B major · Camelot 1B · 96 BPM
The Tide Is High
by Blondie
- 96
- BPM
- B major
- Key
- 1B
- Camelot
- 78
- Danceability
- 6
- Acousticness
"The Tide Is High" was written by Jamaican singer John Holt and first recorded by his group the Paragons, a rocksteady vocal trio, for their 1967 album On the Beach. The track was produced by Duke Reid for his Treasure Isle label and released as a 7-inch single on Treasure Isle and Trojan, appearing as the B-side of "Only a Smile". It featured the violin of "White Rum" Raymond and found popularity in Jamaica, and later in the UK once a deejay version by U-Roy appeared in 1971.
Blondie, the American new wave band formed in New York City in 1974 by Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, covered the song in 1980 in a reggae style that included horns and strings. Their version was released as the lead single from the band's fifth album, Autoamerican, and gave them a third number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and a fifth on the UK singles chart. It also topped the charts in Canada and New Zealand and reached the Top 5 across much of Europe, as well as in Australia and South Africa. The B-side, "Susie and Jeffrey", appeared as a bonus track on the original cassette edition of Autoamerican.
The song kept finding new life after that. Atomic Kitten took it back to number 1 in the UK in 2002, and Kardinal Offishall had a minor hit with his interpretation in 2008. Blondie re-recorded it for the 2014 compilation Greatest Hits Deluxe Redux, part of the two-disc set Blondie 4(0) Ever marking the 40th anniversary of the band's formation.
The Tide Is High runs at 96 BPM, the tempo of hip-hop, R&B and reggaeton. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.5 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 625 ms. It is in B major, Camelot 1B, which shares its notes with Ab minor and mixes cleanly with E major and F# major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.