Heart of Glass Anniversary
On this day in 1979, 'Heart of Glass' was released as the third single from the Blondie album "Parallel Lines". To celebrate this anniversary, let's look at some fun facts about the song.
Rolling Stone featured the song on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
Rolling Stone ranked the song number 255 in 2004. It was ranked at number 259 when the list was updated in April 2010 and at number 138 in their 2021 update.
It was one of the first songs Blondie wrote
Debbie Harry said "it was years before we recorded it properly. We'd tried it as a ballad, as reggae, but it never quite worked...the lyrics weren't about anyone. They were just a plaintive moan about lost love." It was originally titled 'Once I Had a Love' and the band referred to it as 'The Disco Song'.
It was featured on "Parallel Lines"
The band's third studio album.
Australian producer Mike Chapman found the band difficult to work with
Debbie Harry was not enthusiastic about Chapman's involvement as she knew him only by reputation. According to Chapman, her animosity towards him was because "they were New York. I was L.A.". However, after she played Chapman early cuts of 'Heart of Glass' and 'Sunday Girl', he was impressed but remembered them as the worst band he ever worked with in terms of musical ability, but praised Frank Infante as "an amazing guitarist".
Bassist Nigel Harrison became so frustrated with Chapman's drive for perfection that he threw a synthesizer at him during recording!
'Heart of Glass' was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as a recording of "qualitative or historical significance" in 2015.
Miley Cyrus released a cover in 2020
Hunter Harris of Vulture called her performance "a throaty, formidable delight" and Blondie praised her on social media: "We think Miley Cyrus nailed it".
Cyrus performed the cover at the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Festival on September 19, 2020. The live performance was released as a digital single on September 29, 2020, following a high demand from fans and was later included on Cyrus's seventh studio album, "Plastic Hearts", as a bonus track.
Check out my piece on the album:
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