Parallel Lines [Bonus Tracks] [Remaster] (CD - 1978)

Blondie: Deborah Harry (vocals); Chris Stein (guitar, 12-string guitar, E-bow); Frank Infante (guitar); Jimmy Destri (keyboards); Nigel Harrison (bass); Clem Burke (drums).

Producer: Mike Chapman.

Reissue producer: Kevin Flaherty.

Recorded at The Record Plant, New York, New York in June & July, 1978. Originally released on Chrysalis (1192). Includes liner notes by Mike Chapman.

All tracks have been digitally remastered using 24-bit technology.

Personnel: Debbie Harry (vocals); Chris Stein (guitar, 12-string guitar, E-bow); Frank Infante, Robert Fripp (guitar); Jimmy Destri (keyboards); Clem Burke (drums).

Liner Note Author: Mike Chapman .

Recording information: Dallas, TX (06/1978-07/1978); The Paradise, Boston, MA (06/1978-07/1978); The Record Plant, New York, NY (06/1978-07/1978); Walnut Theatre, Philadelphia, PA (06/1978-07/1978).

Illustrator: Frank Duarte.

Photographers: Edo; Armando Gallo; Neil Zlozower.

Blondie turned to British pop producer Mike Chapman for their third album, on which they abandoned any pretensions to new wave legitimacy (just in time, given the decline of the new wave) and emerged as a pure pop band. But it wasn't just Chapman that made Parallel Lines Blondie's best album; it was the band's own songwriting, including Deborah Harry, Chris Stein, and James Destri's "Picture This," and Harry and Stein's "Heart of Glass," and Harry and new bass player Nigel Harrison's "One Way or Another," plus two contributions from nonbandmember Jack Lee, "Will Anything Happen?" and "Hanging on the Telephone." That was enough to give Blondie a number one on both sides of the Atlantic with "Heart of Glass" and three more U.K. hits, but what impresses is the album's depth and consistency -- album tracks like "Fade Away and Radiate" and "Just Go Away" are as impressive as the songs pulled for singles. The result is state-of-the-art pop/rock circa 1978, with Harry's tough-girl glamour setting the pattern that would be exploited over the next decade by a host of successors led by Madonna. ~ William Ruhlmann

Madonna and Michael Jackson aside, this is supreme pop music and as good as the genre can ever get. Everybody loved Blondie; fans, children, critics, other musicians and senior citizens - and not just because Debbie Harry was its frontperson. This is an unintentional greatest hits record that doesn't let up until the last note of 'Just Go Away' has died. If one wanted to carp, you could have asked for 'Denis' and 'Call Me' to have been included, but that would be just plain greedy. One of the greatest 'up' records of all time.

Blondie turned to Britain-based pop producer Mike Chapman for their third album, on which they abandoned any pretensions to new wave legitimacy (just in time, given the decline of the style) and emerged as a mainstream, contemporary pop/rock band. But it wasn't just Chapman's influence that made Parallel Lines Blondie's best album; it was also the band's own songwriting, including Deborah Harry, Chris Stein, and Jimmy Destri's "Picture This"; Harry and Stein's disco-styled "Heart of Glass"; and Harry and new bass player Nigel Harrison's "One Way or Another"; plus two contributions from non-band member Jack Lee, "Will Anything Happen?" and "Hanging on the Telephone." Together, they were enough to give Blondie a number one on both sides of the Atlantic with "Heart of Glass" and three more U.K. hits, but what impresses is the album's depth and consistency -- album tracks like "Fade Away and Radiate" and "Just Go Away" are as impressive as the songs pulled for singles. Still, Chapman's contribution is not to be discounted; a producer with a track record full of punchy British pop hits with his former partner Nicky Chinn for Suzi Quatro, Mud, the Sweet, and Smokie, he brought his sense of precise arranging and playing to a band that previously had been quite sloppy in execution, and he did it without sacrificing the group's spirit, particularly Harry's snotty yet sophisticated vocal style. The result is state-of-the-art pop/rock circa 1978, with Harry's tough-girl glamour setting the pattern that would be exploited over the next decade by a host of successors, led by Madonna. (The 2001 reissue adds four bonus tracks, among them a live rendition of T. Rex's "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" and a previously unreleased preliminary version of "Heart of Glass" called "Once I Had a Love (AKA The Disco Song)." ~ William Ruhlmann minimize