She is a singer-songwriter and actress born Angela Tremble in Miami, Florida, and adopted when she was three months old by a family from Hawthorne, New Jersey. She graduated from high school in 1963 and a few years later went to work as a secretary in New York City at the offices for BBC Radio New York.
Changing her career direction she would be seen waitressing, dancing, being a Playboy Bunny and singing in the folk group the Wind in the Willows. The early ’70s saw her furthering her chosen profession of singing when she became a member of The Stilettos and it was here that she would meet her future boyfriend, the guitarist Chris Stein.
It came to 1974 and they decided to form Angel and the Snake, which would soon become the popular and internationally successful New Wave band, Blondie. She was catapulted into the limelight with her individual punk style of dress, stage presence and, of course, the dyed blonde hair. The group were a huge hit and were constantly in the charts with many of her co-written hits such as “Heart of Glass” throughout the last years of the 1970s, and up until 1981 when they took a hiatus.
At this point she recorded her first solo album, Koo Koo, before regrouping with the band in 1982 to record their sixth album, but this would be their last before they split up when Christ Stein became ill with a potentially fatal and rare disease. She stepped out of the public eye for several years, but in 1986 and 1989 released two further solo albums that produced hits such as “French Kissin’ in the USA” and “In Love With Love”.
The 1990s came around and suddenly there was a renewed interest in Blondie and many remixed singles and albums were released. At the same time this was all happening she was a member of the group The Jazz Passengers who made their last European tour in 1998 when she left to rejoin Blondie. This led to the group coming together again after 15 years and achieving hit status in 1999 with “Maria”, which made her the oldest female artist to have a UK No. 1 at age 53.
Still currently touring and recording with Blondie, she is also very involved in her solo singing career and working with a trio that she has formed. As an actress she has appeared on Broadway in Teaneck Tanzi, in films that include Videodrome, Union City, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, Cop Land, and Spun, and in TV shows such as Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, Absolutely Fabulous, Wiseguy and Saturday Night Live. She is also involved in the MAC AIDS campaign that helps HIV and AIDS sufferers worldwide.
In 2006 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Blondie.
Blondie recordings
Heart of Glass (Deborah Harry/Chris Stein)
11:59 (Jimmy Destri)
Here she is with Blondie singing “Hangin’ on the Telephone”…
Sources:
- http://www.deborahharry.com/
- http://www.deborah-harry.com/
- http://www.myspace.com/deborahharry_dot_com
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Harry
- http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/blondie
- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001323/