I'm not a musician or a technician but I really enjoyed this video. Hearing the separate tracks and the studio tricks is amazing. I was 18 when this song was a hit and now I like it more than ever. Thanks!
I always thought that "mistake" was brillianyly perverse, and really added to the character of the song...Debbie was just plain astounding in every way, and Clem will always be my favorite drummer. What a band!!!
This is a great short documentary of this great song but of how sounds of today came to be. We take for granted the technology that we now have to produce great music yet it is the producers, musicians and studio engineers of long ago that should be credited for envisioning techniques and applying them to great songs of the past to allow visionaries the opportunity to invent tools that now make it so much easier to create the music of today...
Blondie is a pionner in so many things , so original, just great group, and shes just a goddes literally as a person and as an artist, magnificent,,,!!!!! Love her
This is one of the most interesting production videos I've seen. Thanks for uploading. There are loads of things to learn here for tech people. Loved it!
Other facts: The male "Na na na" vocal is the voice of producer Mike Chapman! 2.) Early live version lyrics said, "Once I had a love and it was a blast" instead of "gas". 3.) The video was not, contrary to popular belief, filmed at Studio 54. 4.) The Roland Synthesizer (chip) used for this song is available for $200. 5.) The Midnight Special aired a studio version never heard again with the last "had a heart of glass" vocal being different from the album! 6.) There are actually 3 album versions.
onceIhadalove Can you tell me which was the original UK 1978 album version? I first bought it on vinyl in late 80s, the version then was the 4.10 7" single version, on cassette and later CD in 1990s it was the 6 minute long 12". Version. But I've also come across a copy of Parallel Lines with a version of Heart of Glass that sounds like an edit of the 1981 Best of Blondie version.
onceIhadalove Jimmy Destri told me he was singing the "na na na" vocal. If you listen to Live in Your Heart from his solo album it does sound like him.
The “Nanana “ sound is sung by three males from what I heard.. Christ, jimmy and the bassist guy. . . Which turns out to be true because jimmy voice and Christ stein is clearly theirs..
@@tarasmyth8010It’s not just one person. From what I heard from my parents, the “Nanana” is covered by Chris stein, Jimmy, and bassist guy.. and if you hear closely in the right side ear it’s Chris voice while jimmy singing on the left panel.. idk if Debbie also sing the nanana in the recording if she was singing in a lower tone to mix with them..
An amazing song. Great album. Essentially, a post punk crossover into the mainstream. As a band, they had it all: punk, NJ/NY art scene, Chapman's production, glamour, Warhol-esque style.
Its not just that today's artists are boring, but more likely that record companies do virtually nothing to encourage creativity. And on the other hand, the late 70's/early 80's were nothing but an avalanche of creativity, and record labels couldn't sign bands fast enough with the hopes that what they were doing would be popular. And as creative as Heart Of Glass was, Rapture was at least as creative and new, if not more so.
@@notavailable9794 sry, that's just an excuse, record companies are barely relevant anymore, singer/songwriters have the internet as a distribution platform and can charge whatever they want with this 24/7 promotion machine called RUclips - modern musicians suck, it's been a race to the bottom, everyone can talk and find a beat therefore lazy hip hop rules - examples like public enemy, N.W.A., beastie boys show how it could be done right
fascinating! though i dont agree about the tape splice "accident" I think I recall Debbie saying they still wanted an element of punk in there, so they did the funky time signature thing there
Agree. it does not sound like a tape edit. If the skip beat is a tape edit then there shouldn't be three in a row. The skip beat idea may have come from a tape edit on some demo more than likely and they just incorporated it into the song 3 times. Once would sound like a mistake, 3 times in a row and it sounds deliberate. It also allows the background vocals sing the full na-na phrase without the snare stepping on the last couple notes on beat 4.
Nice documentary but.. I have a Roland SH-1000 (minute 4:33), and you CANNOT TRIGGER ANYTHING ON IT because it hasn´t CV or gate inputs, it has only a glide and VCF inputs, so you can only control this modulation variables with an expression pedal. In recent years manufacturers like Kenton developed modification on the original circuit so now its possible to use midi/ CV gate with the SH-1000. Anyway, you can get the HOG synth sequence sound with the built in tremolo, in fact this song was the first sound I get from this wonderful and primitive synth, the first built by the Roland Corp.
in the book, "anatomy of a song", Blondie producer Mike Chapman said they used a Roland SH-5 and a MiniMoog since they didnt have a sequencer available.
Fantastic! Though Mike Chapman's interview in SOS magazine's classic tracks article kinda paints a different reason behind why they recorded the drums one at a time.
you do good work, audiomystic - thank you! question: the audio commentary, i believe, comes from a bbc radio program - it sounds like the host of "first time with", but i don't think it's that show...can you fill us in?
I love this documentation exists! Only thing I was thinking of - corcerning making use of CR78´s "Trigger Out" to pulse the synth drone: If they´d only just recorded the audio of the drumcomputer on tape for several minutes first, they would have "lost" the drumbox´s "Trigger Out" capabilities - afterwards only to be able to playback the rhythm sound on the tape machine. So, I believe, a solution to this problem might have been to "first" have had a "clock signal" recorded. And then - playing the clock back from tape into the "Clock In" of the CR78, thus make it syncing to the running tape while putting out its triggering signal everytime. Like this you should be able to record the synced pulse of the Roland SH-1000 later in the production process of the song. Or did I miss something, here? Because the other possibility really would have ment a hassle to do: The pulse of the synth free running and trying to adjust the speed as close as possible to the already recorded drum computer rhythm. Then always restart the pulse from the synth everytime drifting gets noticeable. Quite easier, when the pulse gets restarted by striking a key. But horrible, if it just pulses on and on and you have to flange the tape reel or start and stop it all the time...OMG
I don't think it was a simple as connecting the CR-78 trigger directly into the SH-1000. But you can modulate the VCF ... so, maybe they used an envelope generator in-between?
I don't believe the "odd accident" was really a mistake since this "pulled out beat" appears three times. Do you believe the sound engineer makes the same mistake three times? Second reason is that in the "normal" parts of the song the "na na naahh" melody plays f# when the snare drum is beaten but in the part with the pulled out beat it plays g#. For me it is obvious that this was no mistake but arranged and played the way wie know it.
+Claus Appel It could be that it was an accident the first time. But perhaps they liked it and decided to repeat the effect? It certainly sounds great and makes the song a little more interesting by briefly abandoning the steady 4/4 time signature.
Agree with OP. That story doesn't match up to facts. The instrumentation in the 4+3 sections does not match what you would expect to hear if they had been recorded as per the 4+4 sections and then spliced. Specifically, the snare drum wouldn't be there on the final quaver of the 3/4 bar as it would have been spliced out (it doesn't appear in the 4/4 sections until the 4th beat). A more likely story is that a band of clearly talented and experimental musicians said, "hey, that whole nah nah nah thing could get a bit tiring if we don't mix is up a little, why don't we try a 7/4 version for some variation?"
@sole0soleo ... as in all live music, they din't need to. there is no need, ever, to play a song live as it was recorded. further more, songs sound as in the record only once in their lifetime.. on that take, on that date.
@ionraygun-I've always found Chapman to be a bit untrustworthy. For example, the CR-78 they used in HOG was something the band found itself. Yet in a documentary he suggested that the band wanted to do the crude 1975 demo which they recorded in a basement without a keyboard player. People's memories differ, especially about a runaway success, but that idea is ludicrous. I guess victory truly does have a thousand fathers.
If only she had sung the lyrics clearly - I was 14 when this song came out, and to this day, have to refer to a lyric sheet to find out what the hell she is saying.
Does anyone know where this documentary came from? I would love to use it as a reference in an essay I'm writing for university. Would really appreciate it.
''The production of "Heart of Glass" was discussed in detail by Richard Allinson and Steve Levine on the BBC Radio 2 radio program The Record Producers that was aired on May 25, 2009'' - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Glass_(song) Pretty sure that this was this show. Hope this helps!
True… since it’s 3d recorded. The left panel you can hear jimmy voice, while on right panel it’s Chris voice.. and Debbie on the middle. Of course it will be hard to recognize Debbie voice as she needs sing in a much lower octave or semitone to mix with the more powerful normal tone by the guys.
The “Nanana “ sound is sung by three males from what I heard.. Christ, jimmy and the bassist guy. . . Which turns out to be true because jimmy voice and Christ stein is clearly theirs..
+Greg Borland No, but it should be, it had it's own language, we are Celts, we have exactly the same mystical history as Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The Cornish are not Anglo Saxons, but unfortunately the coast was too useful or vulnerable so from Elizabeth I reign we started to get overrun with the English. The language was stamped out by the colonists and we were made to adhere to Christianity. The most famous Pagan celebration still practised is the Obby Oss which is a fertility festival on the first of May, or Beltane. It is in Padstow, which Rick Stein has ruined. Kernow is treated like crap by the government . We are sick of it. NI isn't a country either. Just incase you missed that
If you want to hear the producer and some of the members of the band break this down and tell us what they did, check out ruclips.net/video/KA0frtRTRrw/видео.html.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
amazing to hear this track broken down. i like it even more now
I’m watching this on repeat in 2024. I have always loved this song but wow
I'm not a musician or a technician but I really enjoyed this video. Hearing the separate tracks and the studio tricks is amazing. I was 18 when this song was a hit and now I like it more than ever. Thanks!
Fastinating,love the old recording story and the old sythesizer. WIsh we could go back. The good old days.
i keep watching this video over and over and over again!!!!!
I find this song exciting every single time I hear it....and I've been hearing since 1978 so that's really saying something. VIVA BLONDIE!
Brilliant teardown of an old Blondie track that has been ricocheting in my head all day long
Fantastic! The best day of my life !!!!!!!!!
I listened to this album so many times that I had to go and purchase I over and over and over again....I still love it!
I was 10 years old when I first heard this and it blew me away. One of my favorite songs from my childhood.
Same here. I was 8 or 9 and Debbie Harry's sound, and especially her look, threw me over the edge into a girl-craze frenzy.
Excellent video. So much going on in that song, nice to see it broken down especially how they did Debbie's voice.
TWO ❣️'s OF CLASS...💃& 🥁...👍
I always thought that "mistake" was brillianyly perverse, and really added to the character of the song...Debbie was just plain astounding in every way, and Clem will always be my favorite drummer. What a band!!!
What a GREAT series. Steve Levine is such a great guy an a great producer. Thank you. I definiitley need to hear the others in this series.
This is a great short documentary of this great song but of how sounds of today came to be. We take for granted the technology that we now have to produce great music yet it is the producers, musicians and studio engineers of long ago that should be credited for envisioning techniques and applying them to great songs of the past to allow visionaries the opportunity to invent tools that now make it so much easier to create the music of today...
Blondie is a pionner in so many things , so original, just great group, and shes just a goddes literally as a person and as an artist, magnificent,,,!!!!! Love her
Blondie is the name of the band, not it's singer.
This is so informative, yet the explanations are so accessible. I've sent this to a few people, thanks so much for posting this.
Now I love the song even more! (If there is more then maximum!) Thanks for the brilliant documentary!
Oh my God! My favorite song of all time has a Making Of!
Now I can see why I love it so much. Thank you for the vid
Thank you , enjoyed every minute of how this classic was produced. Thanks for sharing.
This is one of the most interesting production videos I've seen. Thanks for uploading. There are loads of things to learn here for tech people. Loved it!
No wonder I'm addicted to this song.
How many times have i seen this video for the last 3 years!!!
For the last 4 years
for the last 7 years
Awesome breakdown!
Brilliant!
Utterly fascinating vid. Please upload more Blondie breakdowns.
Great documentary!
Omg thats really amazing song. Blondie you did it honey.
Really appreciate this kind of analysis. Thank you for sharing.
Talented and so beautiful.
I have always been in love with Deborah Harry.
really great, a million thanks for uploading
Other facts: The male "Na na na" vocal is the voice of producer Mike Chapman! 2.) Early live version lyrics said, "Once I had a love and it was a blast" instead of "gas". 3.) The video was not, contrary to popular belief, filmed at Studio 54. 4.) The Roland Synthesizer (chip) used for this song is available for $200. 5.) The Midnight Special aired a studio version never heard again with the last "had a heart of glass" vocal being different from the album! 6.) There are actually 3 album versions.
onceIhadalove Can you tell me which was the original UK 1978 album version? I first bought it on vinyl in late 80s, the version then was the 4.10 7" single version, on cassette and later CD in 1990s it was the 6 minute long 12". Version. But I've also come across a copy of Parallel Lines with a version of Heart of Glass that sounds like an edit of the 1981 Best of Blondie version.
onceIhadalove Jimmy Destri told me he was singing the "na na na" vocal. If you listen to Live in Your Heart from his solo album it does sound like him.
The “Nanana “ sound is sung by three males from what I heard.. Christ, jimmy and the bassist guy. . . Which turns out to be true because jimmy voice and Christ stein is clearly theirs..
@@tarasmyth8010It’s not just one person. From what I heard from my parents, the “Nanana” is covered by Chris stein, Jimmy, and bassist guy.. and if you hear closely in the right side ear it’s Chris voice while jimmy singing on the left panel.. idk if Debbie also sing the nanana in the recording if she was singing in a lower tone to mix with them..
There is no way for me to hear this song and not be transported back to roller skating as a kid. The first disco I surely went to...
Brilliant video, amazing song. Thanks
its just brilliant to have it deconstructed and then assembled into this polished masterpiece.
An amazing song. Great album. Essentially, a post punk crossover into the mainstream. As a band, they had it all: punk, NJ/NY art scene, Chapman's production, glamour, Warhol-esque style.
This story tells why todays artist are boring , the best were made in the past
Its not just that today's artists are boring, but more likely that record companies do virtually nothing to encourage creativity. And on the other hand, the late 70's/early 80's were nothing but an avalanche of creativity, and record labels couldn't sign bands fast enough with the hopes that what they were doing would be popular. And as creative as Heart Of Glass was, Rapture was at least as creative and new, if not more so.
@@notavailable9794 sry, that's just an excuse, record companies are barely relevant anymore, singer/songwriters have the internet as a distribution platform and can charge whatever they want with this 24/7 promotion machine called RUclips - modern musicians suck, it's been a race to the bottom, everyone can talk and find a beat therefore lazy hip hop rules - examples like public enemy, N.W.A., beastie boys show how it could be done right
That is so true!
This is like the best documentary ever
wow just wow
Brilliant, thanks for sharing!
This song is on my regular rotation. I had no idea just how complex it was. 1977 was the peak of Rock and roll history
Fascinating!
Pioneers! Ooooh Aaahhh!
great documentary...
Highly elaborated song that past the test of time , never sounds old, and Debbie, oh Debbie....
Nice breakdown… Well done.
Master piece!
great ensemble
The whole finished track was truly Magical :)
fascinating! though i dont agree about the tape splice "accident" I think I recall Debbie saying they still wanted an element of punk in there, so they did the funky time signature thing there
Agree. it does not sound like a tape edit. If the skip beat is a tape edit then there shouldn't be three in a row. The skip beat idea may have come from a tape edit on some demo more than likely and they just incorporated it into the song 3 times.
Once would sound like a mistake, 3 times in a row and it sounds deliberate. It also allows the background vocals sing the full na-na phrase without the snare stepping on the last couple notes on beat 4.
Nice documentary but.. I have a Roland SH-1000 (minute 4:33), and you CANNOT TRIGGER ANYTHING ON IT because it hasn´t CV or gate inputs, it has only a glide and VCF inputs, so you can only control this modulation variables with an expression pedal. In recent years manufacturers like Kenton developed modification on the original circuit so now its possible to use midi/ CV gate with the SH-1000. Anyway, you can get the HOG synth sequence sound with the built in tremolo, in fact this song was the first sound I get from this wonderful and primitive synth, the first built by the Roland Corp.
excellent point ,, plus i always thought they used the ARP 2600 and Sequencer for that part ??
Hey maybe the audio pulse of the synth is being split out to the cr78 to sync the drum machine.
Jaime Acuña How did you get that sound with the roland?
user error. : )
in the book, "anatomy of a song", Blondie producer Mike Chapman said they used a Roland SH-5 and a MiniMoog since they didnt have a sequencer available.
i love this video to death,
Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!
Both versions sound excellent from the little I heard from the original.
Wow. All I can say , either than it all makes sense.
Very interesting, almost impossible to play like this live
Now I want these guys to give this treatment to a B-52's song, like Dirty Back Road.
is a masterpiece
I believe a video was made for every song on Parallel Lines!!
That was the next album, Eat To The Beat.
ou have no idea how many times ive watched this over the span of 2 years
@kir4us Its on the remastered Plastic Letters cd. Theres another different version on the remastered cd of Parallel LInes.
I keep listening to this video cuz its so interesting and by now i mimic the two men talking cuz i know this video by heart.
Fantastic! Though Mike Chapman's interview in SOS magazine's classic tracks article kinda paints a different reason behind why they recorded the drums one at a time.
you do good work, audiomystic - thank you! question: the audio commentary, i believe, comes from a bbc radio program - it sounds like the host of "first time with", but i don't think it's that show...can you fill us in?
VERY NICE!
I love this documentation exists!
Only thing I was thinking of - corcerning making use of CR78´s "Trigger Out" to pulse the synth drone:
If they´d only just recorded the audio of the drumcomputer on tape for several minutes first, they would have "lost" the drumbox´s "Trigger Out" capabilities - afterwards only to be able to playback the rhythm sound on the tape machine.
So, I believe, a solution to this problem might have been to "first" have had a "clock signal" recorded. And then - playing the clock back from tape into the "Clock In" of the CR78, thus make it syncing to the running tape while putting out its triggering signal everytime.
Like this you should be able to record the synced pulse of the Roland SH-1000 later in the production process of the song.
Or did I miss something, here?
Because the other possibility really would have ment a hassle to do:
The pulse of the synth free running and trying to adjust the speed as close as possible to the already recorded drum computer rhythm.
Then always restart the pulse from the synth everytime drifting gets noticeable.
Quite easier, when the pulse gets restarted by striking a key.
But horrible, if it just pulses on and on and you have to flange the tape reel or start and stop it all the time...OMG
Debbie Harry/Blondie was creative and very good. Nothing like them out there today.
I have both the CR-78 and SH-1000, it's not possible to trigger the SH-1000 like that, has to be a different synth.
I don't think it was a simple as connecting the CR-78 trigger directly into the SH-1000. But you can modulate the VCF ... so, maybe they used an envelope generator in-between?
Wow!
Listen to... "Blondie - Heart Of Glass - Studio Acapella"
I don't believe the "odd accident" was really a mistake since this "pulled out beat" appears three times. Do you believe the sound engineer makes the same mistake three times? Second reason is that in the "normal" parts of the song the "na na naahh" melody plays f# when the snare drum is beaten but in the part with the pulled out beat it plays g#. For me it is obvious that this was no mistake but arranged and played the way wie know it.
+Claus Appel It could be that it was an accident the first time. But perhaps they liked it and decided to repeat the effect?
It certainly sounds great and makes the song a little more interesting by briefly abandoning the steady 4/4 time signature.
maybe they did it once and were like, shit, that was wrong but it sounded cool, let's do it a couple more times
Arrow Fitzgibbon
Yes, just like I already said. But far more eloquently, of course.
Agree with OP. That story doesn't match up to facts. The instrumentation in the 4+3 sections does not match what you would expect to hear if they had been recorded as per the 4+4 sections and then spliced. Specifically, the snare drum wouldn't be there on the final quaver of the 3/4 bar as it would have been spliced out (it doesn't appear in the 4/4 sections until the 4th beat). A more likely story is that a band of clearly talented and experimental musicians said, "hey, that whole nah nah nah thing could get a bit tiring if we don't mix is up a little, why don't we try a 7/4 version for some variation?"
@CHRISLOVESBLONDIE No, it's Steve something (one of the other producers--maybe an engineer?)
Can we have some subtitles in english, please ? I struggle a bit to understand everything..
Subtitles are available for this video 😃💖
@sole0soleo ... as in all live music, they din't need to. there is no need, ever, to play a song live as it was recorded. further more, songs sound as in the record only once in their lifetime.. on that take, on that date.
@kir4us do a search on here for Blondie "Once I had a love"
@ionraygun-I've always found Chapman to be a bit untrustworthy. For example, the CR-78 they used in HOG was something the band found itself. Yet in a documentary he suggested that the band wanted to do the crude 1975 demo which they recorded in a basement without a keyboard player. People's memories differ, especially about a runaway success, but that idea is ludicrous. I guess victory truly does have a thousand fathers.
Love these isolated tracks. John Lennon also has a great double tracked voice
If only she had sung the lyrics clearly - I was 14 when this song came out, and to this day, have to refer to a lyric sheet to find out what the hell she is saying.
Does anyone know where this documentary came from? I would love to use it as a reference in an essay I'm writing for university. Would really appreciate it.
''The production of "Heart of Glass" was discussed in detail by Richard Allinson and Steve Levine on the BBC Radio 2 radio program The Record Producers that was aired on May 25, 2009'' - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Glass_(song)
Pretty sure that this was this show. Hope this helps!
Not sure I buy that the skipped beat (3/4 bars) was an accident - you can hear the drums were played with this in mind
MIKE!!!!!
anyone know what this is from?
7:41 Dibbie is leading with her low notes here. And the Guy's double her.
+skyprop Also Listen to the Gates Opening and closing here.
True… since it’s 3d recorded. The left panel you can hear jimmy voice, while on right panel it’s Chris voice.. and Debbie on the middle. Of course it will be hard to recognize Debbie voice as she needs sing in a much lower octave or semitone to mix with the more powerful normal tone by the guys.
Backing tracks and a click track for the drummer??? ;-)
What about Diana Ross and supremes reflections they had a synthesizer which you would hear in the intro
Interesting that the bass drum is recorded independently
Clem hated the drum machine, yes? Difficult! Clem is a phenomenal drummer. I love Blonde!
At 8.40 , no way was that dropped beat an accident. Those 2 dropped beats are intentional and exciting.
I thought it was a Roland SH3A WTF ????
splicing the 24track master? no way - that section is played. Someones been on a few too many mind altering substances for too many years.
The “Nanana “ sound is sung by three males from what I heard.. Christ, jimmy and the bassist guy. . . Which turns out to be true because jimmy voice and Christ stein is clearly theirs..
Kick tail....!
Clem Burke!
For me it's been the first cyberpunk tune... Not Tangerines, not Vangelis, not Jean Michel, not Ash Ra's...
Obviously it didn't sell in Scotland or Wales or NI.. what a narrow minded thing to say
Or Cornwall..
Cornwall is not a Country.. just in case you missed that.
+Greg Borland No, but it should be, it had it's own language, we are Celts, we have exactly the same mystical history as Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The Cornish are not Anglo Saxons, but unfortunately the coast was too useful or vulnerable so from Elizabeth I reign we started to get overrun with the English. The language was stamped out by the colonists and we were made to adhere to Christianity. The most famous Pagan celebration still practised is the Obby Oss which is a fertility festival on the first of May, or Beltane. It is in Padstow, which Rick Stein has ruined.
Kernow is treated like crap by the government . We are sick of it.
NI isn't a country either. Just incase you missed that
Neither is Cornwall..
Steve Levine??? ;-)
!
SH 1000
If you want to hear the producer and some of the members of the band break this down and tell us what they did, check out ruclips.net/video/KA0frtRTRrw/видео.html.