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Clem Burke, who as the drummer for the rock band Blondie was the group’s “heartbeat,” died Sunday of cancer. He was 70.

His death was announced today by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band.

“It is with profound sadness that we relay news of the passing of our beloved friend and bandmate Clem Burke following a private battle with cancer,” the statement from Blondie singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein begins.

“Clem was not just a drummer,” the statement continues, “he was the heartbeat of Blondie. His talent, energy, and passion for music were unmatched, and his contributions to our sound and success are immeasurable. Beyond his musicianship, Clem was a source of inspiration both on and off the stage. His vibrant spirit, infectious enthusiasm and rock solid work ethic touched everyone who had the privilege of knowing him.” Read the statement in full below.

Born Clement...

In the late Seventies, Blondie were the most widely mocked band of Cbgb’s first punk wave — too pop, not rigorous enough. But after they hit Number One in early 1979 with “Heart of Glass,” their pasticheurs-and-proud stance not only made their string of hits a rare shot of excitement on early-Eighties radio, they foretold the way hits of the future would be stitched together from different genres. Blondie look increasingly visionary in the rearview.

It helped that Blondie’s songwriting was, early on, a fairly open door: In its first incarnation,...

Blondie are set to release the first definitive collection of their work in the 124-track archival box set Against the Odds 1974 – 1982. The curated collection, remastered from original analog tapes and cut at Abbey Road Studios, features three-dozen previously unreleased recordings. It arrives on Aug. 26.

“It really is a treat to see how far we have come when I listen to these early attempts to capture our ideas on relatively primitive equipment,” Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry said in a statement. “Fortunately the essence of being in a band in the early...

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced its 2012 inductees, a list that includes the usual spate of Hof-y names (the Small Faces, ‘60s singer Donovan, blues guitarist Freddie King, etc) plus a handful of artists that made their mark in the MTV era: the Beastie Boys, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Guns N’ Roses.

And while none of those latter three are exactly surprising (though, we gotta admit, the Cure, who were also in the running this year but didn’t make the cut, were robbed), what may transpire when they’re enshrined at the Hall’s annual induction ceremony — set for April 14 in beautiful Cleveland — could shock the rock world to its very core. Because, as is tradition, the honored acts will take the stage to perform a medley of their biggest hits, and while we’re reasonably sure what will happen when the Beasties and the Peppers do their thing,...

Deborah Harry’s mother loves to tell the story of her daughter’s singing debut. It seems that Debbie’s sixth-grade class in Hawthorne, New Jersey, once staged a “Tom Thumb” wedding. “One kid would be the groom, one the bride and one the bridesmaid. Debbie sang the solo at the end; she sang ‘I Love You Truly’ all by herself!”

Richard and Catherine Harry run a gift shop called Around the House in Cooperstown, New York, a sleepy little burg best known as the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.