Blondie scores its third UK#1 hit of 1980 with "The Tide Is HIgh"

Blondie : The Tide Is High

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On November 15, 1980 Blondie topped the UK charts for the third time that year with their cover of The Paragons' virtually unknown  1967 single "The Tide Is High". It would also be the third Blondie single ( following 1979's "Heart of Glass" and 1980's "Call Me" ) to also top the US charts.

Brilliantly produced by Mike Chapman and sung by Deborah Harry, the song does have its fans. But there were already some people wondering why America's most successful power pop band was playing reggae and what did this mean for the forthcoming album Autoamerican.

Here's the original version.

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The flip side, "Suzy and Jeffrey", was written about a real life incident where a couple who were coming to the studio to deliver something wound up crashing their car into the building. I can imagine fans who pogo'd to the power pop sounds of Blondie taking some solace from this one.