"Heart of Glass" is a song by the American new wave band Blondie, written by singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein.

[12] Billboard magazine ranked "Heart of Glass" number 47 in their list of 500 best pop songs of all time in 2023.

[14] Debbie Harry and Chris Stein wrote an early version of "Heart of Glass", called "Once I Had a Love", in 1974–75.

On some occasions, the producer Mike Chapman has stated that he convinced Harry and Stein to give the song a disco twist.

Bassist Gary Valentine noted that the set list for early Blondie shows often included disco hits such as "Honey Bee" or "My Imagination".

[19] In an interview published in the February 4, 1978, edition of NME, Debbie Harry expressed her affinity for the Euro disco music of Giorgio Moroder, stating that "It's commercial, but it's good, it says something... that's the kind of stuff that I want to do".

[20] A notable example of this type of musical experimentation occurred when Blondie covered Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" at the Blitz Benefit on May 7, 1978.

[21] In his history of CBGB, music writer Roman Kozak described this event: "When Blondie played for the Johnny Blitz benefit in May 1978, they surprised everyone with a rendition of Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love'.

"[15] The Parallel Lines version (as well as most others) contained some rhythmic features that were very unusual for the disco context, which typically follows a strict four-beats-per-measure pattern for maximum danceability.

In an interview in the magazine that is part of the collector's edition for the 2011 ninth Blondie studio album Panic of Girls, Debbie Harry explained that band members Chris Stein and Jimmy Destri had purchased the CR-78 from a music store on 47th Street in Manhattan and that this is how the device had become part of the production of "Heart of Glass": "Chris and Jimmy were always going over to 47th Street where all the music stores were, and one day they came back with this little rhythm box, which went 'tikka tikka tikka'... And the rest is history!"

[29][30] Some radio stations in the United States were reluctant to play the song because of the "pain in the ass" lyric, so an edited 7-inch single was released in January 1979.

In the US, the single was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in April 1979, representing sales of one million copies.

[32] Despite its overall popularity, "Heart of Glass" was not a hit in New York City's traditional discothèques such as Studio 54, Xenon and Crisco Disco,[33] and reached only No.

[33] Cash Box said it is a "synthesizer-based song" that should get Blondie recognized and that "Deborah Harry's vocals are shimmering and inviting.

[41] "Heart of Glass" was re-released in 2018 as a 6-track EP in promotion of Blondie's archive collection box set Against the Odds 1974–1982.

According to Harry, "Heart of Glass" made the band pariahs in the eyes of many of their fellow musicians in the New York music scene.

Although we'd covered 'Lady Marmalade' and 'I Feel Love' at gigs, lots of people were mad at us for 'going disco' with 'Heart of Glass'... Clem Burke, our drummer, refused to play the song live at first.

"[16] Despite the controversy, the song was a huge hit and helped propel Blondie from cult group to mainstream icons.

The band also credits the TV sitcom about a radio station, WKRP in Cincinnati, which played the song on one of their episodes and gave it critical exposure.

Then, the video alternates between close-ups of Debbie Harry's face as she lip-syncs and mid-distance shots of the entire band.

[16] "Draped in a sheer, silver Sprouse dress," Kris Needs summarized while writing for Mojo Classic, "Debbie sang through gritted teeth, while the boys cavorted with mirror balls".

Studying Harry's attitude in the "effortlessly cool" video, musician and writer Pat Kane felt she "exuded a steely confidence about her sexual impact...

"[48] Reviewing the 2005 Greatest Hits: Sound & Vision DVD for Pitchfork, Jess Harvell wrote that while "owning your own copy of 'Heart of Glass' may not seem as cool [anymore]... there's the always luminous Deborah Harry, who would give boiling asparagus an erotic charge, all while looking too bored to live.

The 2002 song "Work It", by Missy Elliott from her album Under Construction, samples the drum machine intro of "Heart Of Glass".

[95] Picking up on their similarities, the Hood Internet's ABX created a mashup of "Heart of Glass" and Arcade Fire's new wave-infused "Sprawl II" of 2010.

The star of The Handmaid's Tale TV series, Elisabeth Moss, said in an interview for Refinery29 that she discovered the "Crabtree Remix" while making a playlist to prepare for her role as June Osborne and played it to the show's director Reed Morano.

"[108][106] A year earlier, she had recorded and released a cover version of the Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night" as her contribution to the H&M 2013 charity campaign.

[112][113] American singer Miley Cyrus performed a cover of the song at the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Festival on September 19, 2020.

[125] The cover elicited praise from Blondie themselves, with them stating "We think Miley Cyrus nailed it" on their social media.

In March 2023, Canadian Inuk singer Elisapie released a cover of "Heart of Glass" with the lyrics translated by her into Inuktitut, entitled "Uummati Attanarsimat."