Parallel Lines: How Blondie Beat the Odds And Became Superstars
How did a stalker anthem, a disco hit, and a song about a missing cat all end up on the same Blondie Parallel Lines record? This music documentary explores the chaotic and brilliant sessions that defined the band’s 1978 breakthrough and the stories behind the album’s top songs. We look at the band’s formation beginning with Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, the diverse songwriting that pushed the group to the top of the charts, and how they captured fame during a pivotal moment in New York rock history birthed from CBGB and the punk scene of the 1970s.
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WATCH NEXT:
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✓ Unhappy Birthday and the Pettiness of The Smiths https://youtu.be/1Igyw_RM6o0
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Poetic Wax is hosted by Andy Fenstermaker.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Parallel Lines Documentary
1:16 The Band CBGB Built
3:03 Chrysalis Bets on an Australian Hitmaker
4:45 A Cover Nobody in the Band Wanted
6:39 The Song That Rescued a Broke Songwriter
8:42 How A Disco Song With No Name Became a Global Number One
11:13 A Radio Hit Written From a Stalker’s Point of View
12:27 A Missing Cat Writes a Number One Single
13:22 Why Picture This and Fade Away Radiate
14:55 What Parallel Lines Became
CLIPS & REFERENCES:
Blondie “Picture This” (Official Music Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbdCpi4qTNY
Blondie “Heroes” Live with Robert Fripp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSWy0O6yWr0
Blondie Interview at American Bandstand (1979) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTwe__-qPl0
Debbie Harry Interview 1979 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13r_5lmWLsU
Countdown: Blondie (1979) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyh0Nf6Ou14
BBC TV’s “Swap Shop” (Dec. 22, 1979) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk00V52ikEk
Blondie Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_bY7t06haY
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@richierich2534
September 15, 2026 at 2:00 am
Clem Burk was the drummer for the Romantics also
@jonathanharrison1471
September 15, 2026 at 2:00 am
I have the picture disc of this album,every track is top notch and I never get bored of playing it.
@IanWaters-nn6il
September 15, 2026 at 2:00 am
Blondie’s first charting and commercial breakthrough was in Australia, in 1977, with the single In The Flesh – in Australia, it reached number two on the charts – that basically started Blondie’s rise.
@charlesbright2465
September 15, 2026 at 2:00 am
I'm Gonna Love You Too…Buddy Holly 🎸
@MaxKost-e8j
September 15, 2026 at 2:00 am
Hey !! I had dat recerd ! It was perdy good ! They should've had Debbie smilin' & dem dere boys lookin' angry & confued – Dang ! Dat girl could sing.Had no idea Sunday Girl was a cat-I had a Siamese named "Sunday" for 17 yrs (died of liver problems) & I cried like a baby for weeks!
@AnthonyArena-g7l
September 15, 2026 at 2:00 am
Note: the punks may have had disdain for a lot of Prog, but Robert Fripp was never one of the figures of Prog who was disrespected. (Neither was Brian Eno.) Who the punks were very fed up with was the overblown and commercial directions that prog had gone by the late 1970s, with groups like Pink Floyd, Yes, and Emerson Lake and Palmer getting increasingly more boring and mainstream. Fripp never did that though, and so his contributions to Blondie were only ever seen as enhancing their coolness factor. King Crimson were never very commercial from the USA point of view.
Brian Eno, John Cale, and David Bowie had a similar "coolness" associated with them, which is how come no one balked when Eno produced recordings by bands like Devo and Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, John Cale produced Patti Smith Group, and David Bowie produced Iggy Pop. It's because at this point in time, figures like Fripp & Eno were more associated with "art rock" than "prog rock." To hear what punks thought of "prog rock" listen to the song Progressive Rock by The Gizmos.
@kråkhakka
September 15, 2026 at 2:00 am
Thanks for not stooping to the use of AI thumbnails. Even when they are based on real photographs it still doesn't quite look like the real person. Just uncanny valley slop.
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