Parallel Lines

Blondie's second album, Plastic Letters, was the last produced by Richard Gottehrer. During a west coast tour the band met Chapman, an Australian producer, and their manager Peter Leeds and Chrysalis encouraged him to work with them. Harry was wary until she played him early versions of Heart of Glass and Sunday Girl. They began recording at the Record Plant in June 1978. Ellis had assigned Chapman to turn what the band brought into hits, and Chapman described his role as a song manipulator and song construction consultant, since he wrote none of the songs. He sang scratch vocals and kept time in the live room while the band played together without click tracks. Heart of Glass was the only track built piece by piece. The final sessions moved to a different room at the Record Plant, and the mix was made over about ten days at Forum Studio in Covington, Kentucky.

The songs came from several hands. Harrison and Harry wrote One Way or Another, Destri, Harry and Stein wrote Picture This, Stein wrote Sunday Girl and Fade Away and Radiate, and Harry and Stein wrote Pretty Baby and Heart of Glass. Jack Lee wrote Hanging on the Telephone and Will Anything Happen, Infante wrote I Know but I Don't Know, Destri wrote 11:59, Harry wrote Just Go Away, and I'm Gonna Love You Too is a Buddy Holly cover. The title came from an unused Harry song whose lyrics were printed in the first vinyl edition. The cover photograph by Edo Bertoglio was chosen by Leeds although the band had rejected it.

In the UK it entered at number 13 and reached number one in February 1979, staying on the chart for 106 weeks. In the US it peaked at number six in April 1979 and finished 1979 at number nine on Billboard's year-end chart. Four singles came from it: Picture This (UK 12), Hanging on the Telephone (UK 5), Heart of Glass (UK 1) and Sunday Girl (UK 1). Pitchfork's Scott Plagenhoef called it Blondie's third and easily best album, and Daryl Easlea wrote for the BBC that the group was unafraid to go disco, go art, or just play fine, fine pop. The Guardian's Alexis Petridis called it the one Blondie album that is great from start to finish. Rolling Stone ranked it number 140 in 2003 and 146 in 2020. A 30th Anniversary Edition appeared on 24 June 2008.