Top 7 Debbie Harry solo songs of all time

Debbie Harry has been the indisputable face and voice of the band Blondie in all the stages of its evolution and helped the group break out of its punk and new wave origins in the 1970s and reach the world of pop in the years after 2000 on eleven studio albums.

Debbie Harry became a sensation thanks to her edgy style and electrifying stage presence. She played a pivotal role in blending Blondie's punk roots with pop, disco, and reggae influences. She was good at mixing punk feel with fun pop tunes and was bold in trying new sounds, like the disco beat in Heart of Glass or the reggae touch in The Tide Is High.

Apart from Blondie, Debbie Harry began her music work in 1981 with KooKoo. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards from Chic helped with it. This showed she could push her music even more on her own.

Her songs did not pop like Blondie's, but they showed she was free and bold in changing herself and her work. Debbie Harry is still on the go, making music and keeping Blondie as full of life as ever, even after many breaks and returns.

As a solo singer, Debbie Harry made her way using songs that were different from Blondie's. Some songs, like Backfired from KooKoo, had fun beats and kept her known new wave look. It showed her voice that was both fun and strong. Another hit, French Kissin' in the USA from her 1986 album Rockbird, got her back on the UK charts. Fans liked it a lot for its soft sound and catchy music.

Even if her work did not get as huge as Blondie's top hits, it still showed Debbie Harry was ready to try new things and mix many sounds. This made her one of the big names in pop and rock music.

Disclaimer: This article contains the writer's opinion. The reader's discretion is advised!

Here are the top 7 Debbie Harry songs of all time

Here are the top seven Debbie Harry songs of all time, a blend of tracks that show her bold style, mix of music types, and big impact on pop and rock music. From Blondie hits that made her a star to key solo songs that spotlight her cool ideas, these songs show off her many sides in music.

She can give punk vibes, disco moves, or fun pop. Each song shows why she is still one of music's top lead women. These songs aren't just big, they're peeks of a singer who keeps growing and keeps her true, cool feel and voice.

1) French Kissin' in the USA

The happy pop song now shows well the fun yet bold feel that Blondie did not have. The song was written by Chuck Lorre (now a big TV show maker known for The Big Bang Theory) and made by The J. Geils Band bass man, Seth Justman.

The fun vibe of the song gets a big boost from strong extra voices by Connie Harvey, La-Rita Gaskins, and Jocelyn Brown, who would soon make her mark in dance and soul areas. With words like "He says he's gonna buy me everything / A fancy car and diamond ring," Debbie Harry shows off her mix of glam and witty style.

It failed to reach the summit of the Billboard Hot 100, though it only peaked at No. 57 on the Billboard Hot 100, it remains her highest-charting solo single in the UK, reaching No. 8 and staying a staple on British radio, where it reached no. 8 and remained the favorite part of the British radio repertoire.

Years after, French Kissin' in the USA remains one of the reminders of how Debbie Harry managed to take the ordinary pop song and make it cool as something irresistible and very much hers.

2) In Love with Love

One of Debbie Harry's most unforgettable solo singles, the new-wave-attitude leavened with irresistible dance-pop hooks even beyond the Blondie umbra, appeared on her song In Love with Love. The song was pulled off her second solo album, Rockbird, in 1986, which was co-written with long-time Blondie bandmate Chris Stein and produced by the J. Geils Band, Seth Justman.

Debbie Harry once joked that the song was a spiritual sequel to the disco-flavored Blondie hit, Heart of Glass, but with a slicker, synth-heavy sheen that was much more suited to the mid-80s dance floor. A colorful remix by the British production juggernaut Stock Aitken Waterman, the brainchild behind the sound of such acts as Kylie Minogue and Bananarama, gave the single an additional shot in the arm.

The remix catapulted the song into first place in the Dance Club Songs chart, making it the only solo song to accomplish this chart feat in her career, including a position of No. 70 on the Billboard Hot 100 and charting at No. 45 on the UK singles chart.

It has glistening synths and a dancy beat, and Debbie Harry includes her voice on top of the groove and sings, "In love with love, in love with love, I am just in love with love, and it's just the same as you. The song further established Debbie Harry as a capable solo artist. She effortlessly carried forward Blondie's boundary-pushing legacy into her own colorful and distinct sound.

3) I Want That Man

And when it comes to embracing a style of Debbie Harry that really should have fallen into the American mainstream and instead somehow fell through the cracks, then one song that truly qualified would be: I Want That Man. Released way back in 1989 as the first single off of her third solo album Def, Dumb & Blonde, the track demonstrated that Debbie Harry could grab a sharp, infectious pop perhaps much later than ever with Blondie fame.

Although her previous solo albums, KooKoo and Rockbird, caused a little stir, Def, Dumb & Blonde was very much geared towards mainstream radio but the single, which was the album opener, failed to reach into the Billboard Hot 100, although it did reach the top 2 on Billboard alternative airplay and to No. 13 in the UK singles chart, belonging to her top two solo placings in that country.

A punchy, liberated statement that she wants what she wants, no apologies, the song was written with Dave Stewart of Eurythmics (as Jean Guiot). Citing actor Harry Dean Stanton, Harry Belts: "I want to dance with Harry Dean / Drive through Texas in a black limousine."

The words are full of hope of a new age: "Here comes the twenty-first century / It's gonna be much better for a girl like me." One of her most played songs on Spotify, solo songs as of right now, is the song, I Want That Man, and all that just shows that Debbie Harry never lost her edge; she just continued to reinvent her edge.

4) Sweet and Low

Sweet and Low is the most memorable bomb of the third solo album of Debbie Harry, Def, Dumb and Blonde, released in 1989, when Debbie Harry again joined forces creatively with Blondie co-founder and guitarist Chris Stein. Composed by Harry and Toni C., the song conveys the ephemeral pop orientation that Debbie Harry has continually been revered in, but with a cutting-edge late-80s dance infusion.

The song received a reception on dance floors, rising to the seventeenth position in Billboard magazine's Dance Club Play and having a decent showing on the UK Singles Chart at number fifty-seven, not to mention an entry on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart at number thirty.

Debbie Harry coos, "Sweet and low, and away we go / Sweet and low, and it feels so right," words in the song which reflect its escapist and light groove. This song is one piece of evidence of Debbie Harry being a person capable of merging her punk idol beginnings with a popular dance-pop tune that made her recognizable until late in the following decade.

5) I Can See Clearly

Released as the first single off the fourth Debbie Harry solo album Debravation in 1993, the song, I Can See Clearly, marked a daring comeback of Debbie Harry. The song veers on a dance-pop accent, charged and mixed with Debbie Harry's undercurrent cool style, with early-90s slick club beats that were a welcome ingredient on disco floors.

The song is lyrically about the clarity that love can come, about the rush of understanding it can give, about seeing everything all in a new light, about finally being totally clear, and all that a person ever wanted to be, "I can see clearly now, everything you wanted to be, I can see clearly now, you're everything I wanted to see."

Its contagious vigor sufficiently nudged it on the Billboard Dance Club Songs, where it ranked a remarkable number two. It also provided Debbie Harry with a hit chart appearance on the UK Singles Chart, reaching the peak position of twenty-three, showing her continued popularity in the UK.

Even though it made a small impact in the ARIA Singles Chart in Australia at number 96, I Can See Clearly is still, a vibrant, testament to the fact that Debbie Harry was able to take her voice and vision and tailor it to those changing sounds of pop, which spoke of the fact that she was never merely a bygone relic of a Blondie era but a singer who was able to transform not only vocally but also in vision as we head in to the '90s.

6) Comic Books

On her third album by herself, Def, Dumb & Blonde, out in 1989, Harry chose to use her full name, calling herself Deborah Harry instead of the short name that fans knew from her time with Blondie. The songs that stand out include Comic Books, a lesser-known gem that was not sent out as a single but still shows off her skill for mixing pop culture with strong punk beats.

With this track, she gets back to the raw, fun feel that first made Blondie such a hit, using her memories of being young and daydreams shaped by bright comic strips and superheroes.

Lines such as "Comic books and superheroes / Comic books and superheroes" show the mix of getting away and a rough feel, just like the bold vibe she got from New York's late-70s punk days. Even though Def, Dumb & Blonde gave us chart-hitting songs like I Want That Man, Comic Books tells us that Deborah Harry still had a love for crisp feel and deep points in cool tunes and live sounds.

7) Brite Side

A second track from Debbie Harry's 1989 album Def, Dumb, & Blonde, the high vibe of the Brite Side song hides the deep point of not letting life pull you down, even when times are hard. The song was written when Debbie Harry was dealing with the ups and downs of a solo path after Blondie split for the first time, and so it shows her well-known pop touch and upbeat view.

By saying "There's a bright side somewhere, baby, that's where I'm bound," Harry shows that even when things seem dark, there is still light shining through.

Brite Side has a brighter approach musically in the name of its shimmering pop-rock tones and catchy hook, which is very much needed within the array of new wave and rock tones present on the album.

It was not on top of the charts, but this song is still loved by fans. It's a warm, bold anthem proving how Debbie Harry can spot joy in sad spots and change it into happy, upbeat tunes. People can hear it even now, many years later.

Looking at Debbie Harry's long list of songs, we see that her music shows how bold and ever-changing she was over the years. As the lead of a trailblazing band and then on her own, she moved with the changing music styles but always kept her sharp edge and unique self. Her solo work shows a deeper and more daring side, showing that she never wanted to just do the same thing or stick to one kind of music.

From punk, pop, and new wave, to bits of jazz and electronic beats, Debbie Harry's tunes always had her clear mark: strong, fun, and ready to shake things up. All in all, her list of songs shows an artist who has stayed on top and big by following her gut and always going past her limits.