to compare sales

or the way that a single performs now

to something even 10 years ago

because so much now of what is pushing pop music,

when I say pop music, hip hop, rock, whatever it is,

it's not just the streams, it's not just the record sale,

it's also the merchandise, the sponsorship,

the what is your social media following,

there's all these other things.

Before when Blondie were coming up,

it was about like your music was the wheel,

and anything that came off of that, that was just extra.

Now the wheel is Blondie and the different spokes,

it could be video, streaming, touring,

merchandise, live streaming,

now that we're in this strange new world,

it could be perfume.

So music is just one component.

So you can't really compare the sales story.

I think a better way to compare it is,

can you go into Primark or H and M and buy a Blondie shirt?

If they're that mainstream,

then they've crossed over into something

that's much bigger than themselves.

- [Narrator] Throughout her career,

Debbie has pushed the boundaries of music,

experimenting both in her solo career and in Blondie.

Blondie has firmly cemented itself in the hall of fame

of musicians with over 40 million records sold worldwide

and an esteemed legacy penning some of the greatest

and most well-known songs of all time

and inspiring countless musicians today.

While their time in the limelight may have came and gone,

Debbie now in her mid 70s is still performing,

thrilling audiences while remaining just as witty

and perpetually relevant as ever.

An impressive triumph for a small town girl

with big city dreams.

From downtrodden and poor to worldwide superstar,

Debbie Harry has come a long way in her journey.

And with the band still alive and well,

who knows what's next.

- The legacy of Blondie will definitely be

of what a woman can be.

I think it's, even if the band doesn't like it,

I can understand why they don't.

You see that a lot with situations like that

where there's one very prominent person,

especially if it's a woman.

But I think the biggest legacy will just show

what a woman can be.

A woman can be sexy, and a tomboy and an innovator

and the ruler of a band and boys, all those things

and not have to depend on their sexuality to be that.

I think Debbie Harry as an icon

is really the biggest legacy.

One thing the whole band will be remembered for though,

is to show how a rock and roll group

and songwriters can definitely put a mirror up

to what's happening in society at any time

and give it back to them.

And I think that's something that popular music

is missing a lot now.

(upbeat rock music)

(upbeat rock music continues)

(upbeat rock music continues)