Look Back at Debbie Harry's Era of Punk Super-Stardom
On the punk icon’s birthday, celebrate Harry in all her glory with young photos of the “Heart of Glass” singer.
Rejecting the popular showgirl motif of the time, Debbie Harry, the iconic bleach-blonde punk frontwoman of Blondie, represented a new sort of woman in the 1970s.
In her young years from the 1960s to the early 1970s, Harry is almost unrecognizable with brunette hair much darker than the bleached locks for which she'd become known. A recent college graduate, Harry worked as a waitress, a secretary, and even as a Playboy Bunny at the New York club before joining girl rock group The Stilettos, through which she would meet co-founder and romantic interest, Chris Stein. While she was playing with The Stilettos, Stein, who joined the band as a guitarist, was instantly drawn to Harry for her expressive personal style, spontaneity, and talent.
The two then broke off from the band in 1974 to form their own group with Billy O’Connor and Fred Smith. They originally played as The Angel and the Snake before being renamed in Harry’s image after she had dyed her hair peroxide blonde and received a slew of comments from catcalling truck drivers screaming “Hey, Blondie.” The rest is music history. By eclectically mixing the genres of pop, rock, early rap, and reggae, the band was a pioneer in the American punk and new wave scene and quickly broke into international stardom both in the United States as well as the U.K. and Europe.
Harry’s life in the decade that followed is that of a super-stardom fairytale. From being closely acquainted with Andy Warhol himself, to filming music videos with Basquiat, to touring with David Bowie, the bleached blonde talent left her mark on pop culture history. On the punk icon’s 78th birthday, celebrate Harry in all her glory with young photos of the “Heart of Glass” singer from her rise in the 1970s and 1980s.