Customer Reviews

Blondie - Greatest Hits

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the best Blondie hits compilation by far and the sound is crystal clear; the hits are not arranged chronologically however, which makes it impossible to chart the development of the band. But that doesn't matter - this collection demonstrates the band's versatility - compare their early punk-pop Rip Her To Shreds or X Offender with the hypnotic synthpop-disco of Heart Of Glass or Atomic! My favorites include the wistful I'm Always Touched and the bilingual Denis (a classic slice of sixties pop), as well as Tide Is High with its percolating reggae rhythm, plus Sunday Girl (more lovely 60's pop). In my opinion, their best albums are Parallel Lines and Plastic Letters, and these are well represented with 6 of these gorgeous 19 tracks. I wouldn't call this a "Best Of" since there are some album tracks that I like more than some of these hit songs. These include Fan Mail and Bermuda Triangle Blues from Plastic Letters and Fade Away And Radiate from Parallel Lines. But this was never intended to be anything else but a greatest hits collection and serves it purpose very well. It just goes to show that classy pop music is timeless, and Blondie always had that special something, whatever the style they chose to do it in.

This album is by far the greatest. It includes all of the hits from one of the greatest bands. Almost 20 years of great music compacted into one disc. It might be a shame that it is one disc, but the music is as clear as the day the band started.
Blondie stayed true to it's roots, even though time changed.
Rock on to the future.

(I'm actually 16, but I'm to lazy to login.)

ANYWAY! This album is amazing. I got this for my 13th birthday when I was in 7th grade, and it was one of the best albums I could have gotten. This album is a good size and has a whole darned lot of songs on it, (all of which, may I add, are great.) I reccomend (sp? lol) this to anybody who has heard Blondie's music before and knows just how great it truly is. Within 3 years of getting this album I now own all of their CDs plus 3 vinyls. It's truly amazing. Blondie are one of the greatest bands in history for sure.

I have never been a huge Blondie fan, but there is no denying that they were very good at what they did and they were versatile too. Their music encompassed pop, rock, punk, disco and even reggae. I never liked punk so some of their hits do not appeal to me but Blondie make up for this with a string of classics. All their UK hits from their peak years are here with the exception of War child, which only just made the top forty, so cannot be called essential. You also get Maria, the song that gave them a number one UK hit in the new millennium. Their American chart history is different, but everything that matters based on the American pop charts can be found here. Indeed, Blondie has always been more popular in Britain than America.

My favorites here include Tide is high (a cover of a previously obscure reggae song), Sunday girl, I'm always touched by your presence dear (later covered by singer-comedienne Tracey Ullman), Dreaming, Heart of glass and Hanging on the telephone. These songs are sufficiently appealing to make this a five-star album, but there are some other great songs here too.

This is the strongest Blondie compilation yet released. Unless you are a committed fan, this contains everything you'll ever need of their music as a group, although you might still wish to seek out some of Deborah Harry's solo music, none of which is included.

Great collection of Blondie songs.

She's got amazing versatility in her voice.

Her charged spirit is so infectious...she just has no limit to her abilities to vocalize you straight onto the dance floor.

A Great party CD.

This is a great cd with all of the hits that you remember..Sound quality is excellent...For some strange reason, have always liked Island of Lost Souls! Buy Today!

After reading people gushing about the remastering job on these tracks, I snapped up the disc.

But rather than just cleaning up the tracks for these songs, the producers have altered the basic balance between instruments. It's a subtle business reworking classic songs, and the remastering here doesn't improve the sound. If anything, it muddies some of the guitar-bass dynamic in favor of a more "contemporary" sound and adds unnecessary echoes to Clem Burke's drumming.

One element they didn't change is Deborah Harry's singing, but they should have at least raised the volume of her vocals, because with this mix, her voice is relegated to a reedy, background role.

Call me a diehard, but I'll stick with the "Best of Blondie" album, warts and all, over this slickified version that changes the basic tenor of the band's sound.

I give it two stars only because it is Blondie, and the songs are still great. But that's not an endorsement of the disc, just the artistry that's been needlessly tweaked here.

Blondie is one of the few bands I still listen to on a regular basis. Their music has played a huge influence on me over the past two decades. I was ecstatic to discover that they finally put out a greatest hits collection of all their hits, digitally remastered. I was even more ecstatic to find a new copy in the used cd bins today, still with that annoying seal at the top of the cd case intact. The band's "best of" collection was good but outdated, production-wise as well as song-wise as well. I always thought Blondie needed to put out a greatest hits, a more complete collection of their hits than their "best of" collection. The songs were definitely in dire need of being remastered too. Thankfully someone must have heard my prayers and answered them with this wonderful 19 track collection of Blondie's greatest hits. I was even more pleased that "Maria" was tacked on. That was one of my favorite songs off the band's comeback album "No Exit". There were even a few of songs that I haven't even heard; "Union City Blue", "Picture This", "The Hardest Part", and "Island of Lost Souls". Otherwise all of my favorite Blondie songs are found on this complete collection. I can never tire of listening to "Heart of Glass" or "Call Me". Those songs still hold up to me to this day, and they sound even better now that they have been given a digital remastered treatment. Deborah Harry could give a lot of today's female artists a run for their money with her ability as a singer and her gorgeous looks. She actually has talent behind her Playboy bunny looks, most female artists today don't amount to even a hill of beans in the talent department. Blondie's greatest hits is a great reminder to the band's legacy and how timeless their music is.

Blondie is one of the greatest and most important bands in the history of pop/rock to have ever existed. While Grace Slick might have predated one-time Playboy bunny/vocalist Deborah Harry, Ms. Harry still set all of the standards as far as any future women in rock. She showed that it was possible for an extremely attractive female to front an all male backing band and do it with style, sex appeal and genuine raw talent while not coming across as a tramp.

The band itself were cracker jack musicians as well.

While Blondie is more well known for it's singles than albums, listening to this gloriously remastered greatest hits compilation covering their years from 1979 to 1982 (with one track from their 1999 comeback album No Exit as well), it's easy to see why people could be easily satisfied with just picking up this greatest hits CD instead of their individual albums.

Every song on here is a classic. Every song represents the pinnacle of production technique, performance, songwriting ability with the added appeal of the immensely talented (and wonderously sexy) vocals of Ms. Harry.

Want to hear some amazingly creative guitar work? Listen to this CD. Want to hear some super grooving bass lines? It's here too. Want to hear impeccably smart pop-rock songwriting on every track? Yep, you can't go wrong in any way with this CD.

My only small complaint is that since this CD came out a year or 2 before their 2003 release Curse of Blondie, it's missing the 2 singles from that album. Maybe they could re-issue it at some point as there is room for the 2 singles to fit on here from that album.

For people wanting the perfect taste test of this wonderful band, this CD is perfect. People wanting to dig deeper and check out the individual albums will then find some equally great tracks that never got released as singles.

Blondie will never be matched IMO.

With a few options available for you to get your hands on Blondie's greatest hits, and pretty much little new to say about the guys that blended punk and new wave to perfection in their time, the one thing that can be claimed about this compilation is that it's the best one available. It covers pretty much everything you'd want to have by the band and the quality of the recordings is also the best one around.