Can we talk about Debbie Harry's song I Want That Man?

I have always loved this song! At the time it got played a lot in gay video bars but I don’t think it was a hit. Loved the hot guy in the video. WHET him?

I'm a female and didn't really notice him much, r1.

I loved this song

And why wasn't it bigger, r1??

J'adore that song and Debbie!

There are some great pop songs that are undeniable and should be Top 10 Hits on Billboard. But due to payola just languish. Jane Wiedlin’s Tangled is in this camp.

That quirky way she moves her mouth is so cool.

I also loved her Sara Lee commercial that they hardly played.

Never understood her.

Fun fact: it was written by Thompson Twins.

It’s eternally on my road trip playlist

[quote]Never understood her.

What's there to understand? Quirky yet gorgeous and talented woman, with a great voice and cool image, who didn't give a flying fuck about leaving the music business to care for then boyfriend (Chris Stein) who had a rare illness?!

Even if one of her kids became deathly ill, Madonna sure wouldn't stop being in the limelight.

Between OP and R7 I'm just in a tizzy. God! The face on her and that swagger!

Debbie, an adoptee, fantasised her birth mother was Marilyn Monroe.

Brooke McCarter was the hot man in the video. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2015.

The album Def, Dumb and Blonde sold very well in the UK, Europe, and especially in Australia.

Debbie looked gorgeous when she came to the UK to promote the record in '89/'90. She was revitalized and seemed to enjoy the challenge of restarting a band to tour, her first since 1982. Her new band included two other female members and sounded tight.

I never cared for it OP. It was in the bottom 25% of listenable tunes for me that she sang on.

As R9 points out the T. Twins helped her in the late 80s & she returned the favor by being on their song "Queen Of The USA" (at the start) which she mentions in this song's lyrics =

🎼I want to be kissed from head to toe By that guy in the very last row But he won’t even look me in the eyeeee🎼

College song! Love it

I wanna dance with Harry Dean!

1989 was very kind to the war generation ladies. Donna Summer, Liza Minnelli, Dusty Springfield, Debbie Harry, Bette Midler, Tina Turner, Cher, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt.

When the song first came out I used to sing "I wanna dance like Hazell Dean, drive through Texas in black limousine".

God I was a funny 13 year old.

When it came time to market the new song in America, Deborah was unfortunately signed with Madonna's label Sire. It kind of made sense, as it was Blondie producer Richard Gotterher's co-label. They had a strategy to promote it through the college radio system in the US, but it kind of got shuffled just as her comeback gained some momentum.

After her world tour was a success. I remember they worked out a deal in the US with Tears for Fears, for Deborah to be a "special opening guest" on their tour. And they were definitely NOT happy at all about Deborah's shows being so electric.

They got upstaged, and it was kind of a reverse situation of what happened when Duran Duran opened for Blondie during the Hunter tour

Motivated by this thread, I went to watch some Debbie Harry videos on YouTube. Imagine my surprise when I found a bootleg video of her performance at the Roxy in WeHo. She did 4 nights there as part of her Def, Dumb & Blonde Tour -- and I was at one of them. It was my first time seeing her, but not my last. A very memorable experience.

Go to 9:40 for "I Want That Man"

R21 those tears for fears guys are bitches.

Madonna sabotaged Debbie at Sire. Aside from insisting that the promo budget was slashed, she even asked Mary Lambert to light her badly in the video and cut the shots of her where she looked extremely beautiful in a gold basque and holding a bouquet of roses.

Debbie countered this in a 1989 Melody Maker interview by saying it's the most beautiful she ever looked on film (it wasn't).

R14 Was he a smoker? People with his condition who smoke die around age 50, while non-smokers with it live almost normal lifespans.

[quote]Madonna sabotaged Debbie at Sire. Aside from insisting that the promo budget was slashed,

A record company sabotaged an album release and deliberately lost money at the behest of another artist?

[quote]she even asked Mary Lambert to light her badly in the video and cut the shots of her where she looked extremely beautiful in a gold basque and holding a bouquet of roses. Debbie countered this in a 1989 Melody Maker interview by saying it's the most beautiful she ever looked on film (it wasn't).

How did Madonna know what footage had been shot to make demands it was cut?

Honestly the lurid fantasies some people have.

Mary Lambert knew how to light Debbie. She directed her in the game Double Switch.

More than ten years after Videodrome Debbie was very sexy as Elizabeth in the game. I don't know why she did not recreate this look in one of her music videos.

I love the Def, Dumb & Blonde album.

1989 was a great year for female artists as r19 points out. Young and older. Donna Summer, Liza Minnelli, Tina Turner, Bonnie Raitt, Lind Ronstadt and Harry released some of their best music.

I also loved the other singles, Brite Side and Sweet and Low.

Harry looked great during this period. And the Def, Dumb and Blonde sound was the closest Blondie-sounding solo release she made, I think.

I loved the remix

R26 In this case, truth is stranger than fiction. You would not believe the lengths Madonna went to, to cause problems for Debbie Harry.

And it wasn't about anything other than flexing her power. And being a cunt.

R27. Wrong. The lighting was handled by a crew who had never worked with either party, and specifically lit the footage for a video game.

Debbie's solo albums aren't near as strong as Madonna's best stuff, let's be honest...

Madonna and Debbie are two different artists can’t compare their albums

It’s quite telling when one reveals their limited musical tastes by comparing everyone to fucking gay idol Madonna.