YMMV / Blondie (Band)

• Covered Up:
  • "Hanging on the Telephone" is a cover of a song by The Nerves, who were an obscure band. It had already appeared on their first EP. They were friends with the song's writer, Jack Lee, who agreed that Blondie should cover it. He also gave his song "Will Anything Happen?" to them.
  • Few fans were also aware that "The Tide Is High" (originally by The Paragons) and "Denis" (originally by Randy & The Rainbows) are covers. When Atomic Kitten covered the former, many assumed it was a Blondie cover (if, ironically, their version wasn't also victim to this trope).
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: They are much more popular in the United Kingdom and Europe than they are in the United States. When they started, American audiences didn't know what to make of them, feeling they were too pop for punk audiences and too punk for pop audiences, plus there was the fact that they had a female singer, which was not common at the time, and meant Blondie were basically known as 'that band with the hot singer' (especially in their CBGB days). In the United Kingdom and Europe, audiences seemed to appreciate punk, pop and other genres in equal measure, and had already made the group big stars even before Parallel Lines came out — their Breakthrough Hit in Europe was "Denis (Denee)", which didn't even chart in the US. To this day, Blondie are considered the quintessential pop band in the United Kingdom, whereas they are known mainly for their hit singles ("Heart of Glass," "Rapture," etc.) and their connection to CBGB's in the United States.
• I Am Not Shazam: Blondie is the name of the band, not a nom de plume for Harry herself. According to the documentary "One Way or Another", they took the name from what truckers shouted at Debbie after she bleached her hair blonde.
• Memetic Mutation: "Blondie is A GROUP!"
• Misattributed Song:
  • There's more than one song that has been attributed to Blondie when they are actually by Kim Wilde, including "Kids in America" (which has also been attributed to Nena, The Bangles, or The Go-Go's), and Wilde's '80s version of "You Keep Me Hangin' On"^note originally recorded by The Supremes in 1967 (which has also been attributed to Belinda Carlisle from the aforementioned Go-Go's, Kylie Minogue, Madonna, or Tiffany).
  • Subverted with "Rush Rush" from Scarface (1983) and Grand Theft Auto III. It's not by Blondie, but by Debbie Harry as a solo artist collaborating with Giorgio Moroder.
• Narm: Debbie Harry's rap on "Rapture" is utterly ridiculous. The delivery is silly already, but the lyrics don't help:
  "The man from Mars
  You go out at night, eatin' cars
  You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns too
  Mercury's and Subaru's
  And you don't stop, you keep on eatin' cars"
• Once Original, Now Common: So many Alternative Rock (especially in the modern Post-Punk/New Wave Revival) bands have been influenced by their look, attitude and their whole "poppy, punk-influenced rock band with a female singer" schtick that many younger listeners may hear their music and wonder what's so special about them.
• Refrain from Assuming: "Rapture" is not titled "The Man From Mars" even though the rap portion of the song, providing a detailed list of actions by that man, is more memorable than the singing portion that ends with the word "rapture".
• Stuck in Their Shadow: The rest of the band to Debbie Harry. Many casual listeners often assume that Blondie is a stage name for Debbie Harry rather than the name of the band. This misconception is so common that it spawned the meme "Blondie is a GROUP!"
• Tear Jerker: The song "Susie and Jeffrey" is about a young couple getting married, the song has an eerie tone to it that implies even without the fatal car accident at the end, their relationship was doomed.

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