Heart of Glass

Harry and Stein wrote the first version, Once I Had a Love, in 1974 and 1975, and the band called it the disco song. Harry said they had tried it as a ballad and as reggae and it never worked. Chapman recalled asking Harry what music then excited her and her answering Donna Summer; after a couple of hours of work, he said, the song sounded pretty much as it does today. He renamed it after its hook. It was recorded at the Record Plant in June 1978 around a Roland CR-78 drum machine. Drums were recorded piece by piece, starting with the kick, and Harry's voice was double-tracked. Stein credited Destri with bringing in the drum machine and synthesizer. Harry said the lyric was a plaintive moan about lost love, and that the BBC bleeped out the line about a pain in the ass.

A 5:50 version came out on 12-inch in December 1978 and an edited 7-inch followed in January 1979. It reached number one in the US, the UK and Australia. The video was directed by Stanley Dorfman in a short-lived club, not Studio 54, with Harry in a dress by Stephen Sprouse. The Guardian's Alexis Petridis ranked it the band's best song, calling it disco entirely on Blondie's terms.

Afterlife

Blondie re-recorded it for Blondie 4(0) Ever in 2014, and Harry joined Arcade Fire to sing it at Coachella that year. Missy Elliott's Work It (2002) samples the drum machine intro, Miley Cyrus performed it at the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Festival, and in 2023 Elisapie released an Inuktitut version.