How Blondie’s The Tide Is High Revived a "Hitless" Album and Made History

Coming up, we’re featuring a classic 1980 record from one of the most diverse bands of the era. The Tide is High By Blondie. Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Jimmy Destri, Frank Infante, and Clem Burke were masters of their craft. True masters of hook-laden pop-ditties who had a knack for always hitting pay-dirt… and they did it with a fistful of rock and new wave… unfortunately, this time they had a hitless album on their hands. Or at least that’s what their label Chrysalis told them after listening to it. The record called Auto-American was just too different from anything they had ever done. This unusual collection got no love from the music industry. until it scored two chart-toppers including Rapture the first rap hit and The Tide is High. These 80s #1 hits helped the record reach Platinum status in the US. And really It was kicked off perfectly with today’s featured A track, a cover of an obscure song by the Paragons that became a personal favorite of one of the Fab Four in fact… it ended up replacing John Lennon at #1… Sadly, this record was the end of an era for Blondie. Worn down by a never-ending workload and label pressure to stay on top, these guys bottomed out and never had another hit after having 7 big ones in just 2 years. But was it really the end? We’ll find out… NEXT on the Professor of Rock.

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