On This Day in 1979, Blondie Landed Their First No. 1 with a Song They Did “As a Novelty”

On this day (April 28) in 1979, Blondie landed their first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Heart of Glass.” The song was an international hit, topping charts in the UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, and New Zealand. Decades later, it remains one of the band’s best-known songs.

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Blondie didn’t see much chart success before releasing “Heart of Glass” as the third single from their third studio album, Parallel Lines. In fact, it was their first entry on the Hot 100. Written by Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, the song stood out from the rest of the material. It sounded like the lovechild of disco and new wave, and people around the world were into it.

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According to Songfacts, the band didn’t expect “Heart of Glass” to be a hit. “When we did ‘Heart of Glass, ’ it wasn’t cool in our social set to play disco,” Harry said. “But we did it because we wanted to be uncool. It was based around a Roland Rhythm Machine and the backing took over 10 hours to get down,” she added. “We didn’t expect the original to get that big,” Stein said. “We only did it as a novelty to put more diversity into the album,” he explained.

Blondie Had “Heart of Glass” for Years Before Releasing It

Debbie Harry and Chris Stein wrote “Heart of Glass” years before they released it. However, they found it nearly impossible to find an arrangement that worked for the song.

“We started that song in 1974 and didn’t release it for many years. We tried it many, many different ways live,” Harry recalled. Fortunately, the band didn’t give up on the song. “We really liked it and kept on playing it, and it was quite a few years until we got it right,” Harry said.

Their producer, Mike Chapman, knew both Harry and Stein enjoyed disco and urged them to use the then-popular style for the song. While the disco sound alienated some of Blondie’s fans, the track helped bring them mainstream success and bolstered sales of Parallel Lines.

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