My top 10 Blondie songs

We get to see Blondie on Tuesday.

Here are my favourite 10 Blondie songs. The list is dominated, not surprisingly, by some from Parallel Lines (4) and Eat to the Beat (5)

An idea of the quality might some some of the songs that missed out: Picture This; Sunday Girl (I contemplated including the French version); Call Me; The Tide is High; and Maria.

Originally getting their break as one of the bands coming out of New York in the mid 1970s, Blondie always liked to try different styles.

Their first hit anywhere was 'In the Flesh' which went to #2 after Molly Meldrum played it on Countdown, The song was the B side to 'X Offender'. The are questions whether Molly accidentally played it, although with Molly's ear for a hit he probably realised it was much more likely to be a hit than the A side.

My favourite Blondie songs are when they mix rock & dance, and nobody does it as well as they did. And for that another Australian, there producer Mike Chapman deserves much of the credit.

#1 - Atomic 

1980 - Eat to the Beat - (Deborah Harry & Jimmy Destri) - US #39; UK #1; Australia #12

Billy Bragg says that whenever a Musicologist asks him what his songs are about, he says 'shagging'. And when they ask 'even Between the Wars?' he replies 'yes, even Between the Wars'.

So much of rock is about having sex and this is the best rock/pop about having sex.

The song fits brilliantly into the Trainspotting sex when Mark & Diane; Tommy & Lizzie and Spud Gail are having sex, or almost had sex in Spud & Gail's case (although the film makers couldn't get the rights to the Blondie version and instead used a cover by Sleeper).

#2 - Heart of Glass

1979 - Parallel Lines - (Deborah Harry & Chris Stein) - US #1; UK #1; Australia #1

Right from the get to this is a great song. The mix of rock and disco is simply fantastic. Thankfully it wasn't recorded in a reggae style as originally planned.

#3 - The Hardest Part

1980 - Eat to the Beat - (Deborah Harry & Chris Stein) - US #84

Only released as a single in the US (Union City Blue was released as a single elsewhere).

It tells the story of an armored car robbery. Again a fantastic mix of rock with a dance beat. Should have been a big hit.

#4 - Rapture

1981 - Autoamerican - (Deborah Harry & Chris Stein) -  US #1; UK #5; Australia #5

Famous for being the #1 to have some rap it. The rap part of Rapture is pretty ordinary in my opinion, However the rest of the song is fantastic.

It is an example of how the band varied with different musical styles.

#5 - Union City Blue

1979 - Eat to the Beat - (Deborah Harrison & Nigel Harrison) - UK #13

Released as the second single from Eat to the Beat, everywhere apart from the US (where The Hardest Part was released).

Apparently Debbie wrote the song after having a part in the Union City.

#6 - Slow Motion

Not released as a single - Eat to the Beat - (Laura Davis & Jimmy Destri)

Apparently this was going to the be the 4th single released from Eat to the Beat, but the plan was shelved when 'Call Me' from the movie 'American Gigolo' became a hit.

One of Blondie's favourite musical styles was the all girl pop band style, This is their best song in that style.

#7 - 11:59

Not released as a single - Parallel Lines - (Jimmy Destri)

For a long time was my favourite song on Parallel Lines. Would have made a good single, however that album was crammed full of great singles. Debbie's voice sounds out of control, which fits in beautifully with the song.

#8 - Hanging on the Telephone

1978 - Parallel Lines - (Jack Lee) - UK #5;  Australia #39

The 4th single from Parallel Lines (their were six singles released from that one album)

A cover of a song by The Nerves

#9 - Will Anything Happen

Not released as a single - Parallel Lines - (Jack Lee)

I don't know anything about the song. As close to their punk roots as Blondie got on Parallel Lines.

# 10 - Dreaming

1980 - Eat to the Beat - (Deborah Harry & Chris Stein) - US #27; UK #2; Australia #53

The first single released from Eat to the Beat. Much poppier than anything on Parallel Lines.

This is the Blondie song used in Trainspotting 2.

Rugby League Rules I'd like to Change

In the 1985 Grand Final the Bulldogs put up 5 consecutive bombs and tackled a St George Dragons (ahhh I remember them) player in the in goal area. This resulted in 5 consecutive goal line drop outs. The Dragons only got the ball back by successfully tying a short drop out.

The following are some rules Rugby League rules I'd like to change. The first, third, fourth and fifth points mentioned are the rules I'd like most to change.

Penalise players who use lead with their heads into tackles - If you get a tackle wrong and your bicep hits an opposition player in the head you can get penalised, put on report or even sent off. However if you get a tackle really wrong and you smash your head into theirs you don't get penalised. In fact in a lot of cased you get the ball back when the opposition player knocks on and have the opposition down to 16 players. Some players just don't seem to care if they make contact with their head (eg Josh Miller) and some players seem to do it deliberately (I'm looking at you Nate Myles and yes, even my beloved James Graham). If you penalise them for it, it would stop it quick smart. And the game needs to get serious about concussions. I don't mean to penalise those situations where an attacking player makes a sudden switch and a defender has no chance to make a correction. This is what I want to stop.

Bring back the send off rule - Oh it's still on the books apparently. Well use it occasionally then.

Put players in the Sin Bin who are put on report - Players are put in the Bin for for professional fouls but not dirty play, which is just ridiculous. If a player is put on report they should should be sent to the Bin, If the video ref thinks they don't have a case to answer they can come straight back on. Othwerwise it's a 5 minute time out. Indeed I'd even consider that if the video ref thinks it warrants it, that the offending player is not allowed back on after the 5 minutes, but that his team can go back to having 13 players.

Replacing players injured because of foul play - Teams should be allowed to carry extra reserves on the bench. If a player is injured because of foul play and can't continue, a replacement reserve is allowed. My views on the previous 3 points are well summed up by this incident involving Tyson Frizell & Tim Browne

Getting rid of golden point - Who was the bright spark who bought this in? Nobody was calling for it. There are very few draws each season and when they do occur they are entertaining. They definitely shouldn't be used in semi finals or grand finals (at least until an extra 10 minutes has been played). I'm not sure if this rule was changed after the Broncos vs Cowboys grand final. It should have been changed after the Broncos vs Dragons semi final a few years before that.

Get rid of the 40/20 - yes I know that this brings about attacking opportunities, but teams shouldn't be stuck in their own 40 on the last tackle. And why if you support this rule is is only 40/10 and not 50/10 or 30/30 or 20/40. Rugby League is a running game, If I wanted to watch a game with teams kicking away possession I'd watch Rugby Yawn-a-thon.

Get rid of the 7 tackle rule for kicks that have gone dead, when the kick came from inside the attacking 20 - The idea of the rule was good. Teams were banging from around the halfway line (I think the practice was started by that miserable Jamie Soward). They didn't mind giving a 20 metre restart as they could set a good defensive line. However no teams means to kick when inside the opposition 20.

Get rid of 7 tackles when missing a field goal - introduced when the rule above was introduced. Ridiculous that 7 tackles can be given when a team misses a field goal late in a game, although this rule has worked in the Bulldogs favour a number of times.

Tries for bombs can not be scored where ball comes off an attacking player and hits the ground - I hate those tries where the bomb goes up, it's tapped back and hits the ground, there is a scramble and a try is scored. If the ball is batted back to a team mate who catches it before it hits the ground, all well & good.

If a kickoff goes out on the full, the penalty from half way has to be a tap (eg no kick for goal or kicking for touch) - This is already a big enough penalty without tacking on 30 more metres (I'd be tempted to say the same for kicks kick offs that don't go 10 metres, but would want to make sure this rule didn't lead to a surge in short kick offs).

Don't penalise teams the non-kickoff team who touches a ball that hasn't gone 10 metres from the kickoff - I hate those short kick offs that just dribble over the 10 metre line and the defensive team can't make a play for the ball until it gets to the 10 metre line. It's a stupid rule.

Get rid of the 6 again rule - I hate when a team puts in a terrible squib kick on the 6th tackle and gets rewarded with 6 again when the defending team can't cleanly regather. Also 6 again on the first tackle gives the attacking team no real benefit and yet if it occurs on the first tackle there is a massive benefit. The way around this is to give an extra 3 tackles (eg you would get 9 tackles).

Following a knock on when the opposition regather the ball it is open slather and if it doesn't work out they get the ball back - I think that was used in the Nines and might be used in the UK. It would encourage the team regathering the ball to play some entertaining football knowing if it doesn't pan out that they will still retain possession.

Reversing penalties - Braith Anasta holds down David Fa'alago for too long. Fa'alago punches Anasta in the head and gets 10 in the Bin, Fa'alago gets the penalty. As Anasta says to the ref 'You're off your head!'. When the secondary offence is so much more severe than the original penalty, it should be reversed (also how wasn't Fa'alago sent off). Also I'd reverse penalties for players who throw the ball at other players or mockingly pat them etc (unless the person doing the mocking is Mick Ennis).

Don't test for marijuana - It's not a performance enhancer. If I was a club CEO and one of players was using it I'd be concerned, but a player shouldn't be suspended because of it.

Stop banning players for non-violent indescretions - The Todd Carney bubbler incident might leave a bitter taste in your mouth, but you shouldn't be able to sack a player over such an incident.

Parramatta and St George to have criminally inept leadership - Ok. This one has been taken care of.

A rule I would have introduced but is now to late to do so: Send of for shoulder charges that are high and with steep suspensions - It's too late to do it now because the shoulder charge is banned, I wouldn't have gone this far. Some players were brilliant at using the shoulder charge (SBW) and other smaller players (Chis Sandow) could never hit a player in the head with it. But I fear that changing this rule would lead to law suits.