Blondie’s Deborah Harry celebrates 70!

After celebrating 70 rotations of the sun on July 2 this week there is little denying that Deborah Harry has led a colourful life.

As the lead singer of Blondie she has spent almost 50 years in the spotlight and her peroxide locks and sharp bone structure have made her a sex symbol for a generation.

Debbie has certainly ventured far from her roots as the adopted daughter of souvenir shop owners in Hawthorne, New Jersey.

As a young woman in the 1960s Harry did a stint working as a waitress at the Playboy Club before pursuing a career in music.

Shortly thereafter, Deborah and then-boyfriend Chris Stein formed Blondie, naming it after the term of address men often called her when she would walk by them.

The band was a considered a pioneer in the early American new wave and punk scenes of the mid-late 1970s.

Blondie’s first two albums were much loved in the United Kingdom and Australia – Molly Meldrum was the first to play Blondie’s ‘In The Flesh’ from their debut album on his TV show Countdown back in 1977 which became their very first hit song anywhere in the world.

But at this time the band was still regarded as an underground band in the United States until the release of Parallel Lines in 1978.

Over the next three years, the band’s popularity skyrocketed with hits like ‘Call Me’, ‘Atomic’ and ‘Heart of Glass’.

And with the fame came the rock n’ roll lifestyle.

Debbie toured partied with the rich and famous, the likes of David Bowie, Iggy Pop, the Ramones and she also unintentionally managed to encounter another rather infamous figure in New York.

In 2010 Harry told the UK’s Telegraph how she escaped the clutches of a serial killer and rapist after accepting a ride from the stranger in New York City.

“I looked down and there were no door handles. The inside of the car was stripped. The hairs on the back of my neck just stood up. I wiggled my arm out of the window and pulled the door handle from the outside. I don’t know how I did it, but I got out. He tried to stop me by spinning the car but it sort of helped me fling myself out. Afterwards I saw him on the news. Ted Bundy.”

While this claim hasn’t been formally verified Harry has shared the anecdote on more than one occasion and maintains she could have been one of the mass killer’s 30 victims.

But Harry could have been the cause of her own demise.

In an interview with a UK radio station in 2011 Deborah admitted to being a drug addict in the 1980s but she said she overcame those experiences with rehab and said she was an “idiot” for not feeling like they were affecting her wellbeing.

“I’m glad I’ve had all the radical experiences in life. Am I still imbibing? No, I’ve run the gamut. For me it turned into not so much fun, it just wears thin. I was one of those idiots who thought they were going to live forever,” Harry said.

In that same interview Harry was asked about how she felt about getting older which she described as being “hard”.

“Regardless of what I say about trying to be better at what I do, I rely on looks a lot. Women’s calling cards, unfortunately, are based on their looks,” Deborah said.

“As far as ageing goes, it’s rough. I’m trying my best now. I’m healthy and I exercise like a fiend and do all that stuff that recovered drug addicts do.”

While she might find the process difficult there’s no denying at 70 Deborah Harry still looks great.

The Queen of Punk hasn’t lost her appeal, still rocking her radical animal prints, metallic ensembles and signature bleached-blonde hair and waving the flag for women in the music business.

Here is a look back at the best of Debbie Harry.

Blondie singer Deborah harry turns 70! Here she is circa 1978.

Debbie Harry circa 1980.

Chris Stein (in striped shirt), Jimmy Destri (in gray shirt with sunglasses), Debbie Harry (in Starliner 77 t-shirt), Gary Valentine (in black suit) and Clem Burke (in polka dot shirt) of the rock and roll band ‘Blondie’ pose for a portrait session at the Bel Air Sand Hotel in 1977 in Los Angeles, California in 1977.

Deborah Harry by Frank Micelotta in 1989.

Deborah Harry holds her plaque at the induction of her band Blondie into Hollywood’s Rockwalk in Hollywood 22 May 2006.

Deborah Harry with Blondie band as the hold their first U.S. concert in 17 years at New York’s Town Hall in ’99.

Singer Debbie Harry as ‘Blondie’ performs onstage in April 1977 in Los Angeles, California.

Leopard Lady: Harry at the Paradiso in Amsterdam in 1989.

Debbie Harry and Steve Rubell at Studio 54 circa 1980 in New York City.

Actor Richard Gere and musician Debbie Harry of Blondie attend the Art Against AIDS cocktail party benefit on June 4, 1987 at Sotheby’s in New York City.