The Not-Pop Jukebox

It’s hard to beat a song like Blondie’s I’m Gonna Love You, Too. It’s bouncy and fun but with enough edge that it doesn’t quite belong on a Gidget soundtrack. It’s one of those song in which the singer (the inimitable Debbie Harry in this case) just sound so happy that you can’t help but enjoy it. It doesn’t quite have the 50s vibe that In the Flesh and even Sunday Girl do but it comes across as almost a refugee from Grease

I’ve been listening to a lot of Blondie lately and I can’t help but think how much Debbie Harry has in common with Kirsty MacColl, vocally. Now there’s a collaboration that would have been amazing. I’m picturing something between Rip Her to Shreds and England 2 Columbia 0 that would showcase both their voices and their respective senses of how women relate to the world.

But enough of this pie in the sky. Someday I’ll post War Child and whine about the trauma of growing up during the Cold War but this is Saturday. I had a tough time choosing between this—fun, frothy, and cheerful—and Rapture, the ill-advised rap attempt they tried toward the end of the band’s fruitful and frustrating run. Both entertain me but for very different reasons. Did anyone else hear the latter? You can’t get that much cheese into just any song, but I decided to spare you…for now.