Blondie (album)

"Blondie" is the debut studio album by American rock band Blondie, released in December 1976 by Private Stock Records.

The album's first single, "X Offender," was originally titled "Sex Offender," but radio stations refused to play a song with such a provocative title. As a result, the band renamed the track. Despite this effort, the album suffered from disappointing sales and poor publicity, leading the band to end their contract with Private Stock. They signed with Chrysalis Records in mid-1977, and the label re-released Blondie in September 1977 alongside the band’s second album, Plastic Letters. The re-release also included the single "In the Flesh." The album achieved some success in Australia, reaching No. 14, and in the UK, it charted at No. 75 in early 1979, by which time the band had become immensely popular there.

Produced by Richard Gottehrer, who had worked with artists like the Angels and other 1950s and 1960s acts, much of the album carries the girl group sound of that era. However, Debbie Harry, the band's lead singer, later told an interviewer that they never intended to be retro. She was surprised when some journalists described their music that way and insisted that Blondie was playing new wave music, not pop.

The album was first digitally remastered by Chrysalis Records UK in 1994, and in 2001, it was remastered again with five bonus tracks. These include "Out in the Streets," a cover of the Shangri-Las' song; "The Thin Line" and "Platinum Blonde," which were part of a 1975 demo recorded by Alan Betrock; and other tracks that were first issued on the 1994 compilation The Platinum Collection. The song "Platinum Blonde" was notably the first song Debbie Harry ever wrote. The reissues also feature original single versions of "X Offender" and "In the Sun," which differ from the album versions. These singles were remastered from vinyl for the release.