Blondie (album)

The first single "X Offender" was originally titled "Sex Offender", but since radio stations would not play a song with such a provocative title, the band renamed the song. After disappointing sales and poor publicity, the band ended their contract with Private Stock and signed with Chrysalis Records in 1977. Chrysalis re-released the album in September 1977, along with the single "In the Flesh". The album reached No. 14 in Australia,[1] where the band had already had a Top 3 hit with "In the Flesh". The album also charted at No. 75 in the UK in early 1979, where the band had become immensely popular.

Through the production of Richard Gottehrer, who had worked with the Angels and other artists of the 1950s and 1960s, much of the music is suffused with the girl group sound of that era. Harry told an interviewer in 1978 that the band never intended to be retro and when some journalists described them that way, it was "quite a shock".[2] Likewise she rejected any attempt to brand the music as pop, insisting that Blondie played new wave music.[3]

The album was first digitally remastered by Chrysalis Records UK in 1994. In 2001, the album was again remastered and reissued, this time along with five bonus tracks. "Out in the Streets" (The Shangri-Las cover), "The Thin Line" and "Platinum Blonde" are three of five tracks from a 1975 demo recorded by Alan Betrock; all five were first issued on the 1994 compilation The Platinum Collection. Bonus track "Platinum Blonde" was the first song that Debbie Harry wrote.[4] Original single versions of "X Offender" and "In the Sun" are both sides of Blondie's first single, issued on Private Stock, and are different mixes from the album versions. The two Private Stock versions are both remastered from vinyl.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[6]
Q	[7]
Rolling Stone	[8]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[9]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	7/10[10]
The Village Voice	B+[11]

Reviewing Blondie in 1977 for Rolling Stone, Ken Tucker called the album "a playful exploration of Sixties pop interlarded with trendy nihilism" and found that all the songs "work on at least two levels: as peppy but rough pop, and as distanced, artless avant-rock".[12]

In 2020, Rolling Stone included Blondie at number 401 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[13]

Blondie

• Debbie Harry – vocals
• Chris Stein – guitar, bass on "X Offender"
• Gary Valentine – bass guitar, guitar on "X Offender"
• Jimmy Destri – Farfisa organ, grand piano, RMI piano, Roland synthesizer
• Clem Burke – drums

Additional personnel

• Ellie Greenwich – backing vocals on "In the Flesh" and "Man Overboard"
• Micki Harris – backing vocals on "In the Flesh" and "Man Overboard"
• Hilda Harris – backing vocals on "In the Flesh" and "Man Overboard"

Production

• Richard Gottehrer – producer
• Craig Leon – producer ("X Offender", "In the Sun"), remix engineer
• Rob Freeman  – engineer
• Don Hunerberg – assistant engineer
• Greg Calbi  – mastering
• David Perl  – art direction, design
• Shig Ikeida – photography
• Originally recorded at Plaza Sound Studios, New York, August  – September 1976 and released on Private Stock (2023) in December 1976, reissued on Chrysalis (1165) in October 1977.
• Kevin Flaherty  – 2001 re-issue producer
• Alan Betrock  – original producer of "Out in the Streets", "The Thin Line" and "Platinum Blonde"