Picture This

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2006)

"Picture This"
Single by Blondie
from the album Parallel Lines
B-side	'Fade Away and Radiate'
Released	August 26, 1978 [1]
Format	Vinyl 7" single
Recorded	1978
Genre	Power pop, New Wave
Length	2:59
Label	UK Chrysalis
Writer(s)	Chris Stein Deborah Harry Jimmy Destri
Producer	Mike Chapman
Blondie singles chronology
"(I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear" (1978) Picture This (1978) "I'm Gonna Love You Too" (1978)
Music sample Picture This

"Picture This" is track number 3 from the 1978 album Parallel Lines by Blondie, the first collaboration with producer Mike Chapman, and was also the fourth single release from Chrysalis Records. "Picture This" was chosen as the lead single for Parallel Lines in the UK, reaching number 12 in the autumn of 1978, giving them their third UK Top 20 hit and also charting in most other parts of the world - it was however never issued as a single in the US.

Song information

"Picture This" was written by what were to become the principal song writers for the band; Chris Stein, Debbie Harry and Jimmy Destri. Debbie Harry wrote the lyrics while Destri and Stein each wrote portions of the music. This would be the only time Harry and Stein would collaborate with Destri. Destri co-wrote the song Detroit 442 from the Plastic Letters album with Chris Stein, and co-wrote the number one hit "Atomic" with Debbie Harry from the Eat To The Beat album.

The B-side of the single, "Fade Away And Radiate" featuring Robert Fripp on guitar, is also one of Blondie's best known songs and appears on the hits compilations Atomic - The Very Best of Blondie (1998), Greatest Hits: Sight + Sound (2005) and Greatest Hits: Sound & Vision (2006).

"Picture This" was included on the international version of the band's very first 'greatest hits' compilation The Best of Blondie, released in October 1981.

"Picture This: The Many Faces of Blondie" is a book by photographer Mick Rock published in 2004 with a foreword by Deborah Harry. The photograph featured on the "Picture This" single, showing Harry licking a record, is one of the most famous images associated with the band. It was used for the Parallel Lines picture disc in 1978 and also on the cover of the US edition of the 1994 CD anthology The Platinum Collection.

Music Video

A music video was produced to promote the single featuring Debbie Harry wearing a yellow dress designed by Stephen Sprouse.^[2]

Release history

UK 7" (CHS 2242, August 1978)

1. "Picture This" (Chris Stein, Deborah Harry, Jimmy Destri) – 2:53
2. "Fade Away And Radiate" (Chris Stein) – 3:57

Charts

References

v t e Blondie Clem Burke Jimmy Destri Debbie Harry Chris Stein Leigh Foxx Nigel Harrison Frank Infante Paul Carbonara Kevin Patrick Matt Katz-Bohen Tommy Kessler Gary Valentine Studio albums Blondie Plastic Letters Parallel Lines Eat to the Beat Autoamerican The Hunter No Exit The Curse of Blondie Panic of Girls Compilations The Best of Blondie The Complete Picture: The Very Best of Deborah Harry and Blondie Blonde and Beyond The Platinum Collection Denis Picture This - The Essential Blondie Collection Atomic - The Very Best of Blondie Greatest Hits Greatest Hits: Sight + Sound Greatest Hits: Sound & Vision Live albums Picture This Live Livid Live By Request Blondie at the BBC Singles "X Offender" "In the Flesh" "Rip Her to Shreds" "Denis" "(I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear" "Picture This" "I'm Gonna Love You Too" "Hanging on the Telephone" "Heart of Glass" "Sunday Girl" "One Way or Another" "Dreaming" "Union City Blue" "The Hardest Part" "Atomic" "Call Me" "The Tide Is High" "Rapture" "Island of Lost Souls" "War Child" "Maria" "Nothing Is Real but the Girl" "No Exit" "Good Boys" "Mother" "What I Heard" Remixes Once More into the Bleach Beautiful - The Remix Album Remixed Remade Remodeled - The Remix Project Related articles Discography Book:Blondie