Song · Blondie
“Picture This” by Blondie
From the album Parallel Lines (1978)
“Picture This” by Blondie appears on 3 radio countdowns from 1 station between 2001 and 2005. It was first released in 1978 on the album Parallel Lines. Its best result is #224 on the Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2004). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #4,081 alternative song of all time.
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"Picture This" was the first taste of Parallel Lines that Blondie handed to Britain and Europe in 1978, and it was written as a relay: Debbie Harry supplied the words, Jimmy Destri the melody of the verses and Chris Stein the chorus. Mike Chapman, producing, heard something lived-in and private in Harry's lyric and figured she'd written it about Stein; he later called it elusive and beautiful.
Behind her, Stein and Frank Infante play guitars, Destri keyboards, Nigel Harrison bass and Clem Burke drums, all snapped into Chapman's tight new wave frame, while Harry sings it cool on the surface and aching underneath. It reached number 12 in the UK and made the top 20 in Sweden and Ireland, and critics have kept warming to it ever since.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 438 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 500 |
| 2004 | 224 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) | 500 |
| 2005 | 328 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) | 500 |
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