Before hitting it big, Blondie went by another name. But their time as Angel and the Snake in the early '70s before they came to embody punk, new wave, and Debbie Harry's signature look was fleeting.
Their transformation into the legendary moniker was sparked by an offhand remark. Before their ascent to fame and chart-topping success, Debbie and guitarist Chris Stein were just an ambitious duo in the gritty New York music scene, seeking to break away from their former band, the Stilletos and forge a fresh musical direction.
Debbie Harry's decision to go blonde led to unsolicited calls from passers-by, particularly from truck drivers who'd yell "Hey, Blondie!" in her direction. It didn't take long for her to relay these encounters to Chris, thus cementing the band's iconic name.
Looking back, Chris reminisced, "[The name came] just from what people yelled at Debbie. Debbie came home one day with her hair dyed blonde and then told me within a week or so truck drivers were yelling, 'Hey, Blondie!' at her all the time."
Debbie herself shared the tale during a 2014 interview, revealing the couple's exploration of different band names and how Blondie ultimately won out due to its simplicity and stickiness.
"Chris and I tried out a few [band] names," she said. "One was Angel and the Snake, but I wasn't sure it was easy to remember.
"One day, I was walking across Houston Street and someone yelled 'Blondie' at me. I thought, 'Jeez, that's quite easy to remember.'."
The band's eponymous title took off, fitting their unadorned, emphatic musical style. However, fans soon linked the name Blondie with Debbie Harry's iconic visage rather than the group as a whole - leading to some to believe Blondie was actually a solo act.
The band was keen to make sure they all got their fair share of recognition, and label Private Stock launched a campaign in the '70s that boldly proclaimed: "Blondie is a group!". This declaration was emblazoned on merchandise such as t-shirts, posters, and badge buttons, with vibrant pink wording set against stark black. By the time their third album Parallel Lines catapulted them to global fame, powered by smash tracks like Heart of Glass, that misconception was well and truly a thing of the past.
Despite the real story being a matter of public record, over the years some have come up with their own interpretations. One particularly unpleasant rumour claims they were named after Hitler's dog, an assumption that gained enough traction for Chris Stein to refute it in an interview in 2017, clarifying: "The Hitler's dog thing? I don't know if I knew about that [then]. There's no 'e' on Hitler's dog's name; it was B-l-o-n-d-i."
The group had once humorously considered renaming themselves as Adolf Hitler's Dog as a joke - but thankfully this idea never got off the ground.
