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quoted from the 'Platinum Collection' booklet - 1994
Jimmy Destri: 'Heart Of Glass' was called 'Once I Had A Love' before Chapman came in. The original was very sparse with just drums, guitar and vocal - before the 'whoooosh' was put in. Trying to manually sequence the thing over Clem's drum track was hell! A nightmare.
Clem Burke: I went to work with Conny Plank on the first Eurythmics album (In The Garden). The first thing he mentioned was 'Heart Of Glass.' He found it to be similar to the work done by Kraftwerk. The demo of the song was originally done in 1975 and then we recorded it again in 1978. It was changed to 'Heart Of Glass' when Debbie added extra lyrics and I added the disco beat. Then Mike Chapman took over and the song really evolved.
quoted from the book 'Making Tracks' - 1982
"When we did 'Heart Of Glass' it wasn't too cool in our social set to play disco, but we did it because we wanted to be uncool. "Heart Of Glass" was based around a Roland Rhythm Machine and the backing took over ten hours to get down. We spent three hours just getting the bass drum. It was the hardest song to do on the album and took us the longest in studio hours."
source: wikipedia.org
"'Heart of Glass' was originally recorded in 1975 under the name 'Once I Had a Love' (also known as 'The Disco Song'), and was much slower with a blues/reggae vibe to it. The song was frequently performed on tours, then was re-recorded with the same title in 1978, when the song was made a bit more rock-oriented. When Blondie recorded the album 'Parallel Lines,' disco was big on the music scene, and producer Mike Chapman decided to give the song the disco twist that made the song what it is today, and probably one of the best-known Blondie songs ever.
The song was also remixed and re-released in July 1995 reaching number fifteen in the United Kingdom. It has been covered by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, on their album Ruin Jonny's Bar Mitzvah.
The song was covered by The Puppini Sisters on their debut album Betcha Bottom Dollar, Paris Hilton on her debut album Paris, Skye Sweetnam on her debut album Noise from the Basement, French fusion band Freedom For King Kong, Nouvelle Vague on their second album Bande à Part and The Bad Plus on their albums These Are the Vistas and Blunt Object - Live In Japan.
Almost immediately after its release, 'Heart of Glass' became the subject of controversy due to its disco sound. Blondie (at the time was one of the bands at the forefront of the growing new-wave/punk musical movement coming out of New York City) found themselves accused of 'selling out' for recording a disco song, let alone releasing the song as a single. According to Blondie frontwoman Deborah Harry, the song made the band pariahs in the eyes of many of their fellow musicians in the New York music scene and the band was accused of pandering to the mainstream that many punk/new wave bands at the time were actively rebelling against.
Despite the controversy, the song was a huge hit and helped propel Blondie from cult group to mainstream icons. The band itself has acknowledged the success of the song in helping their careers and have downplayed criticism of the song by pointing out that Blondie has always experimented with different styles of music and that 'Heart of Glass' was their take on disco. The band itself has jokingly taken to referring to the song as 'The Disco Song' when referring to it in interviews, as a means to laugh at the controversy."
