Album Greatest Hits (BLONDIE). Songs and videos online

Greatest Video Hits, released in conjunction with the audio CD Greatest Hits, is an expanded version of the 1981 VHS home video The Best of Blondie, which was released to complement the album of the same name. Blondie's heyday occurred just prior to the explosion of music videos caused by the founding of MTV in 1981, but as an international success the band cut a series of performance clips of its singles to be shown on local TV shows around the world. Thus, they are glimpsed in studios pretending to perform such favorites as "Picture This" and "Heart of Glass." Since the group's focal point, visually as much as musically, was the photogenic Debbie Harry, the lack of production values doesn't hurt; the videos are really about Harry's good looks and cascade of blonde hair. There are omissions among the group's hits: "Call Me," played during a taxi sequence that ties the videos together, doesn't really have its own clip, nor does "Sunday Girl," which comes at the end, and there is no representation at all for "One Way or Another." By the time of "The Tide Is High" and "Rapture," the videos are becoming more elaborate, and among the bonus videos is 1982's "Island of Lost Souls," which finds the band cavorting on a Caribbean beach. The final song is "Maria" from Blondie's 1999 reunion, which fudges the aging of the bandmembers with distracting effects and various film stocks. But the best videos are the early ones.