Three Songs from Blondie

The soundtrack to my life when I was in my middle teens included such bands as Cheap Trick, The Cars, The Knack, The Ramones, and Blondie. It is for that reason that I was particularly saddened by Clem Burke's death. Aside from being the drummer of one of my favourite band and one of the best drummers ever, Clem Burke's death spells the end of Blondie for me. It's hard to see the band continuing with only Deborah Harry and Chris Stein, particularly given Chris Stein's health has not been good of late. Anyway, I have been listening to Blondie more than usual and I thought I would share three of my favourite songs from the group.

First up is my all-time favourite Blondie song, "Atomic." The song was written by keyboardist Jimmy Destri and Debbie Harry. It originated as his attempt to doing something along the line of Blondie's earlier song "Heart of Glass," but evolved into something else. Amazingly enough, while "Atomic" is one of Blondie's best known songs, it only went to no. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 when it was released in 1979.


Like "Atomic,' "Dreaming" is also from the Blondie album Eat to the Beat. It was written by Chris Stein and Debbie Harry. The song grew out the line "dreaming is free," which occurred to Chris Stein. Debbie Harry then worked out the rest of the lyrics from there. I have always thought that "Dreaming" was one of Blondie's more purely power pop songs, power pop being my favourite subgenre of rock music.Though I don't think it is remembered as well as "Atomic," it actually did better on the Billboard Hot 100, going all the way to no. 27.



While "Atomic" and "Dreaming" were both singles, "Petty Baby" was an album track from Parallel Lines. The song was supposedly inspired by Brooke Shields in the movie Pretty Baby (1978), While I have no doubt that this is true, I have always had trouble wrapping my head around it because of the line "petite ingenue." Supposedly by the time she was 13 she was already 5' 4", which I really wouldn't describe as "petite." Maybe Debbie Harry underestimated Brooke Shields's height or simply liked the line. Regardless, I do love the song and there is no denying it is catchy.