I wonder who had this on their 1999 bingo cards? New-wave icons Blondie stage a comeback, release their first single since 1982, and it only goes and makes number one…
Maria, by Blondie (their 6th and final #1)
1 week, from 7th – 14th February 1999
Okay, the first part had already happened in 1997, with the band spending much of 1998 on tour. But surely nobody expected this… Exactly twenty years since ‘Heart of Glass’ became their first chart-topper, and over eighteen since ‘The Tide Is High’ became what most assumed was their last.
‘Chocolate Salty Balls’ was a recent, perfect example of how to do a novelty hit. ‘Maria’ is, then, a textbook example of how to arrange a comeback smash. They’re still new-wave punks at heart, with razor sharp guitars in the intro and solo, Harry on top vocal form (for that chorus line needs belting out), and some trademark drum fills from Clem Burke. The subject matter also calls to mind earlier Blondie hits-about-girls, like ‘Sunday Girl’ and ‘Rip Her to Shreds’. But the production is clean, crisp, late-nineties alt-rock. A perfect balance that means ‘Maria’ could have come right in the middle of Blondie’s imperial phase; but that also guaranteed radio play in 1999. Plus, there’s wedding bells, which I don’t really get but sound great.
Who is ‘Maria’, though? One of rock’s great femme fatales, she was an imaginary woman, dreamed up by keyboard player Jimmy Destri, who had fantasised about such a girl while at a Catholic school. She sounds pretty high maintenance – She moves like she don’t care, Smooth as silk, Cool as air – but also like you’d give your right eye for her to just notice you. And the line about her Walking on imported air… has to be one of the coolest descriptions in rock ‘n’ roll. Ooh it makes you wanna die…
The slightly surprising thing here is that Blondie weren’t all that old in 1999… They were in their late forties/early fifties, which in 2024, when Beyonce and Eminem can still make number one, doesn’t seem that wild. Debbie Harry was fifty-three, which means she promptly usurps Cher (eleven months her junior) as the oldest female chart-topper. It also meant that Blondie joined a very select group of acts to have made #1 in three different decades, which in 1999 only numbered Cliff, Elvis, the Bee Gees, and Queen (and Paul McCartney, under various guises).
They have gone on to release four more albums since this comeback, the most recent coming in 2017. Chart hits have been harder to come by, but I would point you in the direction of their following lead single, 2003’s cracking ‘Good Boys’. I feel like a Blondie ‘Best of the Rest’ post is overdue…
Finally, we should mention that ‘Maria’ becomes the latest in a long, long line of chart-topping women. Off the top of my head we’ve had Tiffany, Frankie, Josephine, and Eleanor Rigby, but there are many, many more. Though, interestingly, number ones named after women seem to have been much more prevalent in the fifties and sixties than in the 1990s…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
I saw them in concert two years ago. Debbie was in her mid 70’s by then but she still put on a show that would put many younger singers to shame. A real icon
If any record had an irresistible hook to it, it was this one. It may not have sounded very late-1990s, and maybe that’s a good thing. Classic pop in the tradition of ’Sunday Girl’ and ‘Dreamin’’ – and it was like 1979 all over again!
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I think it does manage to sound both like it could have come from their heyday, but also like a late-90s rock song. Maybe that’s just the benefit of more modern production and equipment, than a stylistic choice, though.
It’s great to see Blondie at the top of the charts again. They were a huge band in the US during the late-70s/early 80s, but they were even bigger in the UK. I’ve actually never heard this song, though I know of it.
Wow, this rules. Awesome song. Great chorus. Love the backing vocals. Debbie Harry’s voice has only aged slightly – she still great on the track. It doesn’t sound really sound any different than what they were during in the late-70s. It would fit right in on Parallel Lines. Yet it also fits in with US post-alternative sound of the mid-to-late-90s. 90s-alt rock-flavoured power pop. I could see Matthew Sweet, Fountains of Wayne or Weezer doing something very similar.
Yes, they were always a bit bigger in the UK, and we gave them this one final number one (which only made #82 in the US). Further proof that the UK charts are better : )
Clem Burke has always been to me…Keith Moon’s more controlled brother. I love that man…he should be mentioned as one of the best in rock’s history.
Yes it was good to see Blondie back in action. They blended rock, new wave, reggae, and even a little of rap for a song.
Yeah I’d agree – his drum fills are as much a part of Blondie’s sound as Debbie Harry’s voice.
And they really were more experimental than people seem to remember. Rap, yes, reggae, electronic stuff, disco… One of my favourites is their 30s/40s jazz number ‘Here’s Looking at You’, which is weird but wonderful
I’ll take a listen to that…cool. They had quite a run in the late 70s…this sure was a bright spot for me compared to the ones leading up to it…well the Offspring one was good.
The next number one has guitars in it too! A golden age of rock and roll 😄
Awesome! Man it was some streak of dance tracks you had…I’m happy to hear it!
I was overjoyed to have Blondie back on top, Debs solo career had been sporadically good but never on fire. I caught them on tour twice in the 90’s and 00’s, and yet this wasn’t quite in the same league as their 70/80’s classics for me – though it’s still a great pop record. As you mention though Good Boys was fabulous and theyve had other top flop singles since then to add to their back catalogue, and which in an ideal world would be hits but for teenagers not being able to relate to records by 50 or 60 year olds (unless your name is David Guetta, Kylie Minogue, Madonna).
I’m not sure Kylie or Madonna hold much sway with the Gen Zs and Alphas… Sadly 😦 And I think people don’t realise how old David Guetta is, because he’s not front and center of his songs (and he’s a man, so gets away with the crime of being old…)