The Story of... 'The Tide Is High' by Blondie

23 June 2023, 14:38

It was an unlikely smash hit for a new wave icons Blondie.

But 'The Tide Is High' proved the band's 'new wave' credentials as they flitted between punk, disco, pop, rap, and now reggae.

"The tide is high but I'm holding on, I'm gonna be your number one" goes the famous chorus that's etched into most of our minds still today.

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• QUIZ: Only a true Blondie fan can get 100% on this lyrics quiz

Though the song is so catchy, so sweet, and so infectiously spirited, people often forget that it was even Blondie that made it a hit.

So who wrote 'The Tide Is High'? Was it popular when it was first released? Has anyone else covered it? Here's all you need to know:

Who wrote ‘The Tide Is High’?

The Paragons - "The Tide Is High" (Official Audio)

Blondie's iconic and devastatingly beautiful singer Debbie Harry wrote most of the band's songs with her partner and guitarist Chris Stein. But not 'The Tide Is High'.

Despite frequently being considered a Blondie original, it is actually a cover song which was originally recorded by a Jamaican group called The Paragons in 1967.

Written by John Holt who sang tenor in the rocksteady vocal trio, 'The Tide Is High' was a minor hit in his home country before Blondie put their spin on it years later.

Holt predominantly wrote love songs during his time with The Paragons - in the cutesy 'The Tide Is High', he's willing to wait out the high tide to get his girl back.

How did Blondie come to cover ‘The Tide Is High’?

Blondie - The Tide Is High

Debbie Harry and Chris Stein heard 'The Tide Is High' after hearing it on a compilation tape they bought in London.

They were awed by the song's infectious melody and thought it was too good of a song not to record with Blondie, despite being a reggae track.

The pair were huge fans of the British ska revival during the early 1980s, and even asked The Specials to back Debbie on the recording in the studio, though they declined the offer.

Although 'The Tide Is High' was very much an underground hit in Jamaica and the UK, Blondie felt it'd be the perfectly positive song to lead their upcoming album, Autoamerican, to global success.

‘The Tide Is High’ was Blondie’s favourite song they’d recorded...

In a 2022 interview, Blondie's Debbie Harry and Chris Stein were asked about their favourite song of theirs they'd ever recorded.

Whilst Debbie remained tight-lipped about her selection saying it depends on her mood at the time, Chris was adamant that 'The Tide Is High' was his choice.

"All of our songs are part of a larger movement, so it’s virtually impossible to choose. All I can say is the only song I knew for sure was going to be a hit before we recorded it was 'The Tide Is High.'"

"The original was so fantastic. I knew what our position was at the time: If we had the ear of the public and if we did a successful version of this thing, it would be successful."

'The Tide Is High' had an unlikely fan in John Lennon…

Even before 'The Tide Is High' came out, Blondie were a huge success on both sides of the Atlantic, but it was the reggae number which courted the admiration of the one and only John Lennon.

During a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, his son Sean Lennon revealed: "My father had an old Wurlitzer in the game room of our house on Long Island. It was filled with 45s, mostly Elvis and The Everly Brothers."

"The one modern song I remember him listening to was 'The Tide Is High' by Blondie, which he played constantly."

"When I hear that song, I see my father, unshaven, his hair pulled back into a ponytail, dancing to and fro in a worn-out pair of denim shorts, with me at his feet, trying my best to coordinate tiny limbs."

How did ‘The Tide Is High’ perform when it was first released?

'The Tide Is High' was the first single to be released from Blondie's 1980 album Autoamerican and catapulted the band to the top of the charts in both the UK and the US.

Their reggae stylings found fans across the world, which resulted in the band's third US chart-topper and their fifth in the UK.

It would also be their final number one hit for eighteen years after Blondie broke up in 1982, until reuniting and scoring their next smash hit 'Maria' in 1999.

Blondie weren't the first band to transform a little-known reggae hit into a mainstream success however - Eric Clapton became the first white artist to record a number one reggae song when he covered Bob Marley's 'I Shot The Sheriff' in 1974.

Has anyone else covered 'The Tide Is High'?

Atomic Kitten - The Tide Is High (Get The Feeling)

Blondie's rendition of 'The Tide Is High' is considered to be the definitive version, but a few pop artists like Sinitta and Billie Piper also tried their hand at covering the song to little fanfare.

No doubt the most known and successful cover version of 'The Tide Is High' was when UK girl group Atomic Kitten took it to the top of the charts in 2002.

This made 'The Tide Is High' one of only two songs to score a number one in the UK chart twice with versions by two different female vocal acts.

The other song is 'Eternal Flame', which was another hit for Atomic Kitten again as well as The Bangles.