As we celebrate Blondie singer Debbie Harry's birthday today, allow us to turn back the clock to January 1981. With the murder of John Lennon still fresh in our collective consciousness, it would be a band from New York City that would take those first tentative steps towards lightening the mood.
In doing so, Blondie would also introduce rap music to middle America and enjoy the sort of success that most bands can only dream about, but not without a price.
The song put Ms. Harry squarely in the spotlight, with nary a fellow band member to be seen, leading new millions of new fans to presume that Harry was, in fact, Blondie. This rankled members of her band and tensions soon reached a fever pitch that resulted in the band breaking up.
But not before the band made one last album (The Hunter) and fought tooth-and-nail to also be pictured on the cover, like planets in Harry's orbit.
The band would soon break up, with Harry admirably sticking by Chris Stein's side through a life-threatening illness, even as her own star had never been brighter.
Looking back, the song will never be God's gift to rap music, but it remains a refreshing breath of sunshine in a cold, harsh world where nobody handles every situation perfectly, but if we just keep trying to win more than we lose, maybe we'll live to sing another day.