Between Blondie: Deborah Harry's 80th Birthday & 1980s Solo Career
- Dr Stephen HIll
- Jul 1
- 17 min read
Between Blondie’s 1982 swansong The Hunter and 1999’s triumphant comeback No Exit, Deborah Harry released three solo LPs, fifteen singles, and two avant-garde jazz albums. While some releases made the Top 40 others flew completely under the radar. In the UK she remained signed to Chrysalis Records, the company that had masterminded Blondie’s initial golden run. However, in the US she changed labels twice, repeatedly putting her career on ice. At Sire Records, in particular, she found herself on the ‘B-list’, very much in the shadow of label-mate Madonna.
Deborah Harry 80th Birthday & 1980s Solo Career
That the 1980s was a turbulent time in her personal life is well-documented. Often cast as the Florence Nightingale of rock, Debbie spent much of the first half of the decade nursing partner Chris Stein back to health as he battled a rare skin disease. Drugs were also an issue with Debbie using heroin to self-medicate the strain of their predicament. Financial problems ensued when an IRS tax bill forced them to move from their Manhattan townhouse. The couple eventually separated in February 1987, reportedly on the day Andy Warhol died. While her private life remained just that, romantically she was linked to both the actor Harry Dean Stanton and celebrity illusionist Penn Jillette.
Press coverage around this time was often brutal with tabloid journalists scrutinizing Debbie’s appearance for any sign that the pin-up was aging or putting on weight. With hindsight, it is remarkable that she had the resilience to pursue any kind of solo career with the odds stacked so firmly against her. From Madonna to Kim Wilde, Wendy James to Kylie Minogue much was made of Debbie’s juvenile imitators stealing her crown. Never an ingenue herself, however, her achievements opened the door for substantial second acts from several older female solo stars. The massive 80s success of contemporaries like Tina Turner, Cher, and Stevie Nicks owed a debt to Debbie and Blondie but served only to put her solo work further in the shade.
Of the three solo albums released during this period, 1989’s Def, Dumb and Blonde was arguably the most potent. Recorded with Blondie producer Mike Chapman and with many of the songs co-written with Chris Stein, it is the closest the pair came to recreating the magic of the band’s imperial phase. Harry’s 1981 solo debut, the Chic-produced Koo Koo, was of course released while Blondie was at the height of their powers, and for the purpose of this list will be viewed as a separate entity. Indeed, the singles ‘Backfired’ and ‘The Jam Was Moving’ are best understood as a continuation of the hip-hop experimentalism of ‘Rapture’ and the same milieu to which the recently-uncovered ‘Yuletide Throwdown’ with Fab 5 Freddy belongs.
Nineteen Eighty-Six’s David Geffen-funded Rockbird, however, was meant to be a big comeback and re-establish Debbie in the mainstream alongside Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Eurythmics, etc. While it featured the notable hit ‘French Kissing in the USA’, at just nine tracks, the Seth Justman-produced album was a slender offering, benefitting little from its mid-Eighties production fizz. Conversely, 1993’s Debravation was a more bounteous affair, welding together the raw, low-fi production style of tracks recorded with Blondie guitarist Chris Stein, with a selection of high-profile collaborators including Arthur Baker, REM, Anne Dudley, and Allie Willis. The end result was a schizophrenic LP, which Debbie described at the time as ‘kind of like a best of but with new stuff’.
The mid-90s saw Debbie expand her repertoire by working with Diamanda Gallas’s singing teacher and joining Roy Nathanson’s avant-garde New York ensemble the Jazz Passengers. Touring extensively with the troop, Harry went on to be the featured vocalist on two full-length albums, 1996’s Individually Twisted and Live in Spain released right on the cusp of Blondie’s 1998 reunion. Other extra-curricular activities in this period included two songs with Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth on The Head’s LP No Talking Just Head, a collaboration with the Argentinian ska band Los Fabulosos Cadillacs on a Hispanic reworking of the Beatles’ ‘Strawberry Fields’ and an underground club-hit ‘Command and Obey’ with Bill Ware’s acid jazz ensemble Groove Thing.
Of course, the same period also saw a deluge of CD re-releases from the Blondie back catalogue. First came the Blonde and Beyond rarities collection at the end of 1993, with its unreleased tracks ‘Scenery’ and ‘Underground Girl’. Next up was the 1994 remix of ‘Atomic’, which made the Top 20 in the UK, heralding the Beautiful remix album the following year and further Top 40 placings for new versions of ‘Heart of Glass’ and ‘Union City Blue’. For Harry’s part, the first move towards a Blondie reunion came on the 1994 collaboration with Jimmy Destri on ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ for a tribute album to Otis Blackwell. While 1997 saw the first official release from the newly reformed Blondie, a cover of Iggy Pop’s ‘Ordinary Bummer’ under the moniker Adolph’s Dog for the 1997 collection We Will Fall.
Surprisingly, when Blondie came back at the end of 1998, they were every inch the monster truck rock band that had walked off stage in 1982. However, at 53 years old, Debbie was no longer of an age where she could play the kittenish vamp of yore. The version of Deborah Harry that emerged was rather the version that she had put together out of the spotlight in the intervening years. Now a seasoned performer and a more technically accomplished singer, she excluded womanly confidence that made her every bit as sexy as her late 70s hey-day. Dressed deceptively, in demure Tommy Hilfiger twin sets, when she sang the chorus to ‘Maria’ it was with the ballbusting confidence of a naughty nun in suspenders. Here we take a look at the twenty tracks that document that remarkable journey.
1. Rush Rush (1984)
Following the success of Blondie’s collaboration with Giorgio Moroder on ‘Call Me’ for the American Gigolo soundtrack, it was natural for Debbie Harry to reprise the creative partnership on ‘Rush Rush’ for Scarface. The trippy disco rhythm and pulsating synth-lines arrest the listener, with the tempo increasing before a protracted middle-eight breakdown underpinning a vocal that is swimming in reverb. The soundtrack to the Al Pacino film came out at the end of 1983, with the single released at the beginning of 1984. A modest hit in Australia, the track gained a cult following partly due to the iconic status of the movie, but also thanks to its use in the video game Grand Theft Auto. It was also covered by Happy Mondays in 2006 for the album Uncle Dysfunktional with its lyrical allusions to “llello" a Spanish colloquialism for cocaine not lost on frontman Shaun Ryder. While the song was a natural continuation of the Blondie sound, the concurrent release of David Cronenberg’s Videodrome in which Debbie Harry starred as a sadomasochistic sex tourist confused audiences. Now a cult classic, the film’s exploration of media violence and ideas pioneered by theorist Marshall McLuhan anticipated the concept of virtual reality but alienated her from the mainstream.
2. Feel The Spin (1985)
Fresh from working with Madonna on the single ‘Holiday’, Puerto Rican-born DJ-producer John “Jellybean” Benitez suggested Debbie Harry to producers of the hip-hop movie Krush Groove for soundtrack’s only non-rap track. Co-written with Harry, the single made number five on the US Dance Chart in 1985, but was not released as a single outside of North America. As Benitez recalls it was Harry’s first experience of recording digitally and building up the vocal line from fragments of different takes. The song’s ‘Uno dos tres cuatro’ intro was sampled prominently in S’Express’s 1988 chart-topping single ‘Theme From S’Express’. The Latino beats and tropical disco percussion encapsulate perfectly the mid-Eighties sound of New York’s Paradise Garage nightclub.
3. French Kissing (1986)
‘French Kissing in the USA’ was Debbie Harry’s biggest solo success. Top Ten in the U.K. and Number 4 in Australia, the song was written by the American television producer Chuck Lorre, famous for the sitcoms Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men. Stalling at 57 in the US, the video was filmed at the late songwriter Allee Willis’s infamous house of kitsch in LA, an Art Deco party venue built for MGM in 1937. Curiously the song was covered by Carol Chapman and had a second life on the soundtracks to the films Can’t Buy Me Love and Troop Beverly Hills. While Seth Justman’s production of the parent album Rockbird has not dated well, ‘French Kissing’ remains an enjoyable slice of tropical pop, with a dreamy vocal from Harry giving the song an otherworldly quality. The enunciated speech-like tone of the verses represents a departure in terms of her vocal style as if she is singing the listener an erotic lullaby, not dissimilar to Blondie’s ‘Sound Asleep’ from Eat To The Beat.
4. In Love With Love (1987)
‘In Love With Love’ was Debbie’s first single since Blondie co-written with former band-mate and guitarist Chris Stein. Lyrically the song was conceived of as a sequel to ‘Heart of Glass’, with the Seth Justman produced album version gesturing towards the AOR-funk of David Bowie’s Let’s Dance. Remixed in London by Stock Aitken Waterman, the version that became a hit was a hybrid of Dead or Alive and New Order. Unlike ‘French Kissing’ the vocals are lower in the mix with the synths and drum machine much more prominent. The video picked up on Rockbird’s cover art and featured Debbie in more day glow, Warhol-inspired camouflage attire by designer Stephen Sprouse. A friend of Warhol since Studio 54 days, Debbie was, of course, a regular guest on his MTV show Fifteen Minutes just before his untimely death in February 1987, with the song topping the US Dance Chart in July of that year.
5. Mind Over Matter (1987)
In 1988 Debbie starred in John Water’s Hairspray as the villain Velma Avon Tussle and around this time she also recorded ‘Mind Over Matter’ for the movie American comedy Summer School. The song was written by Michael Jay and Rick Palombi, and produced by Stock Aitken Waterman. Due to contractual reasons, Debbie’s version went unreleased and the song was re-recorded by the actress and voice-over artist E.G. Daily, reaching number 7 on the US dance chart. The production builds on the Hi NRG sound of SAW’s remix of ‘In Love With Love’ but with a fuller song, anticipating the rockier direction of her subsequent albums. The menacing vocals and repetition of lyrics ‘fight’ and ‘die’ give the song a combative quality, however, this is secondary to the prowling bass synth and Fairlight, which echo Trevor Horn’s work on Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s ‘Two Tribes’.
6. Liar Liar (1988)
Debbie Harry’s cover of The Castaway’s 1965 hit ‘Liar Liar’ got to number fourteen on the newly created US Modern Rock chart in 1988. Recorded with Blondie-producer Mike Chapman it featured on the soundtrack to Married to the Mob and gestures to the band’s garage rock roots. The double-tracked vocals in the verse create a harmonic style redolent of the girl group aesthetic that influenced classic Blondie. It was the first time Debbie had worked with Mike since the final Blondie album. Though not included on her subsequent solo LP Def, Dumb and Blonde it heralded a return to a band sound and a more rock-orientated approach to Debbie’s solo career. However, it would be another year before she would make her live return proper with a residency at London’s Borderline club.
7. I Want That Man (1989)
Debbie hit number two on both the U.S Modern Rock Chart and Australian Top 40 in 1989 with ‘I Want That Man’, giving her one of her biggest solo successes. Accompanied by a Mary Lambert video shot in LA, the single caught her in an Antipodean chart battle with fellow new wavers the B52s, who were vying for the number one slot with their smash hit ‘Love Shack’. Anticipating the 21st Century, the single also got to 13 in the U.K, and 7 in Ireland. Written with Tom Bailey and Alannah Currie from Thompson Twins, it was a prelude to Def, Dumb and Blonde on which Debbie sounded more confident than she had in a decade. Tellingly, on this release, she reverted to ‘Deborah Harry’ for her professional name, just as she was credited on the first six Blondie albums. The 1989 LP began with the working title Dream Season and eleven songs recorded with Mike Chapman. However, alongside ‘I Want That Man’ the final version contained three further tracks produced by Thompson Twins, Arthur Baker, and veteran New York DJ Toni C.
8. Brite Side (1989)
Deborah concluded the 1980s with the enigmatic ‘Brite Side’. A classic Harry/Stein composition in the mode of ‘Shayla’ and ‘English Boys’ it is arguably her finest moment as a solo artist. Originally appearing in the TV show Wiseguy, the album and single versions were produced by Electro DJ Arthur Baker, synonymous with both Afrika Bambaataa and New Order. Selected as ‘Single of the Week’ by Melody Maker, reviewer Chris Roberts stated ‘it works for Queen Deb because she sighs it so icily, so strainlessly, with so much I-breathe-therefore-you-faint acumen’. The noir-ish sepia-toned video is eclipsed in the YouTube era by the stunning TV promos that are all out there now, particularly the performance on German TV channel ZDF’s Peters Pop Show. A spine-tingling mid-set staple of the Def, Dumb and Blonde, and Domination tours, it has not been done live since 1991. Indeed the period saw her make a concerted return to touring with Debbie completing 55 live dates in the Autumn of 1989 including residencies at London’s Borderline, The Roxy in LA, and World in New York.
9. Kiss It Better (1989)
‘Kiss it Better’ got to number 12 on the Modern Rock chart in Autumn 1989. A logical follow-up to ‘I Want That Man’ and written again with Tom and Alannah from Thompson Twins, this song name-checks Prince as opposed to Harry Dean Stanton. It was only ever a radio promo in the U.S. and then released as a double A-side with ‘Sweet n Low’ in Australia, where it peaked at number 30. A bit of cosmetic tweaking and maybe it could have been a bigger hit, particularly in the U.K, consolidating Debbie Harry’s rock cred as opposed to panic buying a PWL remix for single number three. A week-long residency on MTV’s alternative rock show ‘120 Minutes’ at the end of the decade saw Debbie hosting the Postmodern Video Countdown and provided a natural habitat for her as she approached the 1990s with wide-eyed optimism. A third track ‘Close Your Eyes’ recorded in London as part of the same sessions never made the final cut for Def, Dumb and Blonde, though Debbie described it as “sensational”, reprising it for her 1993 Debravation tour.
10. Sweet and Low (1990)
‘Sweet and Low’ was released as single number three from Def, Dumb and Blonde in the U.K in March 1990, four months after ‘Brite Side’ had stalled. For Europe, the Arthur Baker/Toni C mix was reworked with piano-house affectations by PWL production maestro Phil Harding. This took Deborah’s sound in a very different direction, more redolent of Kylie Minogue and Madonna than her alternative rock contemporaries. The Stephen Sprouse video is a homage to Andy Warhol with silkscreen effects and Pop Art colours. The ultimate performance, however, is from the Club MTV show in which video and full band lip-synch are combined. The single stalled at 57 in the U.K. but made 17 on the U.S. Dance chart and 30 in Australia. Arguably the original album version has aged better, although the most interesting version is Arthur Baker’s extended mix, which echoes his work with Bobby O and the Pet Shop Boys.
11. Maybe For Sure (1990)
Looking at the tracklisting for the 1990 single ‘Maybe For Sure’ it is the ultimate Def, Dumb and Blonde sampler with a triptych of Harry/Stein compositions produced by Mike Chapman. The A-side is backed with the Rapture-Esque hip-hop of ‘Get Your Way’ and epic album closer ‘End of the Run’. A light remix of ‘Maybe For Sure’ makes it sound brighter for radio and yet reminiscent of the doo-wop sound of classic Blondie songs like ‘Dreaming’ and ‘Sunday Girl’. It was a little out of time, as its first incarnation as ‘Angels Song’ for the 1983 Canadian animation film Rock n Rule testifies. However, the track is perhaps closer to Blondie’s 1999 number one ‘Maria’ than any of Debbie’s other solo tracks. Chrysalis missed a trick by not giving the track another shot when they jumped on the early Nineties CD best-of bandwagon and rush-released The Complete Picture compilation. The Greatest Hits album blended Blondie's hits with solo tracks and hit number 3 in the UK in March 1991, but no single was ever released to promote it.
12. Well Did You Ever (with Iggy Pop) (1990)
The Christmas number 1 that never was, ‘Well Did You Ever’ was written by Cole Porter for the 1939 musical DuBarry Was a Lady and reprised by Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra in the movie High Society. Debbie’s blisteringly cool version with Iggy Pop was recorded for Red, Hot + Blue, an AIDS/HIV benefit album that came out in the Autumn of 1990. With a video directed by Gary Oldman and music produced by Chris Stein, it was a perfect coda to the modern rock sound of Def, Dumb and Blonde and a year in which she reunited with Ramones and members of Talking Heads for the Escape From New York tour. Chris Stein’s rawer production is also a prelude to the sound of the initial recording sessions for Debravation.
13. Standing In My Way (with Joey Ramone) (1991)
‘Well Did You Evah’ was complemented brilliantly by the collaboration with Joey Ramone on the Debbie Harry/Leigh Foxx composition ‘Standing in My Way’. A thrashy new-wave anthem, replete with distorted guitars and organ riff it sounds like something lifted from Blondie’s Richard Gottehrer-produced early albums. A staple of Harry’s solo band, Foxx would of course go on to be the bassist in the 21st-century version of Blondie. The song made its live debut on her 1991 Domination Tour, which also featured Underworld’s Karl Hyde on guitar. Sadly the Stein-produced version was re-recorded without Joey by English record producer John Williams for the 1993 Chrysalis album Debravation. However, the original version was eventually sneaked out on a b-side. An excellent recording can also be found on the broadcast of her 1991 Wembley Stadium slot with INXS and the Hot House Flowers, released recently as the live album Ultimate Blonde.
14. I Can See Clearly (1993)
Produced and written by Arthur Baker, ‘I Can See Clearly’ was the lead single to 1993’s Debravation. Evoking the disco-rock perfection of classic Blondie, the track sounded like the sequel to the Giorgio Moroder-produced ‘Call Me’. With an edge of contemporary dance, the composition was redolent also of Baker’s work with New Order, with Harry supplying a crystalline vocal and mode of delivery that was more arresting than anything she had done since Blondie. One reviewer described it as a disco version of U2’s ‘Bullet The Blue Sky’ and certainly the club mixes echoed Perfecto’s reworking of ‘Even Better Than The Real Thing’. While it narrowly missed the Top 20 in the UK, it propelled Deborah to number 2 on the US dance chart and gave her her biggest hit since 1987’s ‘In Love With Love’
15. Strike Me Pink (1993)
A collaboration with Anne Dudley from Art of Noise, ‘Strike Me Pink’ was the second single from Debravation. The lyrics and cinematic production allude to the romance of Richard Day’s art direction for the 1936 musical of the same name. However, the Steven Shainburg-produced video took the aesthetic in an entirely different direction, recreating Hungarian magician Harry Houdini’s Chinese Water Torture Cell. It is interesting to note that around this time Harry was linked romantically to the illusionist Penn Jillette. The result met with record company displeasure, with Chrysalis pulling promotion for the single because the video was too disturbing. Though the single was tipped for the top by many commentators, it stalled at number 46 in the UK.
16. Stability (1993)
Received thinking in Nineties pop was that ballads sell albums and so Chrysalis overlooked the strutting Latino pop-funk of ‘Stability’ as the second single from Debravation. Written in Los Angeles with Franne Golde and Alle Willis, the track picks up on the bubblegum fun of Harry’s rap on ‘‘Rapture’ and blends it with the Compass Point sound of Tom Tom Club’s ‘Wordy Rappinghood’. Harry described the experience of working with the two veteran songwriters as ‘a hoot’ and a ‘raging all-girl session’. Willis is of course the only female in the Songwriter Hall of Fame, while her contemporary Golde has sold more than 100 million records worldwide. The song pairs beautifully with Harry’s subsequent collaboration with Tina Weymouth on ‘Punk Lolita’ for the Heads album No Talking Just Head on which she also sang the title track.
17. Dog Star Girl (1993)
Concluding Debbie’s fifteen years at Chrysalis Records with considerable dignity is the Stein-produced Debravation album closer ‘Dog Star Girl’. With lyrics by science-fiction novelist William Gibson, the invocation of a dystopian cyber future left the door wide open as to where Debbie Harry’s career would take her next. The throbbing rhythms foretell the industrial weirdness of her collaboration with The Heads on ‘No Talking Just Head’, while the half-spoken narrative gestures towards the avant-garde singing style she would utilize with the Jazz Passengers. In terms of Stein’s songwriting, the song also anticipates the intense tribal drum sounds of both ‘Forgive and Forget’ and ‘Under The Gun’ on Blondie’s 1999 album No Exit. However, Stein would never forgive Chrysalis’s decision to cut Alien director H.R Giger’s ‘noise solo’ from the album version of the track.
18. Wild Horses (1994)
With limited record company involvement, Debbie and Chris hit the road at the end of 1993, some six months after Debravation was released, to belatedly promote it. On the merch desk was their own Chris Stein-produced version of the album, known as Debravation 8½, gesturing towards a cover version of the Nina Rota scored rhumba from the soundtrack to the 1963 Fellini film of the same name. Featuring an off-beat selection of material, and without any programming or keyboards, the raw sound of the Debravation Tour echoed the lo-fi grunge aesthetic of the mid-90s. Nowhere is this more evident than on the cover of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Wild Horses’, popularized at the time by English alternative rock band The Sundays and recorded by Stein for a tentative-but-never-released live album. The world-weary pathos of the delivery would be something Debbie would channel in her next major film role as Delores in the James Mongold film Heavy alongside Liv Tyler, Shelly Winters, and fellow rocker Evan Dando.
19. Ole (1996)
Having been introduced by producer Hal Wilner, Debbie appeared on the Jazz Passenger’s 1994 album In Love singing ‘Dog In Sand’. In the autumn of the same year, she joined Roy Nathanson and Curtis Fowkes’ ensemble full-time and went on the road, playing art house venues across the US to rave reviews. Nineteen ninety-six’s Individually Twisted saw her take lead vocal duties across a full-length album with the choicest cuts being ‘Imitation of a Kiss’ and ‘Ole’, a tale of Mexican wanderlust in homage to Frida Khalo and Katy Jurado. Inevitably the album included a good-natured reprise of ‘The Tide Is High’ and also a deft duet with fellow new-waver, and jazz interloper Elvis Costello on a cover of ‘Don'cha Go 'Way Mad’, which was originally recorded by Ella Fitzgerald & Sy Oliver. A live album with The Jazz Passenger came out in 1998 and as Debbie settled into her fifties it was surprising to learn Blondie was rehearsing new material and that an album was in the works.
20. Command and Obey (1997)
Vibraphone player Bill Ware had been a member of the Jazz Passenger since 1987 and toured extensively with Deborah during the mid-90s when he asked her to guest on his side project Groove Thing. The single ‘Command and Obey’ was released on Eightball Records, and became an underground club hit in the US with progressive house mixes by the likes of Fred Jorio and Plasmic Honey. The original version, however, takes the form of a more sultry acid jazz groove and is featured on the very New York-sounding album This Is No Time. A far cry from ‘Maria’, the track does at least anticipate the metropolitan diversity of the No Exit album and jazz stylizations of songs like ‘Boom Boom in the Zoom Zoom Room’. In reality, the song was perhaps the closest Debbie had come to exploring the terrain covered with the urban funk of her 1981 solo album Koo Koo, offering a satisfying circular arc to the narrative of her time away from Blondie.
Deb-nouement
Debbie Harry’s solo experimentation did not end with the reformation of Blondie. Indeed the last twenty years have seen her continue to collaborate with a diverse range of artists that include Moby, Nick Cave, Fall Out Boy, Blood Orange, Nile Rogers, and Future Islands. A 2007 solo album Necessary Evil produced the US club hit ‘Two Times Blue’, while a collaboration with Brian Reitzell ‘Tehran 1979’ was a highlight on the 2017 soundtrack to American Gods. Her ongoing relationship with Roy Nathanson as an honorary Jazz Passenger endures and she continues to pop up on various downtown musical projects including a residency at New York’s Cafe Carlyle and cameos alongside Brooklyn’s Gregory Brothers for the political satire Songify The News. The sudden death of drummer Clem Burke in April this year inevitably casts a shadow over Deborah’s birthday celebrations. Before his passing, Blondie had completed work on what will be their twelfth studio album, which was due this year. Details of its release remain very much under wraps and it remains to be seen if the band will ever play live without him. However, it will be fascinating to see what Debbie gets up to next. As the band’s 2024 gigs demonstrated, Debbie Harry is displaying no signs of slowing down any time soon.
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