Psychic Frequencies

Blondie : (I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear 

[Purchase]

On May 20, Blondie's new single "(I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear" peaked in the U.K. charts at #10. The music may be straight-forward by the double tracked lyrics are quite complicated, referencing kismet, theosophy, R.E.M, levitation and the stratosphere. Departing bassist Gary Valentine wrote the song about the telepathic experiences he believed he was having with then girlfriend Lisa Jane Persky ( who played the teenage daughter in The Great Santini opposite Robert Duvall).

"During the Iggy {Pop} tour we discovered we were having the same kind of dreams or found we were thinking of each other at the same time.," said  Valentine. "Although we were thousands of miles apart, we were still in touch. Thinking of this one afternoon, it all came together in a song."

The single, from Blondie's second album,  Plastic Letters,  was not released in the United States.

Doo Be Do

Blondie : Denis

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In February of 1978, Blondie's "Denis" entered the U.K. Top 50 where it would climb all the way up  to Number 2, prevented from hitting the toppermost of the poppermost by Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights". "Denis" is actually a cover version of the 1963 Randy and the Rainbows Top 10 hit "Denise". Blondie keeps the Buddy Holly-ish sound but adds some of Debbie Harry's "pidgen french" lines.

There was something about the way the former Playboy bunny squinted at the camera and played with her microphone that made boys throughout Europe mad for Harry. The song, from the forthcoming Plastic Letters, hit #1 in Belgium and the Netherlands but never charted in the band's native US of A.