The Many Lives of the Well-Traveled “The Tide Is High” by Blondie

From the beaches of Kingston, Jamaica, to the East Village of New York City, to the green parks of Gothenburg, Sweden, to the port city of Liverpool, England. A song can have multiple lives and travel around the world. Let’s look at the story behind a song that did just that, “The Tide Is High” by The Paragons, Blondie, Papa Dee, and Atomic Kitten.

Never give up
yeah
never give up
The tide is high, but I’m holding on
I’m gonna be your number one
I’m not the kind of girl
Who gives up just like that
Oh, no
It’s not the things you do
That tease and hurt me bad
But it’s the way you do
The things you do to me
I’m not the kind of girl
Who gives up just like that
Oh, no

Kingston, Jamaica

John Holt wrote “The Tide Is High” when he was in the band The Paragons. The ska/rocksteady group included the song on its 1967 album, On the Beach. The song was released as the B-side of “Only a Smile.” “The Tide Is High” features the violin of “White Rum” Raymond. Holt left the band to pursue a solo career in 1970.

The tide is high, but I’m holding on
I’m gonna be your number one
the tide is high but I’m holding on
I’m gonna be your number one
Number one,
my number one
number one
Every girl wants you to be her man
But I’ll wait right here ’till it’s my turn
I’m not the kind of girl
Who gives up just like that
Oh, no

New York City (By Way of London and Hollywood)

Blondie started making noise in New York City in 1974 when they played shows at CBGB and Max’s Kansas City. In 1975, they signed a deal with Private Stock Records. Debbie Harry and Chris Stein heard “The Tide Is High” on a compilation album when they were in London. They decided to record it and approached The Specials about backing them on the record. The 2 Tone ska revival band from Coventry, England, declined the invitation, so studio musicians were called in. They recorded the album Autoamerican at United Western Recorders in Hollywood. In her 2019 book Face It: A Memoir, Harry recalled, “Until then, we’d never had so many outside musicians on one of our albums. They included four percussionists, jazz horns, a thirty-piece orchestra, and a mariachi band. “The Tide Is High” was our first single from this ‘album with no hits.’ It went to number one in the U.S., the UK, and several other places.”

The tide is high, but I’m holding on
I’m gonna be your number one
The tide is high, but I’m holding on
I’m gonna be your number one
Number one,
my number one
number one
every time that, I get the feeling
you give me something to believe in
Every time that I got you near me
I know the way that I want it to be
but you know I’m gonna take a chance now
I’m gonna make it happen somehow
and you know I can take the pressure
a moment to pay for a lifetime pleasure

Gothenburg, Sweden

In 1996, Swedish rapper Papa Dee took a version of “The Tide Is High” into the top 20 in Finland. He included the song on his album The Journey.

Every girl wants you to be her man
But I’ll wait right here ’til it’s my turn
I’m not the kind of girl
Who gives up just like that
Oh, no
The tide is high, but I’m holding on
I’m gonna be your number one
The tide is high, but I’m holding on
I’m gonna be your number one

Liverpool, England

In 2002, the British girl group Atomic Kitten took the song to number one in the UK. They recorded the song at Wise Buddah in London, and their version was featured during the opening credits of The Lizzie McGuire Movie and in a commercial for Asahi Breweries. It was the second single off their second studio album Feels So Good. They also recorded a Spanish version called “Ser tu pasión.” It was released in Mexico, Spain, and Colombia, but failed to reach the charts.

Every time that I get the feeling
you give me something to believe in
Every time that I got you near me
I know the way that I want it to be
but you know I’m gonna take a chance now
I’m gonna make it happen somehow
and you know I can take the pressure
a moment to pay for a lifetime pleasure
The tide is high, but I’m holding on
I’m gonna be your number one
The tide is high, but I’m holding on
I’m gonna be your number one

John Lennon

Harry wrote, “After John Lennon was shot. Oh God, that hit us hard. Not long before his assassination, our photographer friend Bob Gruen told Chris and me that John and Yoko wanted to get together with us because we were a couple just like them. We had taken a copy of Autoamerican to the Dakota for them and heard that John played it all the time. … We’d been scheduled to meet with them in their beautiful apartment. And then came the horror of John’s being gunned down outside the Dakota. The hunter and the prey. People could be so obsessive. They would go to my parents’ house and knock on the door, and they’d be nice to them. I told them not to talk to anybody. I started getting paranoid. This one time, I saw a guy pick up the garbage bag outside my door and walk off with it. I chased him down the street, thinking he was an obsessive fan going through my trash. It turned out he was just a homeless guy looking for something to eat, so I made him a sandwich. I think it was even more difficult for Chris when I became so famous because Chris was always very protective of me.”

In 2006, Sean Lennon told Rolling Stone magazine, “My father had an old Wurlitzer in the game room of our house on Long Island. It was filled with 45s, mostly Elvis [Presley] 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.”

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Photo by David Redfern/Redferns