This week in 1979 “Blondie” topped the singles chart in the UK with Heart of Glass. Featured on the band’s third studio album, Parallel Lines. The song was originally called ‘Once I Had a Love’ and was inspired by The Hues Corporation’s disco hit, Rock the Boat. A 12-inch single version of “Heart of Glass” was first released in December 1978. Some radio stations in the United States were reluctant to play the song because of the “pain in the ass” lyric, so an edited 7-inch single was released in January 1979. The original album version was released as a single in the UK where the BBC bleeped out the word “ass”. Lead singer Debbie Harry told The Guardian:
“At first, the song kept saying: ‘Once I had a love, it was a gas. Soon turned out, it was a pain in the ass.’ We couldn’t keep saying that, so we came up with: ‘Soon turned out, had a heart of glass.’ We kept one ‘pain in the ass’ in – and the BBC bleeped it out for radio.”
Heart of Glass was a mega hit around the world and, apart from topping the chart in the UK, also made number 1 in the USA, New Zealand, Canada, Switzerland and West-Germany.