Customer Reviews

Greatest Hits (CD+DVD)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I will always give anything Debbie Harry and Blondie does the highest rating even when the label decides to subtract tracks and DVDs off of the collections. I got the German version of the Sound & Vision :Greatest Hits collection for Christmas from my friend Roland in Holland and I actually bought a region free dvd player from my brother who works at Best Buy for Christmas so I could watch the DVD ahead of the US release. But now as Blondie becomes the first Chrysalis and who knows how long Capitol act to go into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame comes this collection. The original cd from Europe had 22 tracks and ran 79 minutes and the dvd had 17 Videos and ran around 57 minutes. The US version from Capitol removes for what unknown reason the SONGS and VIDEOS to "X Offender" and the classic "I'm Always Touched By Your Presence Dear" from the package. I am upset about this because when Capitol issued the Kylie Minogue Ultimate Kylie cd/dvd collection or the Best Shots release from Pat Benatar -- nothing was taken off either cd or DVD. So why Blondie when it was issued as a release to go with their induction of them into the Hall Of Fame. This makes me angry that these 2 songs and videos were removed. If you have the chance to buy the European dvd version you would see the beginning of "X Offender" with Debbie talking at the beginning of the video and for "Presence Dear" video instead of the car scene from The Best Of Blondie collection you get the shot of the Double Clems that begin the video. I do not see why they were removed.

Now onto the actual US collection. This Greatest Hits is different than the 2002 Hits collection. This one uses only single mixes for the cd-- for the hits and longer tracks. NO full lp mixes for "Atomic" or "The Tide Is High". They-- like the European version put the UK and US number one tracks out front at tracks 1-7 and in order as well. "Heart Of Glass " from 1979 to "Maria" in 1999. All 7 number one tracks. Plus you also get the classics like "Dreaming" "One Way Or Another" and "Island Of Lost Souls" that were US top 40 singles. Plus for the first time on a US cd the FULL promo only before now 12" (6:06) Blow Up Mix that Sanctuary issued for "Good Boys". This is the rarest track here because it was a Promo only to Dj's mix that is now on the cd. PLUS you get a brand new version of the classic first huge hit from 1976 "In The Flesh" done electro style by Super Buddha that has worked with Scissor Sisters. PLUS the reason this cd did well in the UK-- the mash up for "Rapture Riders" that is out on UK vinyl 12". Done by Mark Vidler it uses the music and beat from the original 1981 "Rapture" while mostly using the vocals to The Doors trippy "Riders On The Storm". Listen to Jim Morrison sound so incredible and at ease under the dance beat and then listen for the FULL rap of Debbie's from "Rapture". The original single mix found on the European version of this cd is only 3:46 while on the US version it is 4:04. A tiny bit longer but still not as long as the FULL VERSION (which is 5:43) on 12" and promo cd single.

The Videos-- well from 1976 to 1982 Blondie issued 23 videos from each of their albums. So this is just a primer to when Capitol or EMI finally issue the full release of the 12 tracks of videos from Eat To The Beat. But the plus side (even though they deleated 2 of the best know Blondie videos) is that you get them without the stupid skits from The Best Of Blondie collection. Full and complete videos (although I still think that "Rapture " is from The Best Of Blondie with the beginning) BUT you do get the video that was not on the European issued DVD for "Rapture Riders" so that is a plus. Plus the "The Tide Is High" video is the US VH1 Classic version and not the original 1981 version.

So if you haven't bought the European version of this collection then it is fine to buy the US version because you will get the chance to see the videos completely but remember that Capitol cut 2 of the best videos and songs from this collection and I still have no clue as to why. A++++ again for just the fact that it is Debbie Harry and Blondie and the fact they are finally going into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame - a thing that should have happened four years ago. BUY it still.

Most of the songs are the shortened/edited single versions. Not the album versions. Too bad. However, within the CD/DVD packaging, there is advertising for all the albums (even Hunter) stating there are bonus tracs. I guess this CD is a come-on to buy all the original albums. Almost no liner notes--no who's who or timeline history or anything. Again, too bad. Sounds good.

Blondie is my favorite band and I have all of their albums, so I was curious to compare this collection with their first hits collection, The Best of Blondie (1982), and their other Greatest Hits album from 2002.

Sound & Vision is much better than The Best of Blondie, with vastly improved sound quality and a bigger selection of songs. The only songs that The Best of Blondie contains that this collection does not are "(I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear" and the original version of "In the Flesh"--the version of the latter on Sound & Vision is an awful remix with brand new vocals by Debbie Harry, and it sounds NOTHING like the original. Sound & Vision is certainly preferable to The Best of Blondie, though, no matter how you look at it.

However, when compared to the 2002 Greatest Hits CD, Sound & Vision doesn't fair quite as well, not taking into account the bonus DVD with music videos. Greatest Hits has nearly every song from this collection--it does NOT include "Good Boys" or "End To End" from The Curse of Blondie, released in 2004, nor the "Rapture Riders" mash-up, but makes up for it with the inclusion of "(I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear" and "X Offender", two of Blondie's best songs. It also includes the original version of "In the Flesh" in lieu of the pointless remix. Those factors alone, along with the fact that Greatest Hits is quite a bit cheaper than this collection, make Greatest Hits worth getting instead of Sound & Vision.

So, how does Sound & Vision hold up on its own? It is a decent collection of Blondie's most popular songs, but they are mostly radio edits and not the full album versions. They even dared to chop off the openings of "Heart of Glass", Atomic" and "The Tide is High"! The remix included for "Good Boys" is decent, and much MUCH better than the remix for "In the Flesh", but the album version is still the best. The remastering is swell, but in some cases I prefer the remasters of the original album versions (for example, "Union City Blue").

If you're a diehard Blondie fan like me, you will want Sound & Vision for the bonus DVD, which includes some of Blondie's best music videos. These are not traditional music videos because they were all produced before MTV, but rather they are performance videos of the band lip-synching to the studio versions of the songs. My personal favorite of the videos is "Rapture", but "Heart of Glass", "Denis", "Hanging on the Telephone", "Dreaming" and "The Hardest Part" are favorites as well. The worst of them by far is "The Tide of High"--love the song, but the video is T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E.

Most casual listeners will not be concerned with the things I am nitpicking about here. But unless you must have the videos, you would be better off purchasing the 2002 Greatest Hits collection because of the cheaper price tag. Thankfully, I found this collection for $12 used, or else I would have bought Greatest Hits, too.

There is no other way to describe BLONDIE or the musical legacy, other than PERFECT POP. Their crossovers into Punk, Funk, Reggae, Calypso, Disco and New Wave are legendary. THERE WERE AND ARE NO OTHER ROCK ARTISTS AS DIVERSE OR AS SUCCESSFUL........as BLONDIE was in this amazing era of rock. From 1978-1982, and their amazing resurgence in 1999, Blondie have racked up hit after hit after hit. In which time created some of rock music's all time best classics, Call Me, One way or Another, Heart of Glass and Rapture to mention but a few.

The most successful of all New Wave and Punk bands, Blondie helped define a generation and opened the door for the likes of Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Cyndi Lauper, Amee Mann, Berlin, etc.

Here on this compilation you get 4 American Certified #1 million selling singles, Heart of glass, Call Me, Rapture, and The Tide is High. You get an additional 3 British #1 Singles, Sunday Girl, Atomic and Maria.

Rapture released in November 1980, was the first Rap song the vast majority of people ever heard, in fact it wasn't even called Rap then, it was just known as Street Rapping in the Ghettos of NYC, but it took the then #1 Band in the world to break this musical format wide open. Rapture from the 1980 album Autoamerican also produced another #1 Chart topping first, The Tide is High, was a reggae influenced smash, again a music format that millions never heard until Blondie broke it wide open. GROUNDBREAKING, Blondie scored 3 straight #1 singles in 1980 in USA, Canada and the UK.

Materpiece rock songs like One Way or Another, Dreaming, Call Me and Atomic are simply delicious and infectious songs, you can listen to them over and over. Never dated.

Included on this album, was the European Mash Up Smash that reached European top 20 charts in feb 2006 with Rapture Riders and also hit #10 US Billboard Dance charts in 2006. The mash up uses the #1 Blondie Classic with The Doors "Riders on the storm" track, and poof, you have literally one of the best rated Mashups ever produced.

Heart of Glass & Call Me were the definitive songs that influenced and open the doors for the UK Invasion of Electro Pop of the early 80's. The very fact that Heart of Glass and Call Me were the #1 International selling songs of 1979 and 1980 respectively is now a matter of music history fact. Blondie's music still in 2006, is FRESH and still CREATIVE, and nothing coming out today can compete with the their diversity, songwriting, edgy cool, or depth.

No rock music fan should be without this album, and the added DVD doesn't hurt either. Blondie were in fact the first rock band in history to release an full length video album for 1979's classic album "Eat to the Beat", which was grammy nominated, so the videos are cool and mega sexy with Goddess Deborah Harry, the original Madonna.

Blondie Fun Facts

......Call Me #1-6wks in the Usa #1 Song of 1980 and #42 charted song all time

......Heart of Glass 6 Million copies sold Internationally

......Rapture has gone Top Ten in 3 decades, with 3 different Blondie versions in the USA Billboard Dance Charts (80/90/00's)

.......Maria debuted at #1 19years after Blondie's last UK #1 IN 1999, making DEBORAH HARRY the oldest female then at 55 years to have a #1 record.

If you're already asking yourself, `Do I really need another Blondie compilation?' then I must tell you that the answer is most definitely "Yes!" This is the most comprehensive collection the band has delivered in their thirty-year history. No, it's not a box set of rarities, it's a two-disc set with one disc of "sound" that contains their greatest hits of the past three decades and one DVD disc of "vision" that provides solid proof of why this amazing New York-based band, fronted by Debbie Harry, was recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Of course, the obvious hits are here, beginning with the song that put them on the worldwide map - the #1 smash "Heart Of Glass." Other #1 smash records that follow are the Deborah Harry/Giorgio Moroder penned "Call Me," the reggae-tinged "The Tide Is High" and "Rapture," which made them the first new wave turned mainstream band to have a #1 rap song, not to mention by a female lead. The widely exposed "One Way Or Another" is here along with the 1979 classic "Dreaming" and the 1999 rocker "Maria." In between those obvious inclusions are tracks that have become Blondie staples ranging from their 1976 debut single "Rip Her To Shreds," through 2003's "Good Boys" with a new mix added in 2005. Other masterpieces include "Atomic," which topped the charts in the UK in 1979, "Sunday Girl," a new remix of "In The Flesh," "Denis," "Picture This," "Fade Away And Radiate," "Hanging On The Telephone," "Union City Blue," "Island Of Lost Souls" "End To End" and a new single that's burning up the clubs as I write this, "Rapture Riders," billed as Blondie VS. The Doors, with the classic 1981 track mixed with the phenomenal Doors' 1971 epic "Riders On The Storm." Everything old is brand new again and sounding fresher than ever. The DVD of their performance videos include most of what's on the CD with the inclusion of "Detroit 442," and a personal favorite "The Hardest Part." The Bonus DVD track is a UK version of the Blondie VS. The Doors' "Rapture Riders." It's inevitable that Blondie will one day deliver a box set of hits and rarities in one package, but until they do, pick up this "Sound & Vision" set, and hear and see why Blondie was, and is, one of the most important rock and roll bands of all-time.

To go along with their well-deserved induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, Blondie released this 2-disc Greatest Hits (CD+DVD) collection, and it's a package that does justice to Debbie Harry and the band's legacy.

Of course, Debbie Harry is obviously the star here. Mixing little-girl enthusiasm with a punk-ish new wave attitude and her ex-Playboy Bunny sexuality, she blossomed into a beautiful and fascinating superstar who always remained true to her feminine spirit. Where Madonna and Pat Benatar sold out an important element of their femininity in exchange for power, Debbie seemed only to do what came natural to her and let the universe just take care of itself.

Greatest Hits (CD+DVD) has the classics; Call Me, Heart Of Glass, One Way Or Another, The Tide Is High, Dreaming, Atomic, Rapture, Sunday Girl, and more (all digitally remastered, but single edits). Also included here are new remixes of In The Flesh and Good Boys, which are enjoyable, but not particularly any better than the originals. Rapture Riders, a new "Blondie vs. The Doors" mashup that mixes Blondie's Rapture with The Doors' Riders On The Storm, is really cool though.

The videos are essential. They're sexy and fun, but also show a certain vulnerability and honesty that has always been an intriguing part of Debbie Harry's charismatic personality. The liner notes aren't much; very little song information, the album cover images, and that's about it.

There is the single-disc Blondie - Greatest Hits from 2002, and it's a little cheaper; but even though it includes two songs that aren't here (X Offender and I'm Always Touched By Your Presence Dear), I still recommend this one because it has the new remixes and the video DVD.

"...Tonight, make it magnificent."

Blondie have finally got the respect they truly deserve. Seeing them inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was pretty cool (they even had an onstage snit to prove they were still loaded with attitude), and this collection is just frosting on the beater.

On the plus side, you get three interesting "new" items. There's a previously unavailable mix of "Good Boys" (from "The Curse of Blondie" CD), a new mix of "In The Flesh" (which doesn't better the original) and an outrageous mash-up of The Doors Vs Blondie with "Rapture Riders" (and its accompanying video!). The interesting thing about the new "In The Flesh" is that you can imagine the new breed of Rock/pop goddesses like Gwen Stefani of Brittany Spears tackling it - and knowing they wouldn't have a peroxided molecule of the sass that Debbie Harry has.

Blondie was always about flash and glamour, which is what made their best albums ("Parallel Lines" and "Eat To The Beat") so charmingly eclectic and their best singles so earth shattering. They were the first "new-wave" band to score a number one with -- Fer crying out loud -- a disco song, and were the very first band to chart a hit rap song that mashed-up rap and pop. (It was nearly 6 years later that Run-DMC would share video space with the resurgent Aerosmith.) Even the lesser known singles are killer. "The Hardest Part" has got to be the fiercest Debbie Harry vocal, and the French/English version of "Denis" is a lost classic.

The DVD is a hoot. It is kind of striking to see these primitive MTV era bits from "Heart Of Glass" and "Rapture." It's worth it just to see the band in their young and hungry stages...hard to believe that the band that recorded the terrific "Maria" were in their 50s. All great archival material.

Minor quibble - single edits. But these were SMASH singles, and it just goes to show you that there is no shame in being a pop band, and there is also no reason a pop band can't have a major impact on popular culture. Thanks to this new CD/DVD set from Blondie, you can now join in with those who call the music of Debbie Harry and company a pleasure without using the word "guilty" as a preface. Although the 2002 "Greatest Hits" is probably a better CD for the casual listener, for us fans, this is absolutely worth the bucks.

A terrific collection of their greatest hits. Excellent sound quality and comes with a bonus dvd! Although, the re-make of "In The Flesh" I thought was boring and rather dull. Should have just put the original on the line-up and left it alone. It was their first break through hit and the original recording is really pretty. The original recording of "Good Boys" should have been put on there as well. I think the whole thing would be truly excellent had they done that. Otherwise, great collection for Blondie fans and the non alike!

I bought this solely for the DVD. I enjoyed it a lot, really. It made me wish they'd release "Eat to the Beat" as a DVD (that way we'd get the rest of it.) So, I'm 'still waiting'.

Just in time for their induction into the Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame comes this new Blondie collection that showcases some of the band's most popular, influential songs, material from their recent releases and a mash-up with one of the bands that influenced them. "Sound & Vision," like most Best Of sets is both a good introduction to the band's music and a well-assembled collection for the casual listener who likes Blondie, but enough to purchase every album. There is no doubt that Debbie Harry and the gang not only produced good music, but were one of the main reasons why we have real chick rockers like Shirley Manson, Gwen Stefani and yes, Madonna. Befire Princess Diana ever graced magazine covers, Harry was the most photographed woman in the world but a real Punk at heart, posing at times with such figures as Joey Ramone and Iggy Pop (eventhough at one point Patti Smith told her to "get the f--k out of rock n' roll"). "Sound And Vision" nicely shows what all the fuss was about in the late 70's through mid-80's. A lot of the songs have survived the test of time with a real sense of fun and energy like "Call Me" with it's roaring chorus and electro sheen while "Heart Of Glass" is still a classic jam, disco has died and yet this song remains. "Rapture" is still a long, dreamy anthem that brought hip-hop to a wider audience before Aerosmith and Run DMC ever broke the barrier of rock and rap. Newer material is also present here, "Maria" was a single off the band's 1999 album "No Exit," but it still has that classic Blondie sound. However I do believe listeners are cheated here when it comes to the song "Good Boys" off their latest release, "The Curse Of Blondie." The original version is a great song, but the remix here makes the song kind of cold and hollow, the same for the "In The Flesh" remix which rips the song apart, turning it into cold, techno sludge. Luckily there is one worthy remix present, "Rapture Riders," which brilliantly meshes "Rapture" with The Doors' "Riders On The Storm." Both songs flow perfectly together and it's a fitting combination since Blondie have always named The Doors as a prime influence and favorite band. Too bad Jim Morrison died in 1972, you get the feeling he and Harry would have done a marvelous duet. The extra DVD that comes with the set is a must for Blondie fans, many of the band's videos are included for classics like "Heart Of Glass," "The Tide Is High" and even the recent videos for "Maria" and "Good Boys." "Sight In Sound" a fun ride through the Blondie catalogue and a must for collectors of classic rock anthologies, and a neat teaching tool for those who wanna know why girls like Gwen, Shirley and even Britney have been scandalous and glamorous and know how to pull it off and who they learned it from.