Blondie’ earliest years were spent honing their sound that was a mixture of new-wave pop, disco, punk and reggae. The band, which was formed by members Deborah Harry and Chris Stein, sprang from New York’ punk scene much like other legendary bands, the Ramones being the most notable among them. Unlike those bands, however, Blondie broke from the hard-edged punk sound and was able to create melodic songs with dance-floor appeal that would eventually make up a substantial part of the era’s disco soundtrack.

 

From 1978 to 1980 Blondie released a string of hits that would make them one of the nostalgic favorites of the time as well as land them in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. The band’ earliest gigs would come courtesy of CBGB, the club that was essentially the birthplace of the New York punk scene. Their first hit singles, however, would be via the UK charts which on which the band scored two top 10 hits. These hits would be from the 1978 album recorded on the Private Stock label. This era had a number lineup changes, in addition to which the band would sign with a new label.

 

1978 saw the band recording Parallel Lines, the album that would propel them to superstardom with what would be an iconic hit single: a song called “Heart of Glass”. It is possibly Blonde's best known piece of music. They would follow Parallel Lines with the album Eat to the Beat in 1979 which featured the hit single “Dreaming”. The single “Call Me” was featured of the soundtrack of the movie American Gigolo and was their next big hit song. Their last hit of the late 1970s/early 1980s era was “The Tide is High” which was from their next album titled Autoamerican. The band would break and then reunite in 1999 to record yet another hit album No Exit, which featured the single “Maria”.