Blondie: Against The Odds 1974-1982 The Official Box Set Announced

The first complete compilation from the legendary band, who have sold over 40 million albums worldwide.

Pre-order deadline: June 8th, 2022. Out on August 26th, 2022.

Blondie: Against the Odds

Blondie marks a career milestone in what has been another big year for the New York legends with the publication of the first-ever authorized and in-depth archive in their history, a rare for a band nearly 50 years into their career with 40 million records sold. Blondie: Against The Odds 1974-1982 will be released on August 26th by UMe and The Numero Group, and pre-orders are already available.

  • 124 tracks / 36 previously unissued
  • Two volumes of liner notes, track by track commentary, illustrated discography, and dozens of previously unpublished photos
  • Remastered from the original analog tapes, vinyl cut at Abbey Road Studios
  • Super Deluxe Collectors’ Edition (10xLP, 1×7″, 1×10″ in Red, White, and Black vinyl formats), Deluxe 4LP, Deluxe 8CD, and 3CD Editions

This massive box collection, remastered from the original analog tapes and cut at Abbey Road Studios, is available in four forms (Super Deluxe Collectors’ Edition, Deluxe 4LP, Deluxe 8CD, and 3CD editions). Against The Odds comes in a foil-wrapped carton and includes Erin Osmon’s extensive liner notes, track-by-track commentary from Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Clem Burke, Jimmy Destri, Nigel Harrison, Frank Infante, and Gary Valentine, essays by producers Mike Chapman, Richard Gottehrer, and Ken Shipley, a 120-page illustrated discography, and hundreds of period photographs.

Blondie has evolved beyond the confines of simple bands, emerging from pop and punk to become a key thread of American music’s basic DNA. Blondie’s seven members, including iconic frontwoman/songwriter Debbie Harry, guitarist/conceptual mastermind Chris Stein, powerhouse drummer Clem Burke, keyboardist Jimmy Destri, bassist Gary Valentine, guitarist Frank Infante, and bassist Nigel Harrison, created some of the most timeless music of the era.

Blondie’s first six studio albums recorded for Chrysalis; Blondie, Plastic Letters, Parallel Lines, Eat To The Beat, Autoamerican, The Hunter, and their catalog of era-defining hits “Heart Of Glass,” “Atomic,” “Tide Is High,” “Sunday Girl,” “Rapture,” and “Call Me” are included in this archive box set, the first band-authorized collection in their 50-year history.
These six seminal albums have been expanded to include over four dozen demos (including the group’s first-ever recording session), alternate versions, and studio outtakes, resulting in near-complete documentation of Blondie’s studio sessions prior to their 1982 sabbatical.

Debbie Harry said, “It really is a treat to see how far we have come when I listen to these early attempts to capture our ideas on relatively primitive equipment. Fortunately, the essence of being in a band in the early 70s held some of the anti-social, counter-culture energies of the groups that were the influencers of the 60s. I am excited about this special collection. When I listen to these old tracks, it puts me there like I am a time traveler. As bad as it was sometimes, it was also equally as good. No regrets. More music.”

“I am hopeful that this project will provide a glimpse into the ‘process’ and some of the journey that the songs took from idea to final form,” guitarist Chris Stein said. “Some of this stuff is like early sketches; the old tape machines are like primitive notebooks. The trickiest thing for me was always about getting the melodies out of my head into reality and the changes that would happen along the way.”

“It is amazing that after all this time, and against the odds, our Blondie archival box set will finally be released. It’s been a long time coming and we are all very happy and excited with the final results,” drummer Clem Burke said.

“From the moment I walked into Chris Stein’s barn and saw a wall of tapes I knew we were on the precipice of something extraordinary,” producer Ken Shipley said. “Against The Odds is a treasure chest disguised as a box set.”

“Blondie is a group of extraordinary artists,” producer Steve Rosenthal said. “Years of searching, months of mixing, mastering and restoration, days of decisions went into this box set to highlight the unique path they traveled —from CBGB’s to MSG.”

Against The Odds had a unique origin; for over two decades, the majority of Blondie’s an audio and video collection lay within Chris Stein’s modest barn just outside Woodstock, New York. One hundred reel-to-reel recordings, a half-dozen cassettes, a few storage tubs stuffed with records, bits of promotional flotsam, posters, a stray Warhol print, and mirrored dressing room signs from four sold-out January 1980 nights at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. All of it sat dormant for twenty steamy summers and twenty icy winters.

The long-running Against The Odds initiative arose from this jumbled trove of detritus, and it now serves as a new map of musical history.

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