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quoted from the "Platinum Collection" booklet - 1994
Clem Burke: "Out In The Streets" is a song by The Shangri-Las. Alan Betrock, who produced the demos, wanted to present the song to Ellie Greenwich so he could impress her with the fact that we did one of her songs. Alan had major aspirations for the band. He really saw Debbie's star quality.
Jimm Destri: Ellie wrote a lot of girl-group songs. Eventually she wound up singing backing vocals on some of our songs like "In The Flesh" and "Atomic." This is typical of what we did in the beginning. When I joined the band we had a set list of about twelve songs. We always did covers. We did "Goldfinger" by Shirley Bassey and "Moonlight Drive" by The Doors.
Frank Infante: We did a couple of Iggy (Pop) songs like "Nightclubbing."
Clem Burke: That's the way "Denis" came about.
Gary Valentine: These demos were done in Queens with Alan Betrock. I had only been playing with the band for about a month. I could barely play. We jumped in Debbie's old Camaro and went out to Queens to do these songs. I think we played Monthy Python's in New York a couple of times.
Clem Burke: Fred Smith was in Blondie and he left to join Television. But we had two gigs at CBGB's with me, Fred, Chris and Debbie. We didn't get to do the second show because Fred left right there to join Television. We broke up! Gary and I were boyhood friends, so I called him up and he joined us. Gary sat down at an old beat-up piano and played one of his songs, "What About Now." He plays piano on "Platinum Blonde."
Gary Valentine: Wow! You remember that!? We jammed on "Live With Me" by the Stones and then I went to the piano and played "What About Now."
Clem Burke: Then, Talking Heads tried to nick Jimmy!
Jimmy Destri: I was in Blondie for about a year. We started to get fans. David Byrne wanted to round out the Talking Heads' sound. I jammed with them but I didn't want to be just a keyboard player. I wanted to write, and Talking Heads was David's band.
