A piece of music history was made this week when Blondie saw their new single, Maria, debut at No 1 in the charts - Blondie are now the only band to hit the No 1 spot in three decades, the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Not long after 55-year-old Cher had a No 1 hit with Do You Believe, Blondie's more naturally beautiful lead singer, Deborah Harry, now finds herself top of the pops at age 54.
Who knows, she might even get up to nerve to call herself "Debbie" again - something she hasn't done since she turned 40.
Blondie are to be saluted not just for putting the likes of squealing 16-year-old Billie in their place but also for putting three-minute punk-lite wonders such as Maria back where they belong, on the top of the charts.
Usually when a band of Blondie's vintage reform after a 20-odd-year break they end up on the chicken 'n' chips circuit, banging out the "golden oldies" for nostalgia freaks, but Maria is an original and contemporary composition, as is the album that follows it next week.
Blondie were formed in 1974 by art-student-turned-guitarist Chris Stein and his then girlfriend, Debbie Harry, an ex-Playboy bunny (questions about that will haunt her for the rest of her career). They were early graduates of New York's infamous/famous (depending if you were on the guest list or not) venue, CBGB's. This low-rent drinking establishment turned punk/new wave cauldron was at the forefront of the city's thriving "No Wave" musical movement and their peer group included The Ramones, Patti Smith, The Cramps and Talking Heads. Much has been said and written about CBGB's - it was a sort of indie version of Studio 54 - but the reality was it was largely popular among bands because the venue policy was that the band would receive 80 per cent of the door-take (minus expenses) as payment.
Blondie's eponymous debut album in 1976 had them down as "the band most likely to", mainly because they leavened their punk-rock sound with a 1960s girl-group pop sensibility. And when they got this sound down perfect on the second album, hit singles such as Denis Denis and (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear followed. Despite the punk wars raging around them, the band always baulked at being lumped in with the bondage-trouser, coloured-vinyl brigade and even had the temerity to release a disco song, Heart Of Glass, at a time when disco was viewed as more of an evil even than prog rock.
Further excursions into pop reggae and pop rap broadened their fan base but the real constant in their music was an unerring ability to nail down a pop tune - glibly put, they were The Ramones meets The Ronnettes. Between the propulsive beat, the atmospheric use of keyboards, clever use of guitar lines and Harry's seductive voice, Blondie became a mini hit-factory.
How much of this was down to the way Harry looked is always going to be a moot point. She was a pin-up for a generation - and her more mature ways (she was 32 when Blondie made it big) only added to her fascination. Also, unlike any common-or-garden dyed blonde, Harry had talent and intelligence - and a "past".
In all, the band had more than a dozen hit singles on both sides of the Atlantic and sold more than 40 million records before the euphemistic "musical differences" put the brakes on their career. The other three members of the band, Chris Stein, Jimmy Destri and Clem Burke always felt that people were treating "Blondie" and "Debbie Harry" as synonymous and inter-band tensions probably contributed to the downslide in their musical quality - the last pre-reunion Blondie album, The Hunter, should never have seen the light of day. The band's inevitable break-up came earlier than planned - the band had to cancel a tour when Stein was diagnosed with a debilitating genetic disease called pemphigous and Harry spent the first few years of the 1980s nursing her boyfriend (the couple no longer have a relationship). Harry went on to have a stab at acting (to no great success) and eventually settled into a less-than-scintillating solo career (her biggest success was a medium hit with French Kissing in the USA) and various musical collaborations, most notably with The Jazz Passengers.
Reforming as Blondie just last year, the band are currently on a world-wide tour, which brought them to Dublin last November and saw them stuffing out the Olympia Theatre over two nights. No mere "memory lane" exercise, the bulk of the band's set-list is made up of songs from No Exit, the new album, on which you will find the sexy pop-anthem Maria alongside bits of ska, bits of rap and plenty of that crafted and catchy pop sound that makes Blondie a pan-generational phenomenon.