— David Hepworth
This issue of Smash Hits hit the British newsagents on April 17, 1980. On the same day, on the other side of the Atlantic, the New York Islanders defeated the Boston Bruins in overtime to take a decisive two-games-to-none lead in their National Hockey League playoff series. Two days later, Blondie's "Call Me" would hit the top of the Hot 100; a week after that it would also be at the top of the UK charts. At the same time, the Islanders were preparing to meet the Buffalo Sabres in the next round of the playoffs. On May 24, "Call Me" would be enjoying its sixth and final week at the top of the Billboard listings while the Islanders were busy defeating the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime to capture their first of four straight Stanley Cups.
A band's imperial period is not unlike a dynasty in sports. Said organization is at their peak, they inspire equal amounts of awe, envy and loathing in competitors and/or fans of other groups/teams and everything seems to go their way — even when they happen to release a so-so single or play a bad game. Not every Blondie song from the height of their popularity was a winner but their British fanbase loyally helped them have hit single after hit single (a rare exception can be found in the relative failure of the otherwise excellent "Union City Blue", though it does remain a firm fan favourite). The Islanders struggled during the 1980 and '83 regular seasons and found themselves on the brink of elimination at the hands of vastly inferior teams in the '82 and '84 playoffs yet they persevered, winning a remarkable nineteen playoff series in a row, a record that seems unlikely ever to be broken.
And yet, an imperial period or dynasty in one part of the world may mean nothing elsewhere. While "Call Me" seems to mark a shift from the British version of Blondie to a much more American iteration, their success in the UK never waned until "Island of Lost Souls" missed the top 10 while its accompanying album The Hunter badly under-performed — and even then, they retained enough interest over the years that their 1999 single "Maria" became an unexpected British chart topper. Their American success was much more sporadic with three number one singles and a handful of minor hits. Few in North America even knew the sublime "Atomic" until it appeared in the 1996 film Trainspotting and massive UK hits like "Denis" and "Sunday Girl" remain relatively obscure in Blondie's homeland. (If they had an American imperial period at all, it would have begun with the rise of "Call Me" only to level off barely a year later) Meanwhile, the Islanders were the toast of the hockey world in the early eighties yet their mystique disappeared outside of that specialist realm; ask the British who was the preeminent dynastic sports franchise of the time and they'd say it was Liverpool FC.
"Call Me" suggests that Blondie were on such a roll that they could take a subpar tune and turn it into a pretty good single. Famed disco producer Giorgio Moroder hadn't been present for "Heart of Glass" or "Atomic" but his influence was all over them. Ironically, his stamp is less obvious on the one song of their's that he did produce. Coming in a culture that suddenly had less time for disco, they wisely disguised "Call Me" in layers of guitars and gave it more of a rock beat (David Hepworth's observation that its chord change "could have walked straight out of Status Quo's "Break the Rules" (I kid you not)" is absolutely correct), possibly hinting at a return to a time when Blondie was a CBGB's act that did well in Australia and the UK but were no hopers in America. Well, not quite. While most of the record wouldn't have gone over well in the discotheques, its middle eight ("Anytime, anyplace, anywhere, any way,,,") followed by a synthetic instrumental part are very much in line with their dancier side.
This mix of styles makes for something of a mess but Debbie Harry and co. still understood how to craft great pop music so "Call Me" works quite well. Something vital would be missing from their admirable run of first rate singles if it had never been cut or if it had been made much more in line with the classics of their imperial period. Other Blondie hits feel part of a progression, from punk to new wave to disco but "Call Me" sticks out as a number out of time, with only its status as what a band at their most top-of-their-game arrogant could have the nerve to have recorded. Great song? Maybe but it's certainly the ultimate souvenir of the time.
This supposed rockier sound would be quickly abandoned as they returned to working with longtime producer Mike Chapman for the street smart Autoamerican and the singles "The Tide Is High" (lightweight but charming in its own right; it's one of the first songs I knew as a child so I've always had a soft spot for it) and "Rapture" (a great song ruined by Harry's awful rapping), their sole US number one that failed to repeat the trick in Britain. Imperial periods and dynasties all end up coming to an end: Blondie gave way to Michael Jackson, Madonna and Duran Duran while the Islanders would eventually bow out to Wayne Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers. It would be time for others to be at the top, to inspire awe, to be at a peak and to do well even when things aren't quite working out.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Paul McCartney: "Coming Up"
New wave Macca. "Coming Up" owes so much to clipped, post-punk pop-rock of the late seventies that it feels like a pastiche (a suspicion that only grows after watching the amusing video). Probably McCartney's best single since "Listen to What the Man Said", it nevertheless is a worrying indicator that he was running out of ideas of his own at this early a stage of what would turn out to be a creatively barren decade. John Lennon famously heard it as a sign that his former partner was sounding vital for the first time in ages and it prompted him to get his own muse in gear for his bittersweet return at the end of the year. It just goes to show you that they were never the same without each other, doesn't it?
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