Track Listing

1. Heart Of Glass
2. Denis
3. Tide Is High
4. In The Flesh
5. Sunday Girl
6. Dreaming
7. Hanging On The Telephone
8. Rapture
9. Picture This
10. Union City Blue
11. I'm Always Touched By Your Presence Dear
12. Call Me
13. Atomic
14. Rip Her To Shreds

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3538 in Music
• Released on: 1990-07-01
• Number of discs: 1

From Amazon.com
While Best Of may not be inclusive enough for the avid collector because it focuses more on Blondie's new wave dance hits than on their punk beginnings, songs like "Heart of Glass," "Dreaming," "The Tide Is High," and "Call Me" display the diverse musical styles this band embraced. It's a new wave album, a reggae album, a dance album, a punk album, and a rap album. Rock-solid songwriting and Debbie Harry's sultry vocals hold the CD together despite the stylistic reaches of the tracks. --Beth Bessmer

CD Description
An excellent 1981 singles compilation, BEST OF BLONDIE is possibly the best introduction to this legendary New York newwave powerhouse. Fans of the band have long complained thatthe collection contains none of the band's album tracks, which were usually funnier, weirder and more experimental thantheir singles, but Blondie were first and foremost a singles band.
From their glorious first single "X Offender" (unfortunately not included here), Debbie Harry, Chris Stein and company instinctively understood both the medium of the seven-inch single and the glories of Top 40 radio, and their releases were smart, catchy, tough, sexy pop-rock of the highest calibre. From edgy classics like "Rip Her To Shreds" and"One Way or Another", through sunny pop pastiches like "Sunday Girl" and "Dreaming", to the genre experiments "Heart ofGlass", "The Tide Is High", and "Rapture", these 12 songs are as good as singles got during this era.

Customer Reviews

Blondie makes it magnificent indeed
When I was young, I loved Blondie but never owned any Blondie records. This CD contains all the classics I remember from years ago along with some great songs I was unfamiliar with. I'm no Blondie expert, so I can't comment on what should and should not have been included in a greatest hits CD. All I know is that each of these songs works quite well for me. The whole album has a terrific flow to it, alternating between several different styles of music--new wave, punk, disco, reggae, rap, you name it. Blondie was a trailblazer who redeemed the music of the 70s and paved the way for the great music of the 80s, 90s, present, and future. The variety and freshness of Blondie's musical stylings ensure the group's longevity and influence indefinitely.

"The Tide is High" has a reggae-type sound and evokes a real "island" feel; this song actually ranks as my favorite song on the CD. Of course, "Heart of Glass," "Rapture," "One Way or Another," and "Call Me" are terrific songs I never forgot over the years. "Rapture" actually introduced rap music to my ears--that ending rap was like nothing I had ever heard before; everyone I knew loved that bit about the man from Mars and the great guitar riffs at the end. The "Rapture" video is also one of the very first videos I ever remember seeing. "Hanging on the Telephone" has a driving rhythm that makes it impossible for you to sit still as you listen. "Sunday Girl" is a fast-paced, fun song with a strong beat and great vocals (including the French verse), as is "Dreaming." "(I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear" is another surprisingly good gem, featuring a slightly softer side of Blondie. I basically love every single song on this album; Blondie's music has not lost a bit of originality, brashness, or power over the years, nor has the enjoyment I receive from listening to it diminished one single bit.

Platinum classic album
I grew up listening to Blondie and to find this album on CD, thus replacing my old vinyl copy, was a real treat. Each track on here is a gift in its own right. From disco-driven "Heart of Glass" to heart-thumping "Union City Blues", sneering (yet insecure) "Rip Her To Shreds" and timeless, erotic "Atomic" this Best Of ... album is a masterpiece. It is much better than the later released "Atomic - Best of Blondie" because it has the full versions of "The Tide is High", "Rapture" and "Atomic" and dispenses with the pointless 3 remixes of the latter track.

You will not need to use the "skip" button on your CD player when playing this timeless album.

Not the very best
Blondie was one of the most exciting 1970s bands, with its roots in New York punk, its spectacular exploration of pop and its later ventures into synthpop and dance. This Best Of collection is weighted towards their later work and is not comprehensive at all. It opens with the brilliant Heart Of Glass, a hypnotic slice of synth-driven dance-pop from the Parallel Lines album.

The next track, Dreaming (from Eat To The Beat), is a wistful pop ballad whilst The Tide Is High (from AutoAmerican) is a catchy reggae ditty. Sunday Girl is another lovely pop tune, but Hanging On The Telephone sounds a bit jarring now and Rapture doesn't work for me. One Way Or Another isn't great either, but (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear remains a masterpiece.

Of the synthpop tracks, Call Me was a huge hit but it always lacked a good melody and hasn't aged nearly as well as Heart Of Glass, whilst Atomic remains at least interesting. In The Flesh and Rip Her To Shreds are excellent early pop-rock numbers from the Blondie debut album and still sound good.

The worst omissions are Picture This, Denis, Fan Mail and Bermuda Triangle Blues, all exceptional tracks from the Plastic Letters and Parallel Lines albums. Although Best Of is an enjoyable collection, Greatest Hits with its 19 tracks definitely has the edge as it includes memorable hits like Denis, Picture This, Island Of Lost Souls and Maria.

The two best Blondie albums are Plastic Letters and Parallel Lines, and they are like greatest hits collections themselves plus they contain great album tracks found nowhere else, such as Fade Away And Radiate and the aforementioned Fan Mail and Bermuda Triangle Blues.