by Blondie and Talking Heads were pioneers of the New Wave in New York City, bringing a brand of ‘intellectual dance’ to the deprived scene of the delapidated 1970s, but who was the most successful of the two bands?
Both Blondie and Talking Heads were not only groovy groundbreakers. They were oddities, too. They were somehow radical, yet they weren’t averse to pop hits, straddling the strange, unknown territory between punk and being professional hit-making like, well, nobody else before them.
The two bands started side by side in New York, performing at the iconic and gorgeously grotty music club, the CBGB, in the 1970s, and quickly grew into something between global sensations and cult creations. The two friendly bands developed side by side, like the odd allies of pop subversion, and even collaborated on some occasions. But while they had very similar beginnings, when it comes to commercial success, their stories are as different as Canada and Cameroon in the ice hockey stakes, despite the present narrative that places them on the same podium.
Blondie and Talking Heads formed in the mid-1970s, with Blondie starting in 1974 and Talking Heads slinking onto the sticky-carpet scene the following year. In their early years, they were both underground bands, quite literally, lingering in the bowels of seedy basement clubs, developing a significant cult fan base. But it all changed in 1978, when Blondie released Parallel Lines, their third studio album, which catapulted them into glitzy global semi-stardom.
Hits like ‘Heart of Glass’ and ‘One Way or Another’ quickly became anthems, pushing punk onto the radio at long bloody last, and their star only rose from there. Parallel Lines was followed by the critically acclaimed Eat to the Beat, and when they released the song ‘Call Me’ in 1980 for the soundtrack of the film American Gigolo, it cemented their status as a peroxide international sensation.
Blondie finally broke up in 1982, marred by drugs, and singer Debbie Harry went on to pursue sobriety and a moderately successful solo career. But when they regrouped in 1997, it was almost as if no time had passed. Their first album after reuniting, No Exit, was a roaring success, with its first single, ‘Maria’, topping the charts, ensuring that their commercial credit continued into a new era.
How do Talking Heads match up?
Talking Heads’ ascent to fame was vastly different and a lot more gradual. They enjoyed a moderate success as a local group in New York and released several inspired albums through the 1970s. Alas, inspired albums don’t always equal an influx of cash. Just ask the Velvet Underground before them.
But thankfully, David Byrne’s band’s first commercial breakthrough finally came in 1983 with the release of Speaking in Tongues, a cracking collaboration with legendary producer Brian Eno. The album included the hit ‘Burning Down the House,’ which finally brought them the chart recognition they’d been working hard for for years, despite signing, “Never for money, always for love.”
The next year, though, was their most successful year as a band. In 1984, Talking Heads released Stop Making Sense, a live album which contained the band’s biggest hit to date, ‘Psycho Killer.’ 1985 saw the release of Little Creatures, a worthy follow-up to the previous commercial success, with hits like ‘And She Was’ and ‘Road to Nowhere’ unabashedly stealing the spotlight with a poppy appeal to match any heavily mascara’d Top of the Pops star.
But who was more successful?
Both bands will go down in history as two of the biggest influences of their time, evident in the echoes modern bands like Midnight Rodeo, but when it comes to commercial success and international recognition, there is really no debate: Blondie takes the gold like candy from a baby. Debbie Harry’s band has sold over 40 million records worldwide, and Parallel Lines alone sold half of that. The fact that they are still active and touring surely contributes to their continued relevance in the music world and commercial sales to boot.
Meanwhile, Talking Heads, while just as influential and crucial to the CBGB movement, enjoyed less commercial success, with sales reaching around 10m worldwide. In addition to this, Blondie had several chart-topping hits throughout their career, but although songs like ‘Psycho Killer’ and ‘Road to Nowhere’ are forever classics destined to only gain even more airtime at indie discos, Talking Heads never reached number one on the charts.
Even so, these two bands were equally important for the New Wave rise, and when it comes to the generational impact they had, it’s really not fair to pit them one against the other. But in doing so, what this battle truly illuminates is the oddity of Talking Heads. Most fans would be startled to learn that the hugely influential group actually had cumulative sales from their entire discography outstripped by one single Footloose soundtrack. The world is a sham. Both acts deserved more than the slack public could give them.
