Today (July 1, 2009) is the 64^th birthday of Deborah Harry who is best known as the lead singer of the band Blondie. She is often incorrectly referred to as "Blondie" herself, but that is only the name of the band. The band moved into the mainstream in the late 70s and had some big hits in the early 80s.

First was the song "Call Me" which was composed for the soundtrack of the film American Gigolo. Released in February 1980, the track spent 6 weeks at #1 in the U.S., reached #1 in the U.K. and became a hit throughout the world. The song is Blondie's biggest selling single in the U.S. (well over a million copies sold) and was the #1 single of 1980. So this week's first Flashback Video is "Call Me" by Blondie...

Then in November of 1980, the band would release the album Autoamerican which would contain two more big hits. It featured the song "The Tide is High" which was a cover of the 1967 song by the Paragons. The Blondie version would hit #1 on the Billboard chart by the end of January 1981. So this week's second Flashback Video is "The Tide is High" by Blondie...

Then from the same album, the song "Rapture" was released in January of 1981 and would reach #1 on the Billboard chart by the end of March. It is considered one of the first substantial hit singles to involve rap music and the first rap-influenced single to reach number one on the US Billboard Chart. The song includes a short rap interlude in it and while it was not the first single involving rap to be successful, it was the first to top the charts and helped begin rap's slow rise into the mainstream. The video for this song included a dancing Fab Five Freddy who would later go on to host MTV's rap video show called Yo MTV Raps. I have give you the "Pop Up Video" version here which includes some interesting facts about the band and the song. So in celebration of Debbie Harry's birthday, this week's third Flashback Video is "Rapture" by Blondie...

The band broke up after the release of the 1982 album The Hunter. Blondie reformed in 1997 releasing a single which would hit #1 in the UK. The group toured and performed throughout the world over the years following and had the honor of being inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the RockWalk of Fame in 2006. Though I am not necessarily a huge fan of the band myself, that was a well deserved honor. As for the 80s, there were not many bands bigger than Blondie back in 1980 and 1981.

That will do it for this issue of Kickin' it Old School. Thanks for reading. If you are interested in reading any of my other 80s related issues, please click there for a summary of those. If you want to see the past issues of Flashback Videos, just type that into the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column and it should give you a list of all of them. You can also always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use that Google Search Box to find any past issues or topics you may have missed. If you are a fan of Kickin' it, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK LOGO in the upper right hand column. This will take you to the Fan Page where I ask you to then click on "Become a Fan". Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.