I will always give anything Debbie Harry and Blondie does the highest rating even when the label decides to subtract tracks and DVDs off of the collections. I got the German version of the Sound & Vision :Greatest Hits collection for Christmas from my friend Roland in Holland and I actually bought a region free dvd player from my brother who works at Best Buy for Christmas so I could watch the DVD ahead of the US release. But now as Blondie becomes the first Chrysalis and who knows how long Capitol act to go into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame comes this collection. The original cd from Europe had 22 tracks and ran 79 minutes and the dvd had 17 Videos and ran around 57 minutes. The US version from Capitol removes for what unknown reason the SONGS and VIDEOS to "X Offender" and the classic "I'm Always Touched By Your Presence Dear" from the package. I am upset about this because when Capitol issued the Kylie Minogue Ultimate Kylie cd/dvd collection or the Best Shots release from Pat Benatar -- nothing was taken off either cd or DVD. So why Blondie when it was issued as a release to go with their induction of them into the Hall Of Fame. This makes me angry that these 2 songs and videos were removed. If you have the chance to buy the European dvd version you would see the beginning of "X Offender" with Debbie talking at the beginning of the video and for "Presence Dear" video instead of the car scene from The Best Of Blondie collection you get the shot of the Double Clems that begin the video. I do not see why they were removed.

Now onto the actual US collection. This Greatest Hits is different than the 2002 Hits collection. This one uses only single mixes for the cd-- for the hits and longer tracks. NO full lp mixes for "Atomic" or "The Tide Is High". They-- like the European version put the UK and US number one tracks out front at tracks 1-7 and in order as well. "Heart Of Glass " from 1979 to "Maria" in 1999. All 7 number one tracks. Plus you also get the classics like "Dreaming" "One Way Or Another" and "Island Of Lost Souls" that were US top 40 singles. Plus for the first time on a US cd the FULL promo only before now 12" (6:06) Blow Up Mix that Sanctuary issued for "Good Boys". This is the rarest track here because it was a Promo only to Dj's mix that is now on the cd. PLUS you get a brand new version of the classic first huge hit from 1976 "In The Flesh" done electro style by Super Buddha that has worked with Scissor Sisters. PLUS the reason this cd did well in the UK-- the mash up for "Rapture Riders" that is out on UK vinyl 12". Done by Mark Vidler it uses the music and beat from the original 1981 "Rapture" while mostly using the vocals to The Doors trippy "Riders On The Storm". Listen to Jim Morrison sound so incredible and at ease under the dance beat and then listen for the FULL rap of Debbie's from "Rapture". The original single mix found on the European version of this cd is only 3:46 while on the US version it is 4:04. A tiny bit longer but still not as long as the FULL VERSION (which is 5:43) on 12" and promo cd single.

The Videos-- well from 1976 to 1982 Blondie issued 23 videos from each of their albums. So this is just a primer to when Capitol or EMI finally issue the full release of the 12 tracks of videos from Eat To The Beat. But the plus side (even though they deleated 2 of the best know Blondie videos) is that you get them without the stupid skits from The Best Of Blondie collection. Full and complete videos (although I still think that "Rapture " is from The Best Of Blondie with the beginning) BUT you do get the video that was not on the European issued DVD for "Rapture Riders" so that is a plus. Plus the "The Tide Is High" video is the US VH1 Classic version and not the original 1981 version.

So if you haven't bought the European version of this collection then it is fine to buy the US version because you will get the chance to see the videos completely but remember that Capitol cut 2 of the best videos and songs from this collection and I still have no clue as to why. A++++ again for just the fact that it is Debbie Harry and Blondie and the fact they are finally going into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame - a thing that should have happened four years ago. BUY it still.

Most of the songs are the shortened/edited single versions. Not the album versions. Too bad. However, within the CD/DVD packaging, there is advertising for all the albums (even Hunter) stating there are bonus tracs. I guess this CD is a come-on to buy all the original albums. Almost no liner notes--no who's who or timeline history or anything. Again, too bad. Sounds good.

There is no other way to describe BLONDIE or the musical legacy, other than PERFECT POP. Their crossovers into Punk, Funk, Reggae, Calypso, Disco and New Wave are legendary. THERE WERE AND ARE NO OTHER ROCK ARTISTS AS DIVERSE OR AS SUCCESSFUL........as BLONDIE was in this amazing era of rock. From 1978-1982, and their amazing resurgence in 1999, Blondie have racked up hit after hit after hit. In which time created some of rock music's all time best classics, Call Me, One way or Another, Heart of Glass and Rapture to mention but a few.

The most successful of all New Wave and Punk bands, Blondie helped define a generation and opened the door for the likes of Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Cyndi Lauper, Amee Mann, Berlin, etc.

Here on this compilation you get 4 American Certified #1 million selling singles, Heart of glass, Call Me, Rapture, and The Tide is High. You get an additional 3 British #1 Singles, Sunday Girl, Atomic and Maria.

Rapture released in November 1980, was the first Rap song the vast majority of people ever heard, in fact it wasn't even called Rap then, it was just known as Street Rapping in the Ghettos of NYC, but it took the then #1 Band in the world to break this musical format wide open. Rapture from the 1980 album Autoamerican also produced another #1 Chart topping first, The Tide is High, was a reggae influenced smash, again a music format that millions never heard until Blondie broke it wide open. GROUNDBREAKING, Blondie scored 3 straight #1 singles in 1980 in USA, Canada and the UK.

Materpiece rock songs like One Way or Another, Dreaming, Call Me and Atomic are simply delicious and infectious songs, you can listen to them over and over. Never dated.

Included on this album, was the European Mash Up Smash that reached European top 20 charts in feb 2006 with Rapture Riders and also hit #10 US Billboard Dance charts in 2006. The mash up uses the #1 Blondie Classic with The Doors "Riders on the storm" track, and poof, you have literally one of the best rated Mashups ever produced.

Heart of Glass & Call Me were the definitive songs that influenced and open the doors for the UK Invasion of Electro Pop of the early 80's. The very fact that Heart of Glass and Call Me were the #1 International selling songs of 1979 and 1980 respectively is now a matter of music history fact. Blondie's music still in 2006, is FRESH and still CREATIVE, and nothing coming out today can compete with the their diversity, songwriting, edgy cool, or depth.

No rock music fan should be without this album, and the added DVD doesn't hurt either. Blondie were in fact the first rock band in history to release an full length video album for 1979's classic album "Eat to the Beat", which was grammy nominated, so the videos are cool and mega sexy with Goddess Deborah Harry, the original Madonna.

Blondie Fun Facts

......Call Me #1-6wks in the Usa #1 Song of 1980 and #42 charted song all time

......Heart of Glass 6 Million copies sold Internationally

......Rapture has gone Top Ten in 3 decades, with 3 different Blondie versions in the USA Billboard Dance Charts (80/90/00's)

.......Maria debuted at #1 19years after Blondie's last UK #1 IN 1999, making DEBORAH HARRY the oldest female then at 55 years to have a #1 record.

Blondie is my favorite band and I have all of their albums, so I was curious to compare this collection with their first hits collection, The Best of Blondie (1982), and their other Greatest Hits album from 2002.

Sound & Vision is much better than The Best of Blondie, with vastly improved sound quality and a bigger selection of songs. The only songs that The Best of Blondie contains that this collection does not are "(I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear" and the original version of "In the Flesh"--the version of the latter on Sound & Vision is an awful remix with brand new vocals by Debbie Harry, and it sounds NOTHING like the original. Sound & Vision is certainly preferable to The Best of Blondie, though, no matter how you look at it.

However, when compared to the 2002 Greatest Hits CD, Sound & Vision doesn't fair quite as well, not taking into account the bonus DVD with music videos. Greatest Hits has nearly every song from this collection--it does NOT include "Good Boys" or "End To End" from The Curse of Blondie, released in 2004, nor the "Rapture Riders" mash-up, but makes up for it with the inclusion of "(I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear" and "X Offender", two of Blondie's best songs. It also includes the original version of "In the Flesh" in lieu of the pointless remix. Those factors alone, along with the fact that Greatest Hits is quite a bit cheaper than this collection, make Greatest Hits worth getting instead of Sound & Vision.

So, how does Sound & Vision hold up on its own? It is a decent collection of Blondie's most popular songs, but they are mostly radio edits and not the full album versions. They even dared to chop off the openings of "Heart of Glass", Atomic" and "The Tide is High"! The remix included for "Good Boys" is decent, and much MUCH better than the remix for "In the Flesh", but the album version is still the best. The remastering is swell, but in some cases I prefer the remasters of the original album versions (for example, "Union City Blue").

If you're a diehard Blondie fan like me, you will want Sound & Vision for the bonus DVD, which includes some of Blondie's best music videos. These are not traditional music videos because they were all produced before MTV, but rather they are performance videos of the band lip-synching to the studio versions of the songs. My personal favorite of the videos is "Rapture", but "Heart of Glass", "Denis", "Hanging on the Telephone", "Dreaming" and "The Hardest Part" are favorites as well. The worst of them by far is "The Tide of High"--love the song, but the video is T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E.

Most casual listeners will not be concerned with the things I am nitpicking about here. But unless you must have the videos, you would be better off purchasing the 2002 Greatest Hits collection because of the cheaper price tag. Thankfully, I found this collection for $12 used, or else I would have bought Greatest Hits, too.

If you're already asking yourself, `Do I really need another Blondie compilation?' then I must tell you that the answer is most definitely "Yes!" This is the most comprehensive collection the band has delivered in their thirty-year history. No, it's not a box set of rarities, it's a two-disc set with one disc of "sound" that contains their greatest hits of the past three decades and one DVD disc of "vision" that provides solid proof of why this amazing New York-based band, fronted by Debbie Harry, was recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Of course, the obvious hits are here, beginning with the song that put them on the worldwide map - the #1 smash "Heart Of Glass." Other #1 smash records that follow are the Deborah Harry/Giorgio Moroder penned "Call Me," the reggae-tinged "The Tide Is High" and "Rapture," which made them the first new wave turned mainstream band to have a #1 rap song, not to mention by a female lead. The widely exposed "One Way Or Another" is here along with the 1979 classic "Dreaming" and the 1999 rocker "Maria." In between those obvious inclusions are tracks that have become Blondie staples ranging from their 1976 debut single "Rip Her To Shreds," through 2003's "Good Boys" with a new mix added in 2005. Other masterpieces include "Atomic," which topped the charts in the UK in 1979, "Sunday Girl," a new remix of "In The Flesh," "Denis," "Picture This," "Fade Away And Radiate," "Hanging On The Telephone," "Union City Blue," "Island Of Lost Souls" "End To End" and a new single that's burning up the clubs as I write this, "Rapture Riders," billed as Blondie VS. The Doors, with the classic 1981 track mixed with the phenomenal Doors' 1971 epic "Riders On The Storm." Everything old is brand new again and sounding fresher than ever. The DVD of their performance videos include most of what's on the CD with the inclusion of "Detroit 442," and a personal favorite "The Hardest Part." The Bonus DVD track is a UK version of the Blondie VS. The Doors' "Rapture Riders." It's inevitable that Blondie will one day deliver a box set of hits and rarities in one package, but until they do, pick up this "Sound & Vision" set, and hear and see why Blondie was, and is, one of the most important rock and roll bands of all-time.