Blondie - The Best Of Blondie (1981)

Versions:
LP

Tracklisting:

Side One:
1. Heart Of Glass
2. Denis
3. The Tide Is High
4. In The Flesh
5. Sunday Girl
6. Dreaming
7. Hanging On The Telephone

Side Two:
1. Rapture
2. Picture This
3. Union City Blue
4. (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear
5. Call Me
6. Atomic
7. Rip Her To Shreds

Best Tracks:
Atomic
Hanging On The Telephone
(I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear
Call Me
Rip Her To Shreds
Rapture

Currently listening to:
LP

Compilation albums are a fickle bunch. Especially those that came out in the 70's and 80's. Every now and then, however, you come across a treasure. Even rarer, again, is one that's possibly better than any of the band's proper studio albums.

I'll step back for a second. It feels sacrilegious to say that The Best Of Blondie is better than Plastic Letters, Parallel Lines or, even, Eat To The Beat - each of Blondie's records were their own (quite different) statement about Blondie's development into a fucking great pop band (and, if I'm being brutally honest, their eventual demise. But, that's hardly important). You cannot deny, however, Blondie were a great singles band. And, The Best Of Blondie distils the very best of them.

Pop music doesn't get much better than this. And, remember - pop is not a dirty word. Blondie's involvement in the early New York punk scene certainly gave their brand of pop an edge. 'Once I had a love and it was a gas, soon turned out to be a pain in the ass'. Debbie Harry's nonchalant delivery of this line, under the disco sheen, shows she still had one foot planted at CBGB's.

The Best Of Blondie is a joyous listen, from start to finish. Just look at that tracklisting. 'Call Me'. 'Atomic'. 'Hanging On The Telephone'. 'Rip Her To Shreds'. 'Rapture'. 'Sunday Girl'. If those song names mean nothing, stop reading and start listening. If they do, you'll already know what I'm talking about. But, you should still put the record on. Obviously.

Much like another 'greatest hits' collection I previously blogged, every single groove of this one is pretty much perfection. There's no filler. There's not a single bad track on the record. Hell, there's not even any average songs (that said, I'd never been much of a fan of 'The Tide Is High', but wedged between 'Denis' and 'In The Flesh' on Side One, I can't really deny it). Put this on at a party, and I promise you, it will certainly get the party started (then follow up it with The B-52's. Trust me).

(Make sure you try and pick up a copy with this poster in it still)