Reggae artist John Holt wrote which of the American rock band Blondie's hit songs?

"The Tide Is High" is a 1966 song written by John Holt, originally produced by Duke Reid and performed by the Jamaican group The Paragons, with John Holt as lead singer. The song gained international attention in 1980, when a version by the American band Blondie became a US/UK number one hit.

"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). It was Blondie's third number one smash on the Billboard Hot 100 and their fifth in the UK. It also went on to reach the top three of Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, and was popular throughout the world, reaching no. 4 in Australia, and no. 15 in Germany. It was the last UK number one single for the band until "Maria" in 1999. The B-side of "The Tide Is High" was "Suzie and Jeffrey", which appeared as a bonus track on the original 1980 cassette edition of the album Autoamerican and was also included on EMI-Capitol's re-issue of Autoamerican in 2001.