Incredible as it seems, Debbie Harry from the legendary New Jersey new wave punk band Blondie turns 70 on July 1.

The feisty frontwoman of the Call Me rockers is famed for her peroxide blonde hair, fearless style and her perpetually cool, 'devil may care' attitude; honed by years working as a dancer, a barmaid at punk hangout CBGB and a brief stint as a Playboy bunny.

Here are Debbie Harry's best life and career moments.

1. Debbie has previously said that "sex sells" - and, admittedly, it was her boyfriend guitarist Chris Stein's decision to send photos of Debbie in her underwear to Creem and Punk magazine that got them their first record deal in 1973.

2. When discovering that the band shared its moniker with Adolf Hitler's favourite dog Blondi, the members almost changed the name to 'Adolf Hitler's Dog' in protest at the revelation.. Thankfully, they didn't.

3. Debbie Harry credits an Australian TV cockup as giving the band their big break in 1967. The country's Countdown pop show was to play the video for X Offender but they accidentally showed the B-side In The Flesh instead; the song soared to Number Two in the Australian charts, which was the group's first big hit in any country.

4. While Blondie has built a devoted fanbase over the years, one of their musical peers was less than thrilled with the band's rise to global fame. Singer Patti Smith reportedly put her foot down and gave CBCB club bosses an ultimatum when she realised the band were performing in the same venue as her, and Blondie had to move to the nearby Bowery venue to play.

 

5. Harry was already 34-years-old when single Heart of Glass hit Number One worldwide in 1979; a mature age for a rockstar to make their first mark in the music scene at that time. With her waif-like appearance and outrageous style, she was usually mistaken for being in her early 20s.

 

6. The band took a hiatus in the early Eighties after their money ran dry and members of the band descended into drugs. Guitarist Chris Stein, also Harry's boyfriend, had contracted a near fatal skin disease called pemphigus; so she selflessly took years off to look after him.

7. Despite years out of the public eye, Blondie came back with a bang in 1999 when they released single Maria, which hit Number One in the UK, and at 53 Debbie Harry became the oldest female singer to ever top the UK charts.

8. Debbie Harry claims that she was nearly abducted by serial killer Ted Bundy in the early 1970s. She said that the 'smelly' driver insisted on offering her a lift after she couldn't find a taxi. As she reluctantly got in the car she realised there were no door handles; so she opened the door from the outside through her window and jumped out of the moving vehicle. Despite her repeating the story in several interviews, it is said to be false as the car does not match the description of Bundy's Volkswagen and it took place in New York when he was based in Utah.

9.  Blondie is widely credited as being the first band to bring rap into the mainstream with song Rapture in 1980, which was also the first rap video to be broadcast on MTV. The song reached the top spot in the U.S that year for two weeks.

 
10. It seems that Debbie Harry redefined what it is to be a woman over the years; particularly as she never married or had children. Though she claims that she 'sometimes' wishes that she were a mother , she once said in an interview: "I'm not the only woman in the world who never had children. There are many reasons why Chris and I didn't. We were working very hard, we were happy and we didn't feel a need. And I always thought: there are a lot of children in the world. I didn't need to add to that, you know?"