NJ’s Debbie Harry has an Emotional Birthday and is Ready to Work

Like all of us the pandemic hit singer/actress/ songwriter Debbie Harry pretty hard. She lost some dear friends and business associates to COVID-19 including her producer Hal Willner who she collaborated with on many music projects where Debbie lent her voice and songwriting talents. Their friendship and collaboration lasted many years.

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Deborah Harry turned 76, July 1 and she was thrilled to be able to spend it with a small group of friends as the Pandemic was winding down. She’s a believer that age is just a number; it’s what you do in life that makes you feel older or younger than you are.

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With the Pandemic the isolation and distance from those that she loved and worked with was depressing and disturbing but Deborah kept her focus on music and other projects that she could continue to work on. Music is a tremendous force that keeps her going. As long as she has that outlet she’ll continue to produce such great work

Matt Katz-Bohen, guitarist Chris Stein, singer Debbie Harry and Clem Burke of Blondie (Photo by John Phillips/Getty Images)

The Blondie singer returned to the stage for a brief concert in a club in New York and was thrilled that the no mask requirement was in effect. She enjoyed seeing the smiles of those who she entertained.

I met Debbie many years ago when we did a TV public service announcement for land conservation and preservation in Monmouth County, New Jersey. We were joined by Frank Dicopoulos an actor and producer on the Guiding Light TV soap opera. We all had big ties to Jersey and specifically Monmouth County and we shot the PSA on a gorgeous day in a Monmouth County Park. We got to talk about music and TV with Frank and I thoroughly enjoyed her company. The PSA won an award for best local PSA.

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Debbie has been a true Jersey girl from Hawthorne, New Jersey and attending grade school, high school at Hawthorne High School and then graduated from Centenary College in Hackettstown. She was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2017.

It’s great to have Debbie back and look forward to seeing her soon in concert. She’s a tough Jersey girl that’s hard to keep down!

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host Big Joe Henry. Any opinions expressed are Big Joe’s own.

Check Out the Best-Selling Album From the Year You Graduated High School

Do you remember the top album from the year you graduated high school? Stacker analyzed Billboard data to determine just that, looking at the best-selling album from every year going all the way back to 1956. Sales data is included only from 1992 onward when Nielsen's SoundScan began gathering computerized figures.

Going in chronological order from 1956 to 2020, we present the best-selling album from the year you graduated high school.