BLONDIE - Maria (1999)

🔵 YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-JvaRtyQDuPG6L3oAo4lBRmXFNxZMcNs "Maria" is a 1999 song by American band Blondie. Taken from their album No Exit, it was the band's first new material since 1982. "Maria" reached number one in the United Kingdom; Blondie's sixth UK chart-topper (and their first since 1980). "Maria" was written by the band's keyboardist Jimmy Destri, who had penned some of their earlier hits such as "Atomic". A line from the song: "...like a millionaire/walking on imported air", was used in the previous Blondie track "Walk Like Me" (also written by Destri) from the album Autoamerican (1980). In the United Kingdom, "Maria" was released as a two-CD set, the first containing remixes of the song,[1] and the second containing live versions of "Screaming Skin" (a track from the No Exit album), and their first hit single "In the Flesh". Both were recorded during Blondie's No Exit Tour.[2] The song gave Blondie their sixth UK number-one single (and their first chart-topper in 18 years, after "The Tide Is High" in November 1980). Topping the singles chart in February 1999, the release of "Maria" came exactly 20 years after "Heart of Glass", Blondie's first number-one hit.[3] "Maria" also topped the charts in Greece and Spain, and was a top 10 hit in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland. In the U.S., however, "Maria" was not a successful hit for the band, stalling at number 82 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it did reach number 14 on the Adult Top 40 listing.[4] The song was included on the 2014 compilation album Greatest Hits Deluxe Redux. The compilation was part of a two-disc set titled Blondie 4(0) Ever, which included Ghosts of Download, their tenth studio album, and marked the 40th anniversary of the band's formation. The music video for "Maria" was directed by Roman Coppola (credited as Alan Smithee), and is set in New York City. Parts of New York through night-vision goggles are seen before zooming into an apartment where Blondie are performing the song. Mysterious dark-clothed individuals are seen around different buildings setting up surveillance equipment to monitor the band. Toward the end of the video, one of the dark-clothed individuals aims a sniper rifle towards lead singer Deborah Harry, and fires a bullet at her. In slow motion, the bullet smashes through a window, a light bulb and the microphone towards her, but Harry (moving in real time) simply plucks the bullet from the air before it hits her (perhaps tying into the theme of "no exit", the band's comeback album).