in 1979 she alone made it mod to whisper "Come hither" when everybody else in her circle was screaming "Get back" or "Go crazy."

Blondie were a manifestation of the love story of Debbie Harry and guitarist-songwriter Chris Stein -- a superbly romantic art project, aided and abetted by their urbane garage-band mates. Stein and the boys dug up and refurbished the thrift-store riffs and mood melodies as raiment for Harry, who boosted her light, sweet voice with whatever B-movie-heroine inflections were needed -- noir, sci-fi, horror, sexploitation.

Greatest Hits includes songs from every one of Blondie's original run of albums from 1977 to 1982 and adds "Maria" from their recent re-formation. By not packing one sharp shock after another, as older anthologies did, this sequence allows time to catch the interplay of wits and winks. Dropping into the wild-style hip-hop dream of "Rapture" was no more of a stretch than the tropical fantasy of "Island of Lost Souls" or the kink heartbreak of "X Offender." Blondie's tacky organ, disco synthesizers, space guitars and ageless It girl perform a spoof on rock 'n' dance classics that became classic itself.

MILO MILES
(RS 907 - October 17, 2002)