Which one is your favorite? - V -

I am happy to see that you are listening to the cover songs I am choosing for you and posting your comments on different platforms. Keep up the good work please. This week I am picking a song that I really like very much and the 3 covers below are quite different than one another, so I guess it will be a fun list.

Our song for today is:

"Heart of Glass"

Blondie members Debbie Harry and Chris Stein (who were a couple) wrote the first version of this song in early 1974, shortly after they first met. They didn't have a proper title for the song, and would refer to it as "The Disco Song." Harry explained on the show Words and Music: "Lyrically, it was about a stalker who was pursuing me, and Chris saved me from him."

It wasn't until they recorded this song in 1978 that Stein came up with the title "Heart Of Glass." He didn't know that it was also the title of a 1976 German movie directed by Werner Herzog.

Featured on the band's third studio album, Parallel Lines (1978), it was released as the album's third single in January 1979 and reached number one on the charts in several countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.

In December 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the song number 255 on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. It was ranked at number 259 when the list was updated in April 2010. Slant Magazine placed it at number 42 on their list of the greatest dance songs of all time and Pitchfork named it the 18th best song of the 1970s.

In 2018, "Heart of Glass" ranked at number 66 in the UK's official list of biggest selling singles of all-time with sales of 1.32 million copies.

A funny anecdote on the lyrics;

Finding words to rhyme to "glass" that fit in a song can be... a pain in the ass.

In the last chorus, following "Once I had a love and it was a gas," Debbie Harry takes a different tack, singing "Soon turned out to be a pain in the ass." This is a key line in the song, since the singer has now realized that this relationship is more trouble than it's worth, and that her heart of glass might be more durable than she thought.

Unfortunately, American radio was generally ass-free at this time, so to ensure airplay stations were sent an edited version with the offending line replaced with "soon turned out I had a heart of glass."

The beats were made with a Roland drum machine (a CR78) and you may watch the details of the production in the bonus video at the end of the post.

Here are the 3 versions I chose for you;

• Nouvelle Vague - "Heart Of Glass"

• The Bad Plus - "Heart Of Glass"

• Gisele & Bob Sinclar - "Heart of Glass"

One small note to the male followers, it is imperative that you concentrate on the music while making your choices and comments 😅...

And here is the bonus video about the production of the original song.

Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).

nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers...