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Blondie is an American rock band co-founded by singer Debbie Harry, and guitarist Chris Stein. The band were pioneers in the American punk and then the new wave scene of the mid-1970s in New York. Its first two albums contained strong elements of these genres, and although highly successful in the United Kingdom and Australia, Blondie was regarded as an underground band in the United States until the release of Parallel Lines in 1978. Over the next three years, the band achieved several hit singles including “Heart of Glass“, “Call Me“, “Rapture“ and “The Tide Is High“. The band became noted for its eclectic mix of musical styles incorporating elements of disco, pop, reggae, and early rap music. “(I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear“ is a song from their 1978 album ’Plastic Letters’. Written by recently departed Blondie bassist Gary Valentine, the song was based on the telepathic connections that Valentine experienced with his girlfriend, journalist Lisa Jane Persky, while on tour. Though Valentine had left the band, drummer Clem Burke convinced the band to record the song for Plastic Letters. “Presence, Dear“ was released in 1978 as the second single from ’Plastic Letters’, reaching number 10 in the UK singles chart in May 1978. It was never released as a single in the US. The song has since seen critical acclaim and has been ranked by some music writers as one of the band’s best songs. This is the second performance of Blondie in Toppop (the first was in February 1978 with ’Denis’) Later that year 1978 Blondie recorded a tv special of the entire ’Parallel Lines’ album. This is a different take from that second Toppop performance, April 29, 1978 Watch our great music videos ❯ More TopPop? Subscribe here ❯ More info on Wikipedia ❯ Broadcast date: 29 April 1978 This is to let you know that the video recording of the video clip was originally recorded by AVROTROS Broadcasting. AVROTROS Broadcasting hereby warrants and represents that it is the sole and exclusive owner of the physical film and/or videotape footage in this video clip. The performance of the artist(s) in the clip was filmed and recorded with the written consent of the artist(s) and their representatives. AVROTROS is a Dutch radio and television broadcaster, founded in 2014 from a merger of AVRO and TROS. From January 1st, 2014 the name of the merged broadcaster was used in joint programmes. AVRO was founded in 1923 as the Netherlands first public broadcaster. TROS started broadcasting in 1964. Toppop was a weekly AVRO pop program that was aired between 1970 and 1988. AVROTROS Broadcasting PO Box 2 1200 JA Hilversum The Netherlands TopPop was the first regular dedicated pop music TV show in the Dutch language area. Dutch broadcaster AVRO aired the programme weekly, from 1970 to 1988. Presenter Ad Visser hosted the show for its first fifteen years. World famous music artists performed on TopPop: ABBA, 10CC, Bee Gees, The Jacksons with Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Earth & Fire, Queen, Golden Earring, Boney M, KC & The Sunshine Band, Chic, Donna Summer and many many more.
