December 13, 2024 —– Chart #276
Hello Music Friends,
Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. Time for another great song story and this week we have a familiar tune but you may not know the original. “The Tide Is High” is a 1967 rocksteady song written by John Holt, originally produced by Duke Reid and performed by the Jamaican group the Paragons, with Holt as lead singer. The song gained international attention in 1980, when a cover version by the American band Blondie became a US and UK number one hit. The song topped the UK Singles Chart again in 2002 with a version by the British girl group Atomic Kitten (yuck!), while Canadian rapper Kardinal Offishall had a minor hit with his interpretation in 2008 (also a really bad abomination!).
“The Tide Is High” was written by John Holt and originally recorded by the Paragons (the vocal trio of which he was a member), and accompanied by Tommy McCook and the Supersonic Band. It was produced by Duke Reid and released as a 7-inch single on Reid’s Treasure Isle and Trojan labels and as the B-side of the single “Only a Smile”.
The song features the violin of “White Rum” Raymond, and was popular in Jamaica as well as in the UK when a deejay version by U-Roy was released in 1971. Both tracks from the single were included on the 1970 collection On the Beach.
“The Tide Is High” was covered by the American new wave band Blondie in 1980, in a reggae style that included horns and strings. It was released as the lead single from the band’s fifth studio album, Autoamerican (1980), giving Blondie their third number one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and their fifth in the UK (where it became Blondie’s last British number one for 18 years, until “Maria” in February 1999). The track also reached number one in Canada and New Zealand, and was a Top 5 hit on many European charts as well as in countries including Australia and South Africa. The B-side was “Susie and Jeffrey”, which appeared as a bonus track on the original 1980 cassette edition of the Autoamerican album, and was also included on EMI-Capitol’s re-issue of Autoamerican in 2001.
Don’t know about you, but that slow reggae beat always lowers my blood pressure and makes me want to put my feet in the sand. Enjoying playing around with this one. Can you come up with your own quirky version?
Keep Rockin’,
Stan Bradshaw